In April 2026, we analyzed online advertising across the entire trade industry in Romania. Dozens of active brands, hundreds of millions of ad contacts, a highly fragmented market. When you look at the top, the ranking goes something like this: Small business brands, Trendyol, eMAG, Lidl, Kaufland, Temu, Carrefour.
We focused on three of them, eMAG, Trendyol and Temu, not because they top the chart, but because they tell a more interesting story than any press release could: a Romanian brand going head-to-head with two global giants, in the same market, in the same month, with completely different approaches.
 
**Trendyol: the entire Romanian internet, 89 times over**
Trendyol's April numbers are hard to ignore. **971 million ad contacts** in a single month. Nearly **11 million real users** reached, meaning **88.19%** of **Romania's online audience**. If you were online in April, you almost certainly saw a Trendyol ad.
But here is what is really interesting: t**he average frequency was 89.01**. The same user saw Trendyol ads nearly 90 times over the course of one month. Almost 3 ads per day, every single day.
Where did these ads appear? **75% of Trendyol's volume went to social media apps** (TikTok App, Facebook App, YouTube App, Instagram App), **15.6% to Google Search**, and Romanian publishers with a .ro domain accounted for just **5% of the total**. The strategy is built almost entirely on global platforms, with minimal presence in the local publishing ecosystem.
At what frequency does a user stop processing the message and start ignoring it? The answer is partly visible in the **viewability rate of 59.98%**, the lowest of the three. Nearly **40% of Trendyol's ad contacts were not effectively visible**. The volume is impressive. The efficiency per contact, less so.
 
**eMAG: less volume, better results, more local**
eMAG delivered **455 million ad contacts **in April, about half of Trendyol's total. But the comparison gets more interesting when you look at quality.
**Viewability rate: 66.22%. Ad contact time: 7.73 seconds. Frequency: 44.93**, with no signs of audience saturation. And **10.1 million real users** reached, with a reach of **81.83%**, almost on par with Trendyol in terms of unique audience, at half the volume.
The channel mix tells a different story compared to its competitors: **81% social media apps**, but with one important detail. eMAG is the only brand of the three that invests meaningfully in** its own ecosystem**, with emag.ro accounting for nearly** 7% of total ad contacts**, and with a notable presence on Romanian publishers (.ro domains) that together make up **almost 10% of the total**. A Romanian brand investing in local publishers rather than relying entirely on global platforms is not a coincidence.
The metric that says the most is **eQ ad contacts, 58.2 million**, compared to 78.1 million for Trendyol. This metric weights the quality of each ad exposure. Trendyol delivered twice as many total contacts, but in terms of qualified contacts, the gap is much smaller. Every eMAG ad contact works harder.
A Romanian brand that, with an estimated