After 6X growth in FY18, OLX Advertising bets high on future targets

OLX Advertising — an emerging ad platform from online marketplace OLX — bets on higher growth and business after its 6X growth in FY 18. With a large business base and first-party data of OLX, the platform is layering audiences across categories with (data management platform) DMPs to provide targeted campaigns to B2B, B2C clients. The strategy will gain growth, revenue and business for the platform.

“After a 6X growth in the last financial year, our forward-looking goals are also aggressive. As we have a large business base and first-party data across categories of dealers, owners and consumers, we have layered our audience with DMPs, which can help clients do targeted B2B, B2C campaigns,” said Tarun Sinha, Business Head, Advertising, OLX India.

“Marketers can target their TG by verticals or horizontal audience pools,” he said.

Apart from this, assisting brands in tailoring ads, meeting set KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) and optimising campaigns are few major focus areas for the platform.

“Given the nature of OLX as a classifieds platform, we assist brands in tailoring ads depending on their requirements. If a client has decided on their creative brief and messaging, we focus on campaign optimisation and set up to meet the set KPIs. The need of a smartphone buyer is different from that of a person looking to buy a new real estate property. Hence depending on the category, we take brands through the entire journey of the campaign creation to final execution,” said Sinha.

If requested by a client, the platform’s in-house team can help ideate, support on creatives and facilitate innovation through formats and custom targeting. Whether it is retaining or cross-selling to a seller of a mobile phone or car, or giving a choice to buyers on “badge value” or a “deal”, brands throughout get both the buyer and seller side.

According to Sinha, if client’s KPIs are met and goals fulfilled, publishers can demand one of the best yields in the market. “While overall yields have been falling in the publisher ecosystem, we have been able to buck the trend by constantly delivering on end metrics,” he said.

Over the last one year, OLX Advertising has increased its spread of advertisers from single-digit to three digits. Some of the largest categories for the platform are automobiles, handsets, white goods, electronics, ecommerce, retail, BFSI and FMCG.

Some of the diverse major clients are Samsung, BMW, Amazon, HDFC, KFC and Ikea.

Speaking on the measurement metrics of ads, Sinha said, “The metrics to measure ROI of any brand activity depends on the category and the nature of the brand activity. Impressions, click-through rates, views are some of the metrics we measure. Marketers engage with us for both brand and sustenance campaigns, and we constantly endeavour for innovation and customisation according to the customer’s need.”

“We are a young platform, yet we have reached a relevant market size in a short span of time. We are moving towards the right share of mindspace and ad spends. In the last two years, we have spent considerable energies in reaching out to key decision-makers in the advertising space, especially brand custodians (CMOs and CDOs), media planners and ad agencies who control the majority of share of the ad spends in India. We have a product that delivers and ensures that partners come back to us for the long term,” Sinha said.

According to Sinha, in an industry that is actively trying to engage with users with declining attention spans, OLX users spend on an average of 16.5 minutes and OLX has the lowest bounce rates in the entire digital media ecosystem. “We get 4 million listings a month, 65 million replies a month, generate over 100 million impressions a day and have over 7 billion page views monthly. This allows us to garner a plethora of data on transacting users across categories such as automobiles, smartphones, white goods and more,” he said.

“The rich first-party data that we have on purchase of high-value items in these categories is unparalleled. Around 60%-70% of the items listed for sale get sold within a 45-day cycle while every listed item on an average gets 12 replies from interested buyers. OLX receives more than 9 lakh premium listings per month,” concluded Sinha.

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