Is Search becoming the new marketing brief?

Search is no longer just a performance lever at the bottom of the funnel. It is increasingly becoming the starting point of marketing strategy, shaping how brands plan, create and deploy campaigns across categories.

According to Kantar’s India in Search 2026 report, categories such as AI (235M average monthly searches, +154% YoY), beauty (131M), cuisine (94M) and health & wellness (52M, +10%) are seeing strong, sustained search volumes, reflecting a shift toward more intent-driven, need-based consumer behaviour. As consumers actively articulate their requirements through queries, brands are beginning to use these signals as a real-time pulse of demand to inform planning, creative and media strategies.

This shift is playing out differently across sectors. In beauty and wellness, searches are becoming more specific and solution-led, while in food and cuisine, intent reflects a mix of convenience and experimentation. Meanwhile, the sharp rise in AI-related searches points to growing everyday utility and adoption. Together, these trends highlight how search is not only capturing demand but actively shaping it, pushing brands to move from broad-based messaging to more responsive, intent-led marketing approaches. 

Soumya Mohanty, MD & Chief Client & Solutions Officer, South Asia, Kantar said, “Consumers are no longer searching when they need specific information. They are searching to learn and explore. So, it is no longer just about looking for a particular brand or category but also learning about the pros, cons, product details etc.” 

She noted that “category” is often a marketer-defined lens, while consumer searches are driven more by benefits and interests, with brands fitting into those need states. She added that information depth also varies, with categories like auto, tech and health seeing more detailed searches, unlike confectionery, beverages and daily staples. 

This evolution is especially visible in high-consideration categories like BFSI, where search is reshaping how brands understand and respond to consumer intent. 

Sapna Desai, Chief Marketing Officer, ManipalCigna Health Insurance, said search has evolved beyond a performance lever into a critical source of consumer intelligence, now functioning as an AI-powered intent engine that helps decode evolving health concerns, coverage needs and life-stage triggers. She added that the brand uses search data to identify emerging intent clusters, track rising concerns such as medical inflation, and feed these insights into product positioning and communication strategy. 

She said, “search is now deeply integrated with content marketing and AI-driven ad platforms like Performance Max, blending paid, organic, and generative engine optimization (GEO) to guide consumers through increasingly complex and conversational decision journeys.” 

She added that it enables near real-time responses to trends, embedding search across planning, content and media as a strategic function. Search behaviour also shows consumers are more informed and risk-aware, evaluating factors like coverage and claims, prompting simpler, more value-led communication. 

Beyond insurance, similar patterns are emerging in loyalty and rewards ecosystems, where search is shaping decision-making at a granular level. 

Vivek Charde, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer at Loylty Rewardz, said search has moved beyond acquisition to become a real-time intent intelligence layer, helping decode where customers are in their decision journey, from exploring rewards to comparing benefits. He added that these signals inform cohort design, journey personalisation and client engagement strategies, while also powering near real-time offers and on-site/app content personalisation to drive conversions. 

“Search has pushed us away from product-led messaging toward decision-led messaging. Rather than explaining features, we focus on what those features mean in real terms: actual savings, rewards earned, lifestyle benefits that are relevant to that specific person,” he said. 

Charde explained that this thinking has also shaped how the company advises clients on programme architecture, with simpler structures and clearer communication reducing drop-offs. At Loylty Rewardz, search intent is layered with transaction and behavioural data to deliver contextual, personalised communication, whether recommending the right card or highlighting instant rewards, with the aim of shortening decision cycles and improving both conversion and long-term engagement. 

In contrast, for new-age D2C categories like beauty and personal care, search is becoming a core growth driver within the media mix itself. 

Rahul Baghel, Digital Marketing Manager at MARS Cosmetics, told e4m that search has evolved from a supporting channel to a core pillar of the marketing mix over the past 1–2 years, with its contribution to overall revenue rising from 15–20% to around 30%, driven by stronger intent-led demand and a deliberate shift in spends toward high-conversion channels. 

“With the rise of conversational AI and the volume of educational content, brands are now pushing. Consumers are arriving with much longer, more specific queries, ingredient names, outcome-led phrases, and routine-building questions, rather than broad category searches,” Baghel said. He added that on the D2C channel, communication has shifted from aspirational messaging to more education- and problem-solving-led content, with copy focused on ingredients, outcomes and the specific queries consumers are searching for. 

A similar shift is underway in hygiene and wellness, where search is influencing both discovery and education. 

Said Nitpreet Chawla, Head of Marketing, Pee Safe, “Earlier, we largely used search to capture existing demand. Today, it actively shapes how we plan, what we say, and when we show up. The kinds of queries people are making, especially in hygiene and wellness, give us unfiltered insight into concerns, myths, and emerging needs. That directly informs everything from campaign messaging to product storytelling.”

She added that for Pee Safe, search plays a dual role, driving conversions while also shaping upper-funnel education in a category often driven by curiosity and hesitation. She noted a clear shift toward more specific, informed queries around ingredients, usage and suitability, prompting the brand to move from aspirational messaging to more education- and problem-solving-led communication. This includes simplifying complex information, addressing real concerns and building trust through clarity, with messaging increasingly rooted in the questions consumers are already asking rather than brand-led narratives. 

Search beyond conversion

Chawla noted that search is no longer an either-or but is informing both media investments and messaging across the funnel. While performance remains important, she said search insights are now shaping upper-funnel strategy, from identifying awareness gaps to refining communication. In categories like intimate hygiene and wellness, where queries are often driven by hesitation or lack of clarity, these signals are guiding creatives, hooks and influencer briefs to address real consumer concerns rather than push generic messaging. 

“So, in many ways, search has become less about “capturing demand” and more about “understanding and creating it” with performance and brand working much more closely than they used to,” she said. 

Reinforcing this, Desai said brands are increasingly using search insights to strengthen upper-funnel initiatives as well. “Search behaviour today gives us a clear view of consumer needs, aspirations and information gaps, which we leverage to shape awareness campaigns and storytelling,” she explained, adding that queries around affordability and claims are shaping simpler, trust-led messaging across channels, with search now informing relevance and recall, not just conversions. 

For MARS Cosmetics, however, the focus has tilted more strongly toward performance, with increased investment in search and the use of query data to refine keyword strategy, targeting and creatives. “Honestly, the upper-funnel application is still a work in progress for us; most of the insight today is going into tightening performance media rather than shaping brand-level messaging,” said Baghel. 

At Loylty Rewardz, the shift toward more informed, comparison-led behaviour is especially visible in BFSI, with consumers evaluating earn rates, redemption value, fees and real-world utility, making generic reward propositions less effective. The company noted that users are increasingly responding to tangible, outcome-driven benefits. 

“The bar has shifted and the expectation now is transparency upfront and immediate. If you can't show what someone actually gets, in plain terms, the consideration window closes fast,” concluded Charde.