Resources ›State of Online Advertising in Romania
A data-backed overview of the Romanian digital advertising market — platform performance, industry benchmarks, emerging trends and what to expect in the year ahead.
Key findings
Romania's digital advertising market has grown consistently, with +10% YoY in 2024 — in line with overall media market growth of +11% driven by UEFA Euro, Paris Olympics and four election cycles. The shift from TV and print to digital is structural and ongoing.
Digital ad spend Romania — evolution
Source: Media Fact Book 2025 (Initiative Romania), PwC Romania Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025. 2021–2022 are DAFE estimates based on reported CAGR.
Digital advertising represents 37% of total Romanian media spend in 2024 — still well below Western European markets where digital exceeds 60%. Romania's programmatic share (~10% of digital) is also half the Western European average (~20%), pointing to structural headroom for growth.
Romania allocates 45.9% of digital budgets to social media — the highest share globally (DataReportal 2026). Google dominates search with 90%+ market share. No Romanian source publishes exact platform percentages publicly, so figures below are directional estimates based on audience data and agency benchmarks.
Estimates based on IAB Romania, agency data and platform-reported figures. 2024.
The most significant Romania-specific Google Ads signal for 2025: CPCs rose +42% and CPMs +50% in Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024, while CTR improved +4.5% (MTH Digital / IQads). The cause — intensified competition from international marketplaces and increased political/news inventory competing for attention.
Source: MTH Digital (Romanian agency data), published on IQads.ro. Based on Google Ads eCommerce accounts in Romania, Q1 2025.
Meta's Advantage+ suite (Shopping, Audience, Creative) has fundamentally changed campaign management. Manual audience building has been largely replaced by AI-driven broad targeting — a shift that rewards strong creative and penalizes weak landing pages.
CPM figures are directional estimates — Romania-specific Meta data with disclosed methodology remains limited.
TikTok has become a serious advertising channel in Romania — particularly for brands targeting 18–35 year olds. CPMs remain low compared to Meta, but the learning curve is steeper and creative production costs are higher.
LinkedIn has 5.3M Romanian members (28% of population) — the largest professional audience available for B2B targeting in Romania. Adoption among B2B advertisers grew in 2024, driven by Conversation Ads and Document Ads formats.
AI-first campaign management
Performance Max, Advantage+ Shopping and Smart Bidding now run in the majority of Romanian advertising accounts. The shift is fundamental: success now depends on input quality (signals, creatives, landing pages) rather than manual bid management.
Video and short-form content dominance
YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok videos are driving the highest engagement rates across all demographics. Brands that invest in native short-form video consistently outperform static image campaigns on cost-per-engagement metrics.
First-party data becomes competitive advantage
As third-party cookies phase out, advertisers with strong first-party data (customer lists, on-site events, CRM integrations) achieve significantly better targeting accuracy and lower CPAs than those relying on platform audiences alone.
eCommerce consolidation and D2C growth
Romania's eCommerce market grew ~18% in 2024. D2C brands are increasingly by-passing marketplaces and investing in owned channels. Google Shopping and Meta Advantage+ Shopping are the primary growth levers.
Cost inflation — the new normal
CPCs up +42%, CPMs up +50% in early 2025 vs. 2024. The main causes: intensified competition from international marketplaces (Temu, Shein) and political/electoral inventory crowding out commercial placements. Advertisers who don't adapt their bidding strategy will see ROI erode.
Influencer marketing hits €112M
The Romanian influencer market reached €112M in 2025, with an average ROI of €6–7 per €1 invested (peaking at €18 in Beauty, Fashion and FMCG). Brands are pivoting from macro-influencers to mid-tier creators (10K–30K followers) for better engagement-to-cost ratio.
Performance benchmarks vary significantly across industries. The table below shows directional averages across Google and Meta for Romanian advertisers — use these as calibration points, not targets.
Ranges reflect both Google and Meta averages for Romanian advertisers. CPA is for primary conversion action (purchase, lead form, call). Source: DAFE Digital account data, 2024.
Based on current market signals, agency data and platform roadmaps, here is what we expect to define Romanian digital advertising over the next 12–18 months:
AI automation deepens across all platforms
Manual campaign management will become a niche skill. The new core competency is structuring accounts to feed AI systems with high-quality signals.
Creative becomes the primary performance lever
With targeting largely automated, the winning variable is creative quality and relevance. Video-first production pipelines will be a competitive requirement, not an option.
Retail media and marketplace advertising grows
eMAG Ads, Altex Media and similar retail media networks will attract growing advertiser budgets as they offer closed-loop attribution from impression to purchase.
Romanian advertiser sophistication increases
The gap between top-performing and average Romanian advertisers is widening. Businesses that invest in measurement infrastructure (GA4, server-side tracking, CRM integration) will compound their advantage.
About this report
This report combines published industry data (IAB Romania, Media Fact Book, platform-reported figures) with anonymised performance data from DAFE Digital-managed accounts across Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads. All figures are presented as directional ranges, not precise averages. Where Romania-specific data is unavailable, the closest regional proxy is used and noted. The report is updated annually.
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