Digital adex to grow to 47% of total ad spend in 2025: Prashant Puri of AdLift

AdLift is charting aggressive growth with plans to double its revenue in FY26, fueled by global expansion, AI-driven marketing tech, and the strategic acquisition of Liqvd Asia.

With plans to acquire niche boutique agencies in India and the U.S. that complement its capabilities, its co-founder Prashant Puri tells Storyboard18 that "consolidation is natural in any industry. Either you consolidate to grow faster, or you stand your ground and compete harder."

He talks about the increase in digital advertising and the trends that define it, sharing that among its own clientele, the digital ad spends have grown 8–20% year on year.

"Digital already commands 44% of the ad market, and we expect it to reach 47–48% this year. That’s a significant shift from traditional media like TV," he says.

He further delves into the third-party cookies, the need for marketers to embrace first-party data and how privacy-first marketing is the future.

"It’s like seatbelt laws. At first, people resist. Eventually, everyone adapts."

Puri also sheds light on how AdLift is positioning itself as a future-ready, innovation-led independent agency.

Edited excerpts:

What does the Liqvd Asia acquisition mean for AdLift, and how are the first few months shaping up?

When brands work with agencies today, they often face a gap. Agencies may be good at creative but weak in SEO or vice versa. There isn’t a one-stop solution that integrates all aspects of digital marketing to truly drive sales and revenue. That’s the gap we are solving. The CEO or CMO of a large company doesn’t care whether it’s SEO or performance or creative—what matters is ROI. Now, with Liqvd Asia and AdLift working together, brands get an integrated solution and accountability under one umbrella.

From March to June, we’ve signed almost 20 clients. That’s a client every three days. The traction is very real. We expect a similar run rate in the next quarter. Our client base globally should cross 130–140 brands. These include HDFC Bank, Tata Capital, Max Life Insurance, Airbnb, Tanishq, and more. The merger isn’t just symbolic—we’re seeing impact on the ground.

You recently launched Tesseract. What does it do, and how does it reflect your innovation strategy?

Tesseract is a proprietary tool we built to monitor brand visibility across large language models (LLMs). Think ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, even Google’s AI Overviews. Brands have no idea if they are showing up in AI-generated responses when consumers search for things like “best headphones in India” or “credit cards with no fees.”

Tesseract gives them that visibility. You enter your domain and select keywords you want to track, and it shows whether your brand is being mentioned or not.

LLM-based search already accounts for 10% of global search volume—that’s 30 billion searches monthly. If brands aren’t visible there, they’re invisible to a growing consumer base. This kind of tech is a first-of-its-kind India-built solution, and it’s part of our broader roadmap to lead in AI-led marketing intelligence.

There’s a lot of buzz around AI-only campaigns. Are you seeing any real-world adoption among your clients?

We’ve seen a lot of noise, yes, but a 100% AI-executed campaign? Not yet. AI can take you part of the way—optimize cost-per-click, generate ideas, do predictive targeting—but human intervention is still critical. For instance, AI might lower your CPC by 20%, but if your revenue drops by 35%, was that really a win? Only a human can understand that nuance and course correct.

Read more: Campaign turnaround down 70%, production costs cut by 85%: How Indian brands are letting AI take over creative wheel

What we’re seeing instead is hybrid models. We’ve used AI tools for YouTube campaigns and performance marketing, where AI reduces CAC by 18–25%. Add in SEO—which is essentially free traffic—and that figure jumps to 35–40%. But again, humans are driving the strategy.

Let’s talk about digital ad spends and post-cookie preparedness. What’s the outlook for the coming year?

Digital ad spends are growing. We’re seeing 8–20% YoY increases. Digital already commands 44% of the ad market, and we expect it to reach 47–48% this year. That’s a significant shift from traditional media like TV.

As for third-party cookies being phased out—it’s creating chaos, but it’s also pushing marketers to embrace first-party data. With the DPDP Act in India and similar global legislation, privacy-first marketing is the future. It’s like seatbelt laws. At first, people resist. Eventually, everyone adapts. We’ve built our martech stack to thrive in this environment. Tools like Tesseract and our performance strategies are compliant and future-ready.

How do you see the DSP space evolving in India? There’s chatter around Amazon DSP gaining ground over Trade Desk.

It’s early days for Amazon DSP in India. They’re strong on retail-intent and B2C targeting thanks to their shopper data, but Google’s DV360 still leads in terms of scale and reach. Trade Desk is next. Amazon’s self-serve capabilities aren’t yet on par with DV360. Their connected TV inventory via IMDb and Fire TV is interesting, but still maturing.

That said, we are watching closely. Amazon DSP is compelling for retail brands, but in B2B, it lacks the depth that Google or Trade Desk offer. As an agency, our job is to help brands find the right platform mix—it’s never one-size-fits-all.

With all the global consolidation in adland, what’s your view on the future of mid-sized independent agencies like AdLift?

Consolidation is natural in any industry. Either you consolidate to grow faster, or you stand your ground and compete harder. We’re looking at both strategies. In 2025–26, we plan to acquire niche boutique agencies in India and the U.S. that complement our capabilities.

That said, size alone doesn’t guarantee success. An agency will thrive if it’s delivering results, innovating continuously, and doing right by its clients. That’s our focus. If we keep doing that, we don’t just survive—we lead.