Market size and growth
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. The 2025 figure is an end-of-year estimate; the audited full-year total is due in Media Fact Book 2026 (~mid-2026).
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.
Platform breakdown
Social platforms reach most of the country: YouTube leads with 12.9M users (68% of the population), followed by Facebook (10.3M, 54%), TikTok (8.71M adults, 57%), Instagram (6M) and LinkedIn (5.3M) - DataReportal, November 2025. Google dominates search with 90%+ market share. No Romanian source publishes exact platform spend percentages publicly, so the figures below are directional estimates based on audience data and agency benchmarks.
Google Ads (Search + Shopping + YouTube)52%
Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram)28%
Programmatic display & other8%
Estimates based on IAB Romania, agency data and platform-reported figures. 2024.
Google Ads — Romania benchmarks 2025
The strongest Romania-specific Google Ads signal is still the early-2025 cost jump: CPCs rose +42% and CPMs +50% in Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024, while CTR improved +4.5% (MTH Digital / IQads, the latest Romanian agency dataset available). The driver named by the agency was intensified competition from international marketplaces bidding aggressively, not a one-off event - and that pressure has continued into 2026.
2026 update
No newer full-year Romanian CPC/CPM dataset has been published since, so the figures above remain the latest local benchmarks. The forward signal: in a January 2026 Romanian performance-marketing survey, 73% of marketers expected cost-per-lead to keep rising through 2026, with budgets broadly flat (Adspire / IQads). Europe-wide, Chinese marketplaces (Temu, Shein and new entrant Joybuy) pushed Standard Shopping CPCs up ~+23% in Q1 2026 (Smarter Ecommerce) - the clearest read on where Romanian auction pressure is heading.
Search campaign benchmarks
CPC growth Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024 (all campaigns)+42%
CPC growth Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024 (eCommerce)+35%
CPM growth Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024 (all campaigns)+50%
CPM growth Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024 (eCommerce)+70%
CTR improvement Q1 2025 vs. Q1 2024+4.5% (overall), +25% eCommerce
Performance Max — share of eCommerce budgets69% (down from 73% in 2024)
Search — share of eCommerce budgets28.5% (up from 25% in 2024)
eCommerce conversion rates by category — Romania (Google Ads, 2025)
Beauty & Personal Care5.6% CVR (+41% YoY)
Books, Movies & Games2.5% CVR (+72% YoY)
Home & Deco2.3% CVR (+58% YoY)
Apparel & Footwear1.6% CVR (+64% YoY)
Source: MTH Digital (Romanian agency data), published on IQads.ro. Based on Google Ads eCommerce accounts in Romania, Q1 2025.
Meta Ads — Romania benchmarks 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 Romania — broad inventory (Eastern Europe proxy, AdAmigo 2026)$4–6
CPM Romania — eCommerce campaigns (Lebesgue 2026)~$5.38
Facebook reach Romania10.3M users (54% of population)
Instagram reach Romania6M users
Average CTR — Feed ads0.8–2.5%
Average CTR — Reels ads0.5–1.8%
Average CPL — Lead gen campaigns€3–18
CPM figures are directional estimates — Romania-specific Meta data with disclosed methodology remains limited.
TikTok Ads and LinkedIn Ads — 2025 snapshot
TikTok Ads
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.
Romanian users 18+ (DataReportal 2026)8.71M (57% of adults)
YoY audience growthfastest-growing platform in Romania
Average CPM Romania~$0.50–1.50
Top performing formatsIn-Feed, TopView
Best-performing industriesFashion, Beauty, FMCG, Entertainment
LinkedIn Ads
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.
Average CPC — EMEA proxy$4.50–6.00
Average CPM — global$31–38
Average CTR — Sponsored Content0.25–0.45%
Average CPL — lead gen forms€15–60
Recommended minimum monthly budget600–1,000 EUR
Key trends shaping Romanian digital advertising in 2025
AI-first campaign management is now the default
Performance Max, Advantage+ Shopping and Smart Bidding are no longer emerging - they run the majority of Romanian accounts. Success depends on input quality (signals, creatives, landing pages, feed health), not 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.
Signal loss shifts the advantage to first-party data
Google kept third-party cookies in Chrome (it reversed deprecation in 2025 and shut down Privacy Sandbox), so the pressure now comes from regulation, not browser changes. EU rules like the Digital Markets Act and Meta's "pay or consent" model reduce the targeting signal available for Romanian audiences. Advertisers with strong first-party data (customer lists, on-site events, CRM integrations) achieve better accuracy and lower CPAs.
eCommerce passes €8B, but growth cools
Romania's online market for physical goods passed €8B in 2025 (+7–8%), forecast at ~€8.7B for 2026 - but order volumes were essentially flat and nominal growth trailed inflation, with the August 2025 VAT increase to 21% weighing on demand. D2C brands keep investing in owned channels; Google Shopping and Meta Advantage+ Shopping remain the primary growth levers.
Cost inflation is the new normal
CPCs rose +42% and CPMs +50% in early 2025 (Romania). The persistent driver is aggressive bidding from international marketplaces (Temu, Shein, and new entrant Joybuy), which pushed Europe-wide Standard Shopping CPCs up ~+23% in Q1 2026. In a January 2026 Romanian survey, 73% of marketers expected cost-per-lead to keep climbing. Advertisers who don't adapt their bidding and creative will see ROI erode.
Influencer marketing holds at €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 a better engagement-to-cost ratio.
Performance by industry
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.
IndustryAvg. CVRAvg. CPA
eCommerce (fashion, home)1.5–3%€5–20
eCommerce (electronics)1–2.5%€8–30
Travel & Hospitality2–5%€10–40
Medical & Clinics3–8%€15–60
Legal services2–5%€25–100
B2B SaaS1–3%€30–120
Real estate1.5–4%€20–80
Financial services2–6%€20–90
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.
Outlook for 2026–2027
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:
01AI 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.
02Creative 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.
03Retail media and marketplace advertising grow
eMAG sold 10.6bn RON of products in Romania in 2025 (+4%), with its bundled seller programs (Genius, Ads, fulfillment) up ~35% in value - and it now runs one of Europe's larger retail media networks, expanding into Bulgaria and Hungary. As eMAG Ads, Altex Media and similar networks offer closed-loop attribution from impression to purchase, they will keep capturing advertiser budgets.
04Romanian 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 refreshed twice a year, roughly every 6 months.
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