Indian ad strategy goes multi-screen as brands chase better ROI

Mumbai : If you think modern media planning is still a simple linear game, you might want to adjust your dial. Today’s hyper-connected consumers do not switch between digital and physical worlds, they simply hop between moments, leaving traditional single-platform campaigns stranded in the static.

A comprehensive report titled The Omnichannel Playbook, based on data from over 1,000 digital campaigns in India over five years, reveals a massive shift in advertiser strategy. With average internet users spending over six hours online daily across a nationwide pool of over one billion users, brands are ditching siloed advertising for multi-screen sync

The multi-screen takeover

Between 2021 and 2026, the adoption of omnichannel strategies for major campaigns among enterprise advertisers shot up from 38 per cent to 76 per cent, while 68 per cent of enterprise brands now explicitly prioritise multi-screen execution over single-platform strategies for primary brand campaigns.

The channel mix: Analysis shows media buyers allocate spends across five core touchpoints: online video at 29 per cent, connected TV (CTV) taking 24 per cent, advanced display holding 21 per cent, YouTube claiming 15 per cent, and in-app advertising securing 11 per cent. The ROI multiplier: Integrating these channels rather than relying on one platform drives measurable gains: Brand recall: +34 per cent Campaign engagement: +46 per cent Conversion rate: +28 per cent Media efficiency: +19 per cent Four-channel boost: Campaigns using four or more complementary channels achieve 41 per cent higher engagement. Personalisation impact: Contextually dynamic creative formats improve interactions by 27 per cent, while real-time campaign optimisation boosts overall efficiency by 19 per cent. Sector breakdown: how industries adapt

Sector Core playbook strategy Key metrics and highlights Automotive Highest adoption: 84 per cent of vehicle launches deploy across 3+ channels. CTV handles upper-funnel aspiration, YouTube covers research, OLV shows safety and features, and display/in-app capture dealership leads. Toyota campaign: Achieved a 94.98 per cent view-through rate (VTR) on CTV and a 0.80 per cent click-through rate (CTR) across OLV and display. India’s total CTV ad market is projected to grow at a 47 per cent CAGR through 2027 , reaching an audience exceeding 96 million users . BFSI Trust and education: Replaces long evaluation cycles with integrated storytelling. CTV builds top-of-funnel credibility, OLV breaks down product features, and retargeting display ads prompt completion. Navi campaign: Multi-screen strategy delivered a 95.16 per cent VTR on CTV, a 0.20 per cent CTR on OLV, and a 0.41 per cent CTR on advanced display. Overall, BFSI multi-channel strategies generated 36 per cent higher engagement and 24 per cent higher application completions . CPG / FMCG Frequency and commerce: Captures quick-consideration purchases by using multilingual CTV for household reach, video for usage scenarios, and in-app placements near checkout. Milton campaign: Multi-lingual back-to-school push delivered a 97.31 per cent VTR on CTV and a 0.74 per cent CTR on display. Multi-channel CPG setups achieved 29 per cent higher brand recall and 31 per cent higher purchase consideration . The dark side: the cost of digital fraud

As ad spend expands across new touchpoints, ad fraud continues to adapt, creating distinct threat vectors across every channel.

Programmatic display (28.5 per cent invalid traffic): Fraud has evolved past basic bots into low-quality supply paths, Made-For-Ad (MFA) websites, and automated traffic disguised as real users, eroding return on ad spend (ROAS). In-app placements (30.0 per cent invalid traffic): Poses the highest rate of invalid traffic. Attackers utilize SDK spoofing, fake installs, and fabricated post-install actions to distort attribution metrics and mislead optimization engines. Connected TV (24.5 per cent invalid traffic): Higher CPMs make CTV an attractive target. Investigations highlight device spoofing, unnatural frequency spikes, and background network traffic masking as fake viewers. Mobile web (14.0 per cent invalid traffic): Uses click farms, accidental clicks, and browser automation to steadily drain acquisition budgets without delivering genuine intent. Building fraud-resistant campaigns

Industry experts stress that relying on platform-reported metrics alone is no longer enough to protect media spend. Five core safeguards help preserve campaign integrity:

Independent third-party verification: Avoid self-reported platform metrics by using unbiased verification across every touchpoint. Pre-optimization validation: Filter out bot activity and invalid traffic before shifting budget allocations toward reported figures. Channel-specific fraud rules: Tailor detection models specifically for CTV, mobile apps, or programmatic display rather than applying a single blanket rule. Adjacency and context monitoring: Track brand safety and context continuously alongside traditional viewability metrics. Full-funnel auditing: Monitor traffic continuously from impression to conversion to catch mid-funnel attribution hijacking. With mobile users spending 88 per cent of their screen time inside applications versus just 12 per cent on browsers, reaching consumers across their full digital journey requires a coordinated, verified approach. The brands seeing real results are moving away from disconnected ad buys, building unified, cross-screen strategies that turn fragmented attention into business outcomes.