Annual political advertising expenditure on Google in India from 2019-2024

Political advertising expenditure on Google in India has witnessed dramatic shifts between 2019 and 2024, influenced by election cycles, evolving digital strategies, and growing reliance on online platforms for voter engagement. In 2019, spending was ₹29.6 crore with 12,570 ads, coinciding with the Indian General Elections. The average cost per ad was ₹23,571, indicating a moderate investment per ad campaign. A sharp decline followed in 2020, with spending dropping to ₹9.47 crore and ad volume shrinking to 1,918 ads. This reduction aligns with the absence of major elections that year. However, the average cost per ad rose to ₹49,397, suggesting a shift toward fewer but more expensive, high-impact ads. 2021 saw a resurgence in spending (₹40.3 crore) with 8,377 ads, driven by state elections. The average cost per ad was ₹48,150, maintaining the trend of high-value political advertising. In 2022, spending slightly declined to ₹36.3 crore, but ad volume increased to 13,006 ads, resulting in a lower average cost per ad (₹27,877). This shift suggests a broader, more diversified ad strategy rather than a focus on high-cost campaigns. 2023 marked an unprecedented surge, with spending crossing ₹118.2 crore and the number of ads skyrocketing to 42,768. Despite this surge, the average cost per ad dropped to ₹27,631, indicating a massive expansion in digital political outreach. 2024 witnessed an explosion in political ad spending, reaching ₹3,81.5 crore, nearly three times the 2023 expenditure. The number of ads surged to 2,71,532, while the average cost per ad plummeted to ₹13,572, suggesting a strategy of mass digital engagement in the lead-up to the General Elections. With digital political ad spending surpassing ₹380 crore in 2024, the trend indicates an irreversible shift toward Google and online platforms as primary election battlegrounds. The decline in per-ad costs suggests a growing reliance on targeted, data-driven mass campaigns. Moving forward, political parties are likely to invest even more in AI-driven, hyper-personalized digital strategies, further reinforcing the dominance of online advertising in Indian elections.