A rustic combating a struggle produced one of the detailed digital promoting market stories in Jap Europe this month – and the numbers inside are extra resilient than most analysts would have predicted.

IAB Ukraine on June 18, 2026, revealed its Digital Media Market Overview 2026, a 110-slide report compiling information on the Ukrainian web, e-commerce, promoting, and efficiency advertising and marketing panorama. The doc is the product of 4 companies working in parallel: Publicis Groupe Ukraine, iProspect Ukraine (Dentsu Ukraine), RAZOM Group, and OMD Optimum Media Ukraine.

The headline figures are putting. In keeping with IAB Ukraine, the digital promoting market grew 22% in 2025, reaching 54.84 billion hryvnias. The group forecasts an additional 18% enlargement in 2026, lifting the overall to roughly 64.51 billion hryvnias. That trajectory locations Ukraine amongst a small group of European markets sustaining double-digit digital promoting progress regardless of persistent macroeconomic disruption.

The general promoting market and its construction

Whole promoting funding throughout all channels in Ukraine reached 34.58 billion hryvnias in 2025, a rise of 19% on 2024, in accordance with business affiliation Vseukrainska Reklamna Koalitsiia (VRK). The forecast for 2026 requires 39.51 billion hryvnias, representing 14% progress. Web media is the only largest channel. Its share of complete promoting funding has climbed from 23% in 2018 to 62% in 2025 and is projected to carry at 63% in 2026, in accordance with the VRK and IAB information within the report.

Tv, as soon as the dominant channel, now sits at 14% of complete spend within the 2026 forecast, down from 43% in 2018. OTT – streaming platforms with promoting stock – holds 1% of the 2026 price range allocation. DOOH (digital out-of-home) and radio every contribute small shares. The structural shift towards digital is full within the sense that it’s not directional however consolidated.

Breaking the digital market into its elements reveals the place progress is concentrated. Paid search stays the most important single digital section by spend, at 47% of the digital complete within the 2025 price range cut up. Web media (show, video, and different on-line codecs) holds 39%, whereas different digital together with improvement accounts for the remaining 14%, in accordance with IAB Ukraine information.

The expansion charges by format inform a extra attention-grabbing story. In keeping with the report, digital video grew 51% in 2025, making it the fastest-growing main digital class for that 12 months. CTV (linked tv promoting) posted 115% progress in 2025 – albeit from a small base. Paid search grew 25%. Digital banner expanded 7%, whereas search engine marketing spend contracted 9% and audio fell 11%. SMM grew 14%, and influencer advertising and marketing matched the digital video price with 18% progress.

For 2026, the projections reasonable. Digital video is forecast to develop 21%, paid search 20%, digital banner 11%, and CTV 18%. The deceleration is predicted; the query is whether or not the tempo holds amid ongoing power infrastructure disruptions that have an effect on media shopping for conduct.

Web penetration and utilization patterns

Month-to-month web penetration in Ukraine reached 92% amongst on-line customers aged 16 to 64 in cities of 10,000 residents or extra, in accordance with the PACE panel operated by Publicis Groupe Ukraine in June 2025. Of these customers, 81% entry the web for greater than three hours per day. The typical each day on-line session runs to 4 hours and 26 minutes.

That degree of consumption is putting for a market the place energy outages stay a persistent function of each day life. The penetration determine has climbed steadily: it was 85% in September 2021, 85% in September 2022, 91% in October 2023, 90% in October 2024, and 92% by October 2025. Web use has grown by way of the struggle moderately than contracting.

The cellular channel dominates supply. In keeping with IAB Ukraine information, 79% of digital banner spend in 2025 was positioned on cellular stock, alongside 81% of digital video spend. On Fb particularly, cellular’s share is significantly increased: 94% of digital banner and 93% of digital video budgets on the platform went to cellular placements in 2025. YouTube’s cellular supply share stood at 57% for video placements in 2025, down one proportion level from 2024, partly as a result of a rising proportion of YouTube consumption is happening on linked tv screens moderately than smartphones.

Video: YouTube dominates, OTT splits by age

Amongst all video platforms, YouTube leads by a large margin. In keeping with the PACE panel information cited within the report, 90% of surveyed on-line customers watch YouTube weekly, and the determine rises to 96% for annual attain. On-line TV (OTT content material from Ukrainian broadcasters) reached 43% of customers on a weekly foundation, which the report notes is now on a par with linear tv, itself at 49% weekly attain. TikTok achieved 51% weekly attain within the June 2025 survey.

