IAB study: Romanian online advertising on the rise again: 22 % in 2018 versus 2017

Romanita Oprea Digital & Media

2018 was one of the best years for the online advertising in Romania, which posted a growth of 22% compared to the previous year, to RON 271,8 million, a first when it came of surpassing the EUR 50M (close to EUR 57M) mark.

The second semester of 2018 was the best one as value in the last 10 years, registering the highest value so far (over RON 155 million) and a solid rise of 33% compared to the previous semester (H1-18) and 19% compared to the same period of time in 2017 (H2-17). November and December were the best months, registering for the first time budgets of over RON 30 million.

Comparing to the European market, Romania registered a growth over the average of 13,9% (reported at Euro), contributing, alongside other markets in the CEE (Ukraine, Belarus, The Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia) at the constant growth of the market at a continent level. The results are part of the IAB Europe’s ADEX study.

Regarding the formats, in the second semester of 2018, the Display Embedded formats (in content and un-intrusive) remains by far the most used manner of doing advertising (32%), alongside the  Display Social Media formats (21%) and Display Video formats (15%). Moreover, Display Embedded register in H2-18 a volume significantly bigger than in the previous semesters (67% compared to H1-18 and 45% compared to H2-17). Social Media and Video register budgets growing from one semester to another (2017-2018) with 5% and 28% compared to H1-18.

During the whole 2018, Display Embedded, Social Media and Video remain the most important formats (in the same order as in 2017). They reported significant growth compared to the previous year (as absolute value and as percent in Total Revenue) and accumulated 76% of the total market volume (compared to 60% in 2017). The biggest growth was registered by Video (67%), reflecting also the trends at European level regarding this format.

In the second semester, Mobile reported growth rates bigger than the Desktop and that represent 55% in the total of the invested budgets. Overall 2018, Mobile registered a growth of 35% (compared to 2017) and surpasses the Desktop. This trend is seen at an European level as well.

Overall, the Programmatic advertising represents 21% from the total volume of the market. The best represented industries at a budget level remain the Telecom, Finance and Cosmetics – both annually and at the semester.

The total value reported in the ROADS study is calculated on the numbers billed by the participants – both sites and local publishers, as well as media agencies (reporting what they bill both in the international networks and the local sites).