OLX advertising has witnessed 54% YOY growth post lockdown

• OLX advertising over the last one year has increased its spread of advertisers manifold. Some of the largest categories for it currently are automobiles, smartphones, white goods and electronics, ecommerce, BFSI and also Retail.
• Sunny Kataria, Head Of Commercial Verticals, OLX India talks to us about the kind of benefits advertisers have been reaping by advertising on OLX.

The last few months when people were stuck at home, they ended up spending a lot more time in the digital universe. Be it consuming content in the initial phases, or shopping online once unlock started happening, people have been spending much more time online than they used to before the lockdown.

There it becomes imperative for brands to be where their consumers are. It is here that advertising offerings by platforms like OLX become important for advertisers.

OLX currently has a large base of over 6 million daily active users. Moreover, every listed item on the classifieds platform on an average gets over 15 replies within 7 days from interested buyers and users spend around 16.5 minutes on every visit. This goes to show that the platform has an engaged set of audience who are serious about buying. This therefore makes it an efficient platform for advertisers to connect with an audience that is already engaged.

Perhaps this is why the platform’s advertising offering has been able to win over advertisers. We speak to Sunny Kataria, Head Of Commercial Verticals, OLX India to understand what kind of benefits advertisers have been reaping from advertising on OLX.

Excerpts:

Q) What kind of growth has OLX advertising witnessed in the past few months, especially during the lockdown? How much does OLX advertising contribute to OLX’s overall revenue?
OLX advertising over the last one year has increased its spread of advertisers manifold. Some of the largest categories for OLX advertising are automobiles, smartphones, white goods and electronics, ecommerce, BFSI and now Retail. After a 54% YoY growth post lockdown, our forward looking goals are also aggressive and positive.

Q) How is OLX advertising different as an offering from what other e-commerce platforms have to offer?
Our offerings are starkly different from e-commerce platforms since users on OLX already have an intent to buy, which may not always be true for e-commerce platforms. On e-commerce, a consumer might be in the evaluation stage and also since that is predominantly a B2C platform, you would not be able to target your entire universe of audiences. Ours is a social marketplace that caters to C2C and B2C, across categories like Auto, Real Estate and Jobs which are not existent on e-commerce. The rich first-party data that we have on purchase of high value items in these categories is unparalleled. Our users are extremely sticky, spending over 16.5 minutes on every visit, with a clear intent to close the transaction.

We have a large base of over 6 million daily active users now and every listed item on an average gets 15+ replies within 7 days from interested buyers. The platform witnesses 2 to 2.5 lakh iPhones, 14k+ premium cars, 5k+ premium bikes being listed every month. Over 12k+ premium white goods and electronic devices and 2k+ luxury properties for sale get listed every month.

We have real data to validate unlike other platforms and there is an actual fulfillment of transactions on the OLX platform.

Q) How have brands benefited by investing in OLX advertising?
As a young and emerging platform, we handhold brands through every step of the process, in creating and conceptualizing their advertisements. Given the nature of OLX as a classifieds platform, we assist brands in tailoring their ads depending on their requirements. If a client has decided on their creative brief and messaging, we focus on the campaign optimization and set up to meet the requisite KPIs. If the client so desires, we have an in-house team that can help ideate, support with creatives and facilitate innovation through formats and custom targeting.

Be it brand awareness or product consideration, we are getting repeat orders month-on-month from almost all of our advertisers which is the proof of the pudding.

Q) We are well into the festive season. What kind of response have you seen from advertisers when you compare it to previous years?
In a short time, OLX has been able to partner with many large brands. Top smartphones brands under BBK Group (Oppo, Vivo, Oneplus Realme), Xiaomi, Samsung and Honor to name a few. We also have white goods and electronic brands like Whirlpool, ITel Tv, Fitbit, Netflix & LG advertising on our platform.

Moreover, BMW, Volvo, Maruti, Bajaj, Tata Motors in Automotive Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal in E-comm to major BFSI brands are joining the tribe. As per recent OLX data, 90% of OLX mobile sellers buy a new phone and hence, mobile advertisers have increased over the past one year on OLX. Similarly a majority of car sellers are intended for a new car hence auto advertisers have increased over the year.

Q) What kind of growth has digital marketing seen in the past few months and do you think this growth will sustain even in the post-Covid world?

The crisis has brought about a fromidable shift in how brands communicate with their target audiences. Their channel choice is driven by where consumers are spending their time. Being a digital-first brand coupled with the fact that there is a sweeping shift in favour of digital consumption in India, we have continued to grow our digital presence as a primary mode of staying in touch with our users.

Auto is an important vertical for OLX, where we have witnessed a huge digital shift. Automobile brands are experimenting with new forms of content such as augmented reality, virtual reality and more. Similarly, in other categories too, brands are increasingly creating digital touchpoints to grow brand presence.

With social distancing becoming the need of the hour, consumers are swiftly moving online. Hence, brands will continue to change their business models from traditional mode to the new normal, which is digital.