Social Media Marketing Slows Down in India
What’s the state of social media marketing in India?
Things have been better, though not by that much.
Research just released by Pitch Madison shows the internet will account for less than 13 percent of the average paid media ad budget in India this year, up from 10.7 percent in 2014.
The figures take in only search and display advertising, and do not include non-advertising marketing activities.
“The vast majority of companies in India spent 10 percent or less of their total marketing budget on social media specifically last year, including 42.9 percent who spent 5 percent or less,” explains eMarketer. “Spending in 2014 was actually down from reported levels in 2013, when about one in five marketers in India spent more than 10 percent of their budgets on social, vs. less than 10 percent who did so last year.”
The general consensus is that marketers in India are “less optimistic about the effectiveness of social media marketing, though they still considered it better than every other channel except email, which tended to tie with social for first place.”
According to research firm EY, social media marketers in India reported big differences in the reasons for social engagement differences between 2013 and 2014.
“During the earlier period, building community was by far the No. 1 reason to engage, chosen by nearly 96 percent of respondents,” noted eMarketer. “But in 2014, brand awareness took the top spot, with a similar 95.2 percent of respondents—up nearly 20 points since the previous year, while community building was down about 20 points.”
Estimates from eMarketer show that 130.8 million people in India will use social networks at least once a month in 2015. That includes 122.4 million who will use Facebook and 22.2 million who will use Twitter.
