Brands
Digital accounts for 44 per cent of ad impression growth in India
Services leads with 47 per cent share as Ecom Other Services grows 85 per cent
MUMBAI: India’s digital ad market is not just clicking along; it is taking a bigger bite out of the advertising pie. Digital advertising accounted for 44 per cent of the growth in ad impressions during January-July 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to the TAM AdEx Advertising Report on Digital.
The Services sector remained the heavyweight of the digital advertising ecosystem, contributing 47 per cent of digital ad impressions during the first seven months of 2026.
Within individual categories, Ecom-Other Services took the top spot, accounting for 10 per cent of digital ad impressions. The category also recorded an 85 per cent increase in ad impressions compared with January-July 2025, making it the biggest-growing category based on the absolute difference in ad impressions.
Its rise also reshuffled the leaderboard. Ecom-Other Services replaced Ecom-Online Shopping, which had led the category rankings during January-July 2025.
Ecom-Real Estate was another new entrant in the top 10 categories during the period. Collectively, the top 10 categories accounted for 45 per cent of all digital ad impressions.
The advertiser pool is widening too. TAM AdEx recorded more than 1.1 lakh exclusive digital advertisers during January-July 2026, referring to advertisers present on digital but not television. The report also cites more than 1,68,000 exclusive advertisers on digital during the period.
Attitudist, an advertiser in the Ecom-Clothing/Textile/Fashion category, emerged as the leading exclusive digital advertiser when compared with television.
Instagram was meanwhile the clear front-runner among web publishers, accounting for 69 per cent of digital ad impressions, followed by Facebook.com. Despite the dominance of the leading platforms, the market remained concentrated, with the top five web publishers together accounting for 83 per cent of digital ad impressions during January-July 2026.
The format story was even more decisive. Display advertising accounted for 91 per cent of digital ad impressions, making it the dominant digital advertising platform during the period.
When it came to how those impressions were bought, programmatic was firmly in the driving seat. It accounted for 96 per cent of total digital ad impressions, while the Ad Network method contributed 2 per cent.
The sector rankings also saw fresh faces. Personal Healthcare and Textiles/Clothing entered the top 10 sectors during January-July 2026, replacing sectors that featured in the corresponding ranking a year earlier.
The numbers point to a digital advertising market that is becoming broader as well as deeper, with e-commerce categories expanding, exclusive digital advertisers multiplying and programmatic buying accounting for almost the entire transaction mix. For advertisers, the battle for attention is increasingly being fought where the impressions are growing fastest and in 2026, that screen is looking decidedly digital.