The generational cut up is pronounced. YouTube maintains near-universal attain throughout all ages cohort from 16 to 64. TikTok exhibits robust efficiency amongst customers aged 16 to 34, peaking among the many 16-24 cohort. Linear tv utilization declines steeply from the 35-44 group onward. On-line TV consumption, against this, rises sharply from the 35-44 cohort and peaks round 45-54 earlier than declining – a sample per cord-shifting moderately than cord-cutting amongst older audiences.

Amongst OTT platforms, the report identifies Kyivstar TV and Megogo because the main providers by data and consumption amongst weekly OTT customers. Kyivstar TV has 70% consciousness, 54% consumption price, and 41% weekly utilization within the pattern. Megogo follows at 67% consciousness and 48% consumption. Netflix occupies third place by consciousness at 54%, with 28% consumption – a significantly decrease conversion from consciousness to lively use than the home platforms obtain, partly reflecting pricing sensitivity and partly the Ukrainian-language content material benefit native providers maintain.

Advert blocking creates a significant constraint on addressable YouTube stock. In keeping with the PACE information, 32% of surveyed customers make use of advert blockers, 14% use YouTube Premium, and 5% do each. That leaves 56% of YouTube customers reachable through customary promoting on the platform – and 9% who use each an advert blocker and have a Premium subscription, a considerably redundant mixture that the information nonetheless captures. Of the 32% who use advert blockers with out Premium, age distribution is broadly flat throughout cohorts, starting from 25% to 27% for customers aged 25 to 64, with the 16-24 group barely increased at 27%.

The implication for media planners is that 64% of YouTube Premium subscribers are reachable by way of various digital codecs. The report frames this as a listing diversification argument: Premium subscribers usually are not completely misplaced to advertisers.

E-commerce: rising however lagging world benchmarks

Ukraine’s e-commerce sector is increasing at a tempo the report describes as outrunning world averages, however the absolute market share reveals structural headroom. In keeping with Euromonitor information cited within the doc, e-commerce represented 10% of complete Ukrainian retail in 2025. The worldwide determine, by comparability, was 24% of retail commerce in the identical 12 months. The UK and US, two of probably the most superior e-commerce markets, every run at 30% on-line retail penetration.

Ukraine’s complete retail market stood at roughly 65 billion US {dollars} in 2025, in accordance with the report’s sourcing. E-commerce’s 10% share interprets to roughly 6.5 billion US {dollars} in on-line transactions. That places the nation effectively beneath friends in Western Europe even after accounting for the struggle’s impact on bodily retail infrastructure.

Shopper conduct information exhibits a market in stress between value sensitivity and digital adoption. In keeping with Deloitte and KANTAR MMI surveys cited within the report, 45% of Ukrainian shoppers report elevated use of AI instruments of their procuring exercise in 2025, with significantly robust adoption among the many 18-27 age cohort, the place the determine reaches 77%. On the similar time, 42% of shoppers report decreased use of taxi providers, and 33% have in the reduction of on purchases from American and European web sites – a direct consequence of disposable revenue stress.

Essentially the most lively e-commerce platforms by month-to-month market app utilization are Rozetka (37.6% of surveyed shoppers utilizing the app not less than as soon as monthly), Promenade (31.0%), AliExpress (29.9%), and Joom (15.9%). Chinese language platforms are gaining floor: 29% of shoppers report buying on Chinese language websites, a determine that has grown in comparison with prior years as shoppers search lower-cost options. That compares to twenty-eight% who say they’ve decreased purchases from Chinese language websites – an virtually evenly cut up sentiment across the channel.

The promoting market’s resilience below blackout circumstances

One part of the report addresses a subject with no direct parallel in Western European market analysis: the affect {of electrical} grid blackouts on promoting stock supply. In keeping with IAB Ukraine information, sellers of tv and digital out-of-home promoting have developed protocols particularly to handle stock loss throughout energy outages.

For tv, the documented strategy entails increasing advert breaks from 9 minutes to 10 minutes per hour, maximizing out there stock throughout all channels in the identical gross sales home, and steady monitoring of supply metrics. For DOOH, suppliers geared up screens with backup energy provides sized to deal with power deficits, whereas in January 2026 DOOH suppliers in Kyiv obtained directions limiting operation throughout night hours attributable to grid load administration necessities. Suppliers compensate advertisers for undelivered rotations by extending marketing campaign durations.

