Personalisation gives 40% higher conversion to brands: Study

Companies using behavioural segmentation and AI recommendations outperformed competitors in sales and engagement and brands adopting personalisation strategies in their campaigns experienced 40% higher conversions in 2024-25. However, while personalisation is the key, the APAC region was found lagging in this key engagement metric, highlighting an opportunity for optimisation. This was revealed in the latest study report, 'Global Trends & Benchmarks Report 2024–2025' published by WebEngage, a SaaS based retention platform for brands.

The report analysed data from 850 brands and over 40,000 crore messages, highlighting key trends influencing user engagement across channels, geographies, and industries.

Stating that the year 2024 has been about embracing or even challenging the change, Avlesh Singh, co-founder and CEO, WebEngage, said that AI would continue to drive real-time, hyper-targeted marketing at scale. "The fusion of AI and automation is enhancing efficiency, deepening engagement, and boosting marketing ROI, ensuring that AI-driven businesses stay ahead.”

The report observes that there has been an exponential growth in contextual marketing in India due the advantages they offer. For example, in the case of email, contextual campaigns beat the blast promotional campaigns on both key parameters, click-through rate (4.5% vs 2.0%) as well as click-through conversion rate (7.5% vs 1.9%). The companies in India, as a result, witnessed a 163% revenue increase from their contextual marketing campaigns. The report also finds that brands employing AI-based automation and predictive analytics experience higher customer loyalty. When customer engagement is powered by AI, it also increases retention by 25%.

The banking and financial service idustries (BFSI) in India and APAC showed a strong performance with 33.56% open rate and a 7.28% click-through conversion rate (CTCR), demonstrating the effectiveness of targeted campaigns in this sector. The The Media and entertainment industry, the report mentions, sends the highest number of messages in India and APAC (13,800 crores), indicating the importance of customer engagement in this sector.

The report also observes that in 2024, nearly 60% businesses prioritised first-party data collection driven by the deprecation of third-party cookies and emergence of strict regulations related to data storage, sharing, and privacy.