Romania’s online advertising market went up by 22% last year, reaching EUR 41 million, according to the latest edition of the (Romanian Online Advertising Study) ROADS study made by IAB Romania and PwC Romania.

In the second half of 2016, the online advertising value reached EUR 24 million, up 36% compared to the first half and by 19% compared to the same period of 2015 in like-for-like terms, according to the study.

“The 2016 figures look encouraging but they don’t tell the whole story,” said Gabriel Patru, the president of the IAB Romania association.

He urged more media agencies and publishers to provide data and make the study more effective. The study is based on information provided by local publishers and media agencies.

The report shows that five industries are responsible for 45% of the online advertising investments. The biggest spender is the telecom sector, with EUR 6 million investments in 2016, followed by finance – EUR 3.5 million, cosmetics and personal care products – EUR 3.4 million, beverages – EUR 3 million, and online retail – EUR 2.9 million.

Advertisers prefer to allot high budgets for advertising in social media and search engines. Programmatic advertising represented 17% of the whole market last year.

Another report on the media market, the Media Fact Book compiled by Initiative, estimates that the digital advertising market reached EUR 64 million in 2016. The report shows that 62% of the digital advertising spending goes to Google and Facebook and only EUR 20 million goes to local publishers.

editor@romania-insider.com