How Adtech and Martech are learning to play nice in Indian marketing

For years, adtech and martech have been like feuding generations at a Diwali family dinner—related, sitting across the same table, but rarely speaking the same language. One was obsessed with media buying and scale, and the other with CRM flows and lifecycle nudges. But that uneasy coexistence is shifting. Fast.

Welcome to the era of adtech-martech convergence, where your CDP and DSP are no longer awkward strangers but increasingly part of the same conversation.

It’s a shift that’s reshaping how Indian brands approach customer experience, data, and ultimately, return on investment. According to Dentsu and e4m’s recent projections, India’s digital advertising industry will hit Rs 59,200 crore by 2025, growing at over 19% annually. Programmatic already accounts for more than 40% of that pie, and martech adoption—especially post-COVID—has seen explosive growth. A 2024 report by EY pegged India’s martech market at over Rs 15,000 crore, with 95% of large brands planning to ramp up investments.

“The convergence of adtech and martech is no longer a future trend—it’s happening in real-time,” says Pulkit Narayan, Founder and CEO of DangleAds Technologies. “In India, we’re seeing a particularly dynamic shift. Brands and agencies are actively breaking down the silos that once separated customer acquisition from engagement and retention.”

At its core, this convergence is about integration—of tools, teams, and, crucially, data. Narayan points out that brands are now investing in unified tech stacks where DSPs, CDPs, CRMs, and automation tools are connected in real-time. The result? More cohesive customer journeys, smarter budget allocation, and better attribution. “It’s a mindset shift,” he adds. “From siloed campaigns to orchestrated journeys, from media KPIs to lifetime value.”

But, as anyone who has tried setting up a tech stack knows, buying the tools is the easy part. Making them talk to each other, even as Artificial Intelligence evolves by the day, if not hour? That’s where things get messy.

“Real integration is still a mixed bag,” says Sanjay Krishnamurthy, President at GALE India. “Yes, some BFSI and e-commerce brands—especially the unicorn startups—are connecting their paid and owned media efforts. But for most others, it’s still very much a work in progress.”

Krishnamurthy calls out a familiar industry pattern: enthusiasm for shiny new tools, followed by the slow realization that alignment across internal teams, processes and data is a lot harder than anticipated. “You can have the best CDP and personalization engine in place, but if your media team isn’t synced with your CRM strategy, you’re just throwing darts in the dark,” he says.

That disconnect is precisely where the market is seeing new opportunities—and pain points. Talent, or the lack of it, comes up repeatedly.

Ankur Gattani, Chief Growth Officer at WebEngage, agrees that martech and adtech are increasingly overlapping—especially with the rise of AI—they aren’t fully merging just yet. “There is going to be overlaps… but I wouldn't yet think this is one of them becoming absorbing the other.”

He points to WhatsApp as a clear example of the evolving space. Initially used as a customer acquisition tool via Facebook, brands began using first-party data to re-engage users through WhatsApp. But as spam surged, Facebook intervened. “If you're not engaged with this message, you'll probably not get messages from these brands again… They started to apply a level of intelligence in terms of user preferences.”

In martech, AI is now being used to assign “propensity to convert” scores and prevent outreach to unresponsive users—helping brands reduce spam and improve return on ad spend (ROAS).

Gattani emphasizes the growing opportunity in data handshakes between systems. For instance, insights from adtech—click patterns, time spent, referral sources—can enrich martech strategies, provided data sharing respects privacy laws. Conversely, if a martech system identifies high-intent customers, that intel can feed back into ad targeting, optimizing acquisition costs.

“There’s still a serious gap in professionals who can straddle both worlds,” says Russhabh R Thakkar, Founder and CEO of Frodoh. “Brands are waking up to the potential of unified stacks that combine media, CRM, and analytics. But there’s also a sense of paralysis. Thousands of tools, limited guidance, and no playbook for what actually works at scale.”

It’s not just a skills gap—it’s a clarity gap. Many organizations are stuck at the “we’ve bought the software” stage, with little progress toward actual transformation. Thakkar notes a growing demand for simplified stacks, specialist partners, and advisory layers that go beyond just tool implementation.

According to Forrester, 58% of B2C marketers aim to reduce the number of vendors they use, highlighting a push towards integrated solutions.

“This fusion is driven by the pressing need for cohesive customer experiences and the efficient use of data, especially with the explosion of first-party data and the phasing out of third-party cookies,” notes Suyash Lahoti, Partner & Wit & Chai Group.

And while larger enterprises are inching toward more composable architectures, the mid-market remains stuck in duct-tape mode.

“Big brands are deploying platforms like CDPs and AI-driven attribution models,” says Bala Kumaran, Founder and Director at BrandStory. “But for medium-sized players, these integrations are often superficial—think retargeting ads here, maybe a CRM trigger there. It’s not unified, and it’s definitely not full-funnel.”

However, legal and ethical concerns remain. “Users shouldn’t feel spooked,” warns Gattani, pointing to rising sensitivity around personalization. He also highlighted the inefficiency of operating martech and adtech in silos, advocating for a unified view of the user journey across acquisition, engagement, and retention.

Kumaran notes that in India’s mobile-first, data-rich (but privacy-sensitive) ecosystem, the potential for hyper-personalization is massive—especially with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act now entering implementation. But execution is the bottleneck. “Top adtech-martech talent is expensive, and measurement frameworks are chaotic. Last-touch attribution still rules, even as brands claim to be ‘data-driven.’”

Still, despite the friction, the momentum is unmistakable. First-party data is becoming the new currency, and with the death of third-party cookies (eventually), brands that haven’t connected their adtech and martech efforts may find themselves flying blind.

Narayan lays out the three big wins from convergence: a 360° customer view, the ability to activate first-party data across channels, and smarter attribution and budget optimization. “We’re even seeing a rise in Indian martech startups building affordable, localized solutions to support this shift,” he notes.

Of course, none of this is plug-and-play. Tech fragmentation, privacy complexity, and organizational inertia remain stubborn challenges. Integrating legacy systems with cloud-first platforms is neither cheap nor seamless, and getting marketing, media, IT, and legal teams in the same room is half the battle.

But for brands that get it right, the payoff is not just better targeting—it’s a fundamentally better relationship with the customer. One that begins before the first ad is served, and continues long after the sale.

The convergence of adtech and martech is more than a tech trend. It’s a tectonic realignment of how marketing is planned, executed, and measured. And in India’s high-growth, high-noise digital landscape, it might just be the difference between a brand that connects—and one that just shouts louder.