A few months ago, we launched Brand Center, a unified platform designed to simplify digital media buying and campaign management for advertisers and publishers.
Unlike programmatic buying, Brand Center focuses on direct buying, giving brands more control, transparency, and efficiency in their campaigns. Our goal? To help SMBs and mid-sized brands break free from their Google & Meta dependence and unlock the power of multi-channel advertising.
We believed we were onto something big.But when we started pitching to Indian SMBs, we hit a wall.
“Sir, Google and Facebook work fine. Why complicate things?”
This wasn’t just resistance to change. It was a deeper, more layered challenge — one shaped by market realities, cultural behaviors, and a fundamental mismatch between how digital advertising is sold and how small businesses think.
The SMB Mindset: Why Change Feels Risky
India’s SMB landscape is vast and diverse, from local kirana stores to fast-growing D2C brands. But across the board, we saw five key patterns shaping their approach to advertising:
1. Every Rupee Must WorkSMBs are incredibly cost-conscious. Unlike big brands, they don’t have the luxury of experimenting with long-term brand-building. If they’re spending, they need to see immediate results.
2. Trust Matters More Than InnovationGoogle and Meta have years of credibility. Trying something new means taking a leap of faith, and most SMBs aren’t willing to gamble on an unknown platform.
3. “Jugaad” Trumps StructureMany SMBs still rely on informal networks, word-of-mouth, and direct customer relationships. A structured advertising approach feels unnecessary when WhatsApp forwards and personal referrals still drive sales.
4. Digital Is Still a Learning CurveEven as digital adoption grows, many SMB owners are not marketing-savvy. CPMs, CTRs, and attribution models feel abstract. They care about one metric: “How many customers walked in today?”
5. Performance Marketing is Everything — Branding is an AfterthoughtMost SMBs (and even their agencies) see advertising purely as a performance-driven exercise. They optimize for clicks, conversions, and ROAS but rarely think about brand-building.But here’s the irony — many of them dream big. They want to be the next Boat, Mamaearth, or Lenskart. What they don’t realize is that these brands didn’t just rely on performance ads — they invested in branding.Imagine your brand’s ad playing during the IPL — India’s biggest cricketing event, where millions of eyes are glued to the screen. That’s branding. That’s how you go from being just another seller to a household name.
The Real Challenge:
Agencies & Mid-Sized Brands Are Also WaryIt wasn’t just SMBs who hesitated. Even SMB-focused agencies, the very experts who run ads for these businesses, were reluctant to move beyond Google and Meta.“We know how to deliver ROI on Facebook. Why take a risk elsewhere?”These agencies operate on tight margins, juggling multiple clients. The thought of learning new platforms, handling unfamiliar metrics, and justifying experiments to skeptical clients made them risk-averse.
Mid-Sized Brands: The Unexpected Turning Point
But something shifted when we started talking to mid-sized brands — those slightly larger than traditional SMBs, but not yet at enterprise scale. Unlike SMBs, these brands had:Bigger ambitions — They wanted to scale beyond local reach.
More structured teams — They had dedicated marketing teams ready to experiment.
A need for control — Relying solely on Google and Meta meant fighting for visibility in an increasingly crowded space.This is where things got interesting.
The New Reality: Mid-Sized Brands Are Ready to Experiment
For years, Google and Meta were the easy, dominant choices. But cracks started appearing:
Platform Fatigue — Competing for visibility on two platforms became more expensive and difficult.
Multi-Channel Reach — Customers are everywhere — on emerging platforms, streaming apps, and niche digital spaces. Brands need to meet them where they are.
The Branding Blind Spot — Businesses that only focus on performance marketing eventually hit a ceiling. The ones that invest in branding unlock exponential growth.
Lack of Control — Despite spending heavily on digital ads, many brands feel they don’t have full control over their campaigns. Platforms dictate ad placements, audience reach, and even attribution, making it difficult to optimize effectively.This shift was our opening.
Cracking the Code: One Problem at a Time
We realized we couldn’t change the entire landscape overnight. So we focused on one pressing problem: Media Planning.
Instead of just telling brands to diversify, we’re building a structured media planning tool that helps businesses:Allocate budgets effectively across multiple platforms.Track results and optimize campaigns with clear data.Balance performance marketing with branding efforts for sustainable growth.
The Future: The Experiment Has BegunSMBs are still hesitant, but mid-sized brands are leading the charge. Multi-channel reach, branding, and attribution remain big challenges, but for the first time, brands are willing to experiment beyond Google and Meta.We’ve finally cracked the first part of the puzzle. And as we tackle the next challenge, we’re more confident than ever: Indian brands are ready to evolve, and we’re here to help them do it — one step at a time.