Published on: June 18, 2026

Gulshan Verma is a leader who thinks in journeys, not just transactions. As the Director of Amazon Ads India, he oversees an incredibly sophisticated commerce engine; yet, his philosophy remains rooted in a very simple, foundational idea: start with the customer and work backwards. With a career that has moved through the highest levels of consulting and media, Gulshan brings a seasoned, calm authority to the often-chaotic world of digital advertising. 

In this exclusive conversation following his MMA Keynote, he pulls back the curtain on why marketing feels so fragmented today and how we can fix it. For him, the goal isn’t just about serving more ads; it is about connecting the dots of a person’s day—from what they watch on a screen to what they eventually put in their shopping cart. 

Your career spans consulting, media, and technology at the highest levels. What is the one leadership principle from that journey that you find yourself applying most at Amazon Ads India today? 

The one principle I find myself applying every single day is Customer Obsession. “We define it simply: start with the customer and work backwards.” 

At Amazon Ads, that means constantly asking ourselves whether we are truly making it easier for businesses of every size to reach the right customer, at the right moment, with the right message. That single question drives every product decision we make. 

It is why we are focused on democratising access to advertising. A first-time seller on the Amazon store, a large enterprise brand, or even a brand that does not sell on Amazon. in, should be able to activate powerful, insight-led campaigns that help them reach relevant customers. 

It is also why we are working to make full-funnel advertising more accessible for all brands. The goal is to give every advertiser a clear, connected view from awareness to purchase, ensuring measurement makes the contribution of each stage visible and actionable. 

At MMA Impact India 2026, you advocated for a ‘one view’ of the consumer. How close is the Indian market to operationalizing this, and what remains the primary barrier? 

‘One view’ is the idea that a brand should be able to see its consumer as a single, whole person — not as a search click here, a video view there, and a purchase somewhere else. A consumer who watches a Prime Video ad, searches for the product the next morning, and buys it a week later looks like three different people to a brand.

“One view connects those dots into one coherent, continuous journey.” 

The intent is universal, but the challenge is often structural since consumer journeys today are deeply non-linear. Consumers move across streaming, social, browsing, payments, and shopping often within the same hour. This makes integrated media planning more necessary and often complex than ever before. 

At Amazon Ads, we operate at a distinctive intersection of content, AdTech, and commerce. Across Prime Video, Fire TV, Amazon.in, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Now, Amazon Live, and more — all unified through Amazon DSP — we have a deterministic, first-party view of that journey. This helps connect what consumers watch, discover, and purchase. 

The primary challenge for large companies is not technology; it is organisational. When awareness, consideration, and conversion are each managed by separate teams with separate KPIs, ‘one view’ cannot be operationalised regardless of the tools available. 

Measurement fragmentation is another challenge. When one vendor on brand lift measures the upper-funnel, the mid-funnel by another on engagement, and the lower-funnel by a third on ROAS, you can never see how they connect. Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) solves this by connecting video exposure, search behaviour, and purchase in one clean room. The advertisers who have committed to that unified approach are the ones seeing the most significant gains in new-to-brand acquisition and full-funnel efficiency. 

The CPG case study you shared at MMA Impact showed a 9x purchase rate uplift for new-to-brand customers. Walk us through how Amazon Ads approached that. What was the diagnosis, the strategy, and the outcome? 

This was a CPG brand with category potential but struggling to break through and grow its consumer base in a meaningful way. 

When we diagnosed the brand’s health, we used the one view of the customer to understand their market penetration, customer segments, and journey drop-offs. Fewer than 2% of category buyers were interacting with the brand at all. An overwhelming 86% of the advertising budget was concentrated in Sponsored Ads, leaving upper and mid-funnel entirely underserved. We observed that they were optimizing for a single KPI (ROAS) and ignoring the fact that 98% of the market segment did not even consider them. And repeat rates were running at roughly half of best-in-class, signalling that even the customers they had weren’t being nurtured effectively. Using Amazon’s shopping insights, we identified the most relevant and addressable consumer cohorts for this brand — from Wellness Enthusiasts and Wedding Health Managers to Lifestyle Upgraders, WFH Transitioners, and Eco-Conscious Sophisticated buyers. 

“These were real, actionable audiences built from first-party signals, not modelled proxies.”

From there, we designed a full-funnel solution that worked as one connected network. Video streaming ads built awareness. Display ads drove consideration. Sponsored Ads converted intent into purchase. Each stage had a distinct role, and all three were unified through Amazon DSP. 

The impact was significant. New-to-brand customers exposed to video and display ads showed a 9x increase in purchase rate, with product page views up 695%, add-to-cart up 581%, and completed purchases up 905%. For existing customers, coordinated re-exposure drove a 3x uplift in purchase rate. 

When you move from channel-first budgeting to audience-first, full-funnel thinking, backed by the right first-party signals, the results can be transformative. 

Read more: From Fragmentation to Integration: How Amazon Ads Is Redefining Full-Funnel Advertising

As Amazon Ads sits at the intersection of retail data, streaming, and commerce, how do you advise large advertisers who continue to purchase media in silos? 

My advice to advertisers is to start with a single brand. Collaborate with us to build a full-funnel solution and understand where the gaps are compared to category leaders. For instance, connect Prime Video upper-funnel awareness with mid-funnel display and lower-funnel search, and measure through AMC. This unified approach helps increase add-to-carts, purchase conversions, and branded search uplift 

I would also advise advertisers to deeply understand cross-channel attribution. The advantage of Amazon Ads is that consumers do not have to leave the Amazon offering during their purchase journey. Our insights and measurement tools help brands understand what happened after the initial view, be it on search, on your product page, or on purchase. 

MMA India has prioritized AI maturity and full-funnel accountability for 2026. Where do you believe Indian marketing leadership currently stands regarding these two benchmarks? 

“AI and full-funnel accountability are critical benchmarks for Indian marketing leadership.” 

On full-funnel, while the aspiration is nearly universal, the challenge remains operational reality, which is fragmented. Planning cycles, agency structures, and measurement frameworks are still built around siloed buying. 

One of the CPG brands that we work with saw 905% growth in new-to-brand purchases! Regarding AI maturity, it is encouraging to see the industry adopt AI-led audience signals, automated bidding, and AI-generated creative. At Amazon Ads, our latest tools, Creative Agent and the upcoming Ads Agent, are simplifying advertising by assisting with creative generation and campaign optimization. The brands that pull ahead will be those combining AI and full-funnel strategies.