The blackout downside additionally exhibits up in advertising and marketing planning information. In keeping with a Factum Group survey carried out for VRK between September and November 2025, 2025 was described as a 12 months of promoting stabilization. After substantial enlargement in 2023, progress shifted to a extra reasonable tempo. The survey discovered 69% of companies reported growing their advertising and marketing exercise in 2025. A bigger-than-two-thirds majority plan methods for a 12 months or extra – the planning horizon has prolonged regardless of uncertainty, a shift the report attributes partly to companies growing resilience frameworks that may accommodate infrastructure disruption.

AI adoption: near-universal however largely operational

Among the many report’s extra direct information factors on AI in advertising and marketing is a discovering that 87% of surveyed Ukrainian corporations had built-in AI instruments into advertising and marketing processes by 2025. The determine comes from a Factum Group survey commissioned by VRK. Of these utilizing AI, 57% reported a rise in advertising and marketing effectiveness: 35% famous a noticeable enchancment and 22% a major one. Solely 5% mentioned AI had not affected their effectiveness.

The report frames AI as working throughout three dimensions: shopper contact (corporations are sustaining on-line channel focus whereas growing contact frequency), staff and shopper emotional state (communications want to stay measured and contextually applicable given wartime social circumstances), and AI particularly as a driver of personalization, media planning, and strategic improvement.

Retail media networks seem within the IAB Ukraine report below the efficiency traits part and are positioned as having moved from an rising class to a normal strategic instrument. The sensible examples within the doc middle on first-party information (FPDP) campaigns run in opposition to CRM databases from corporations together with Uklon, Helsi (a medical appointment platform), and Kyivstar.

The information advertising and marketing mannequin described entails amassing purchaser telephone numbers in CRM programs, analyzing lifetime worth (LTV) by purchaser cohort, then activating campaigns in opposition to these cohorts to drive repeat purchases. This can be a comparatively customary retail media information structure by Western European benchmarks, however the particular platforms named – Uklon for mobility information, Helsi for healthcare transaction information – illustrate how Ukraine’s information economic system has developed distinctive first-party information sources.

The report additionally covers TikTok Good+ as a efficiency channel, describing its use in site visitors and video views campaigns with KPIs set in opposition to CPC and CPV metrics. This positions TikTok alongside Meta and Google as a third-party efficiency platform within the Ukrainian market, per the broader sample of TikTok’s enlargement into direct-response promoting that PPC Land has tracked across European markets.

Efficiency advertising and marketing: shifting from ROAS to margin

The efficiency advertising and marketing part incorporates a framework comparability between conventional efficiency optimization and what the report calls efficiency plus class economics. The excellence is between optimizing for conversions and ROAS – the traditional strategy – and optimizing for margin and revenue on the product class degree.

Conventional efficiency, because the doc defines it, treats all SKUs equally, makes use of full catalog feeds, and positions advertising and marketing as a gross sales era operate. The choice strategy entails ABC prioritization of merchandise by profitability, feeds structured by margin tiers, and advertising and marketing positioned as a driver of enterprise effectivity moderately than pure quantity.

This framing is per how retail promoting technique has advanced in additional mature markets. European retail media spending reached 13.7 billion euros in 2024 with 21.1% growth, partly as a result of manufacturers in these markets made precisely this transition from campaign-level ROAS measurement to portfolio-level margin evaluation.

The report features a media inflation chart for 2026 protecting all main channel classes. Amongst conventional codecs, linear tv direct placements present 13% value inflation in 2026, down from increased ranges in prior years. Sponsorship codecs present 16% inflation. Amongst OOH codecs, billboard (3×6) placements are inflating at 33%, city-light codecs at 29%, and DOOH at 30%.

Digital channel pricing is moderating relative to out-of-home. YouTube video exhibits 16% inflation in 2026, roughly according to Meta (16%), Video In-Stream (15%), and CTV (13%). Show codecs excluding in-app are at 14%. Essentially the most aggressive pricing stress is subsequently in bodily outside codecs moderately than digital, which the report attributes to constrained stock provide in outside media.

This sample inverts what some Western European markets have skilled, the place digital CPM inflation has outpaced conventional media. The distinction in Ukraine probably displays the actual provide dynamics of outside promoting in a market the place set up and upkeep of bodily infrastructure faces actual constraints.

