Pay Per Click Online Advertising in India

I have a question: How can I reach the pay-per-click online advertisers in India? In most of my posts here on Online Siesta, I try sharing something I know about online marketing and in text ads. But in this post, I kindly ask to post a question hoping you can help me and others.

PPC Advertisers with Google India

When using Google India from an Indian IP address, search results are covered with AdWords advertising from local online advertisers. Insurance, investments and financial services, traveling, Internet related solutions – you name it. And as we know well, Google charges AdWords by the click on a Pay Per Click basis (PPC). This means that companies and marketing departments are spending online advertising budgets through this model.

CPA and CPL Online Advertising Networks in India

But when I speak with advertising agencies and ad networks in India – it’s a different story. It’s all about performance advertising, meaning that they pay only for customer acquisition (known as Cost per Acquisition or CPA) or at a minimum for detailed leads (Cost per Lead or CPL). Performance advertising is flourishing through affiliate networks since they are protective for the advertisers.

However, performance advertising methods shift the risk from the advertiser to the publisher. While this may work in certain industries, and mainly for gambling and gaming, it is problematic in other cases, since the information resides with the advertiser. As publishers, we can deliver quality clicks on specific terms using In Text Ads, but then the conversion depends on the advertiser’s ability to present an appealing offer through an effective landing page. Low conversion rates are best handled and improved by the advertiser and not by the publisher who doesn’t control the visitor after the click on the ad (I wrote more about PPC and other In Text Ads business models here).

Where are the PPC Advertisers in India?

So, where are they hiding? From the Google AdWords ads on search results it’s obvious that the Indian market is well accustomed to Pay Per Click advertising budgets. But other agencies and ad networks don’t seem to have such budgets. Can someone please explain this? Can it be possible that the PPC market in India is fully owned by Google and perhaps Yahoo?

One possible explanation is that the advertising agencies do charge the advertisers per click but pay the publishers only per conversion. If this is the case, it is very much different than what I know anywhere else, so I have to doubt it. A more reasonable explanation is that I’m missing something… and that’s why I’m posting this question here: What am I missing… How can I reach the media buyers of PPC online advertisers in India?

Please share your insights here by posting a comment for others to enjoy as well, or contact me directly through the About Page. Thanks!