Mumbai: As India enters its busiest retail window of the year, brands are facing a growing challenge in maximizing returns from their digital advertising investments. During high-intent shopping moments such as Diwali, Amazon Prime Day, and other marquee retail events, new research reveals that a surge in low-quality ad environments is threatening both ROI and brand reputation.
According to the Contextual Targeting Insights Guide 2025 by Integral Ad Science (IAS), a global media measurement and optimization platform, traffic to Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites increased by 103%, while ad clutter sites rose 38% during Diwali 2024 across India and Singapore. The trend continued during other global festive peaks — MFA site traffic surged 56% on Christmas Eve and Day, and rose 49% during Amazon Prime Day across Asia in 2025.
“Q4 remains the most lucrative and competitive shopping period of the year,” said Saurabh Khattar, Country Manager, India, Integral Ad Science (IAS). “With 32% of consumers planning their purchases in the last quarter, it’s crucial for marketers to measure, optimize, and filter out low-quality, brand-unsuitable, and untrusted websites. IAS data reveals a recurring trend of surging MFA during marquee events, which threatens campaign efficiency and returns on investment. In this evolving landscape, marketers prioritize pre-bid quality checks and redirect budgets towards premium media to drive stronger ROI.”
In India, these challenges are compounded by mobile-first shopping behaviors, where consumers rapidly shift between AI assistants, social platforms, and e-commerce sites to discover products and deals. Every impression now signals intent—but when ads appear in cluttered or irrelevant contexts, they risk being ignored or damaging perception.
IAS data shows that 9 in 10 consumers find contextual ads helpful, and 53% of Indian consumers prefer ads displayed on brand-appropriate, relevant sites. By leveraging AI-powered contextual targeting, advertisers can enhance brand equity, reduce wasted impressions, and deliver more meaningful engagement during high-traffic seasons.
Khattar further added, “Today’s digital landscape is fluid and fast-moving—every article and browse is a potential signal. It makes verifying content adjacency, sentiment, and engagement authenticity critical for making smarter optimization decisions.”
MFA sites, often characterized by low-quality, ad-heavy content designed solely to generate revenue, continue to divert marketing spend without driving meaningful outcomes such as conversions or brand lift. Despite often meeting traditional verification metrics like viewability, these environments fail to deliver authentic consumer engagement.
As content velocity and cultural trends accelerate, the IAS study concludes that brands focusing on quality, context, and suitability at scale—rather than chasing clicks—will safeguard campaign performance and build stronger connections with audiences during the moments that matter most.