For promoting practitioners exterior Ukraine, the report issues for a number of causes. First, it supplies granular market information for a rustic that not often seems in worldwide advert spend forecasts with enough element. IAB Europe’s 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report noted Ukraine led European markets in constant currency digital advertising growth at 27.2% in 2024, putting it forward of Serbia and Poland within the progress rating. The IAB Ukraine doc supplies the national-level breakdown behind that determine.

Second, the precise dynamics of the Ukrainian market – mobile-first consumption at 79-81% of digital spend, CTV rising at 115% in 2025, retail media consolidating round first-party information from home platforms – characterize a model of the transitions occurring in Western European markets, however compressed right into a shorter timeframe and sophisticated by wartime constraints. Poland’s parallel 2025 IAB report, published the same week as the Ukrainian edition on June 18, 2026, showed digital advertising reaching nearly 11 billion PLN with 15% growth, making a two-market learn of the 2 paperwork significantly helpful for regional advertisers.

Third, the AI adoption information is unusually particular. Eighty-seven % company-level integration in a market going through the logistical pressures of an lively battle is a determine that challenges assumptions in regards to the relationship between stability and expertise adoption. Entrepreneurs in additional steady markets who’re nonetheless debating whether or not AI belongs of their workflows are a market that has largely resolved that query below significantly tougher circumstances.

IAB Europe’s AI whitepaper from July 2025 found that 85% of European companies already deploy AI-based tools for marketing purposes, a determine that aligns intently with the Ukrainian information and suggests the nation’s adoption price is according to the broader European pattern moderately than an outlier.

The report’s protection of the media inflation setting can be related for worldwide patrons contemplating Ukraine as a part of regional campaigns. CTV at 13% inflation and digital video at 16-17% stay beneath DOOH codecs operating at 29-33%, which impacts how media planners ought to take into consideration channel combine when budgets are constrained.

Timeline

  • 2018: Ukrainian digital promoting market at 11.79 billion hryvnias, representing 23% of complete promoting spend
  • 2019: Digital promoting reaches 16.06 billion hryvnias with 36% progress
  • 2020: Digital grows to twenty.25 billion hryvnias (26% progress); complete advert market contracts 1%
  • 2021: Digital promoting surges 48% to 29.87 billion hryvnias; complete advert market up 35%
  • 2022: Whole promoting market contracts 65% to 11.17 billion hryvnias as full-scale struggle begins; digital falls 36% to 19.17 billion hryvnias
  • 2023: Digital promoting recovers 66% to 31.81 billion hryvnias; complete market up 96%
  • 2024: Digital promoting grows 41% to 44.99 billion hryvnias; complete market up 32%
  • 2025: Digital promoting grows 22% to 54.84 billion hryvnias; complete market up 19% to 34.58 billion hryvnias; CTV grows 115%; digital video grows 51%
  • Could 21, 2025: IAB Europe releases its 2024 AdEx Benchmark Report on the Work together convention in Brussels; Ukraine leads European markets in constant currency digital growth at 27.2% for 2024
  • June 17, 2026: IAB Ukraine Digital Media Market Overview 2026 report file created
  • June 18, 2026: IAB Ukraine publishes the Digital Media Market Overview 2026, compiled by Publicis Groupe Ukraine, iProspect Ukraine, RAZOM Group, and OMD Optimum Media Ukraine; IAB Polska publishes its parallel Strategic Report Internet 2025/2026 on the same date
  • 2026 forecast: Digital promoting projected to develop 18% to 64.51 billion hryvnias; paid search projected to develop 20%; digital video 21%; CTV 18%

Abstract

Who: IAB Ukraine, with analysis compiled by Publicis Groupe Ukraine, iProspect Ukraine (Dentsu Ukraine), RAZOM Group, and OMD Optimum Media Ukraine.

What: The Digital Media Market Overview 2026 – a 110-slide report protecting the Ukrainian web, e-commerce, promoting market, video consumption, social media, and efficiency advertising and marketing panorama, with information for 2025 and forecasts for 2026.

When: Printed June 18, 2026, primarily based on survey and panel information collected primarily in late 2025 and early 2026.

The place: Ukraine, protecting city markets of 10,000 residents or extra for shopper panel information, with national-level promoting spend information from VRK and IAB Ukraine sources.

Why: To offer the promoting and advertising and marketing business with verified information on market efficiency and directional forecasts at a second when Ukraine’s digital economic system is demonstrating progress that outpaces predictions, regardless of the continuing disruption of struggle – giving each home practitioners and worldwide advertisers a data-grounded foundation for planning choices.


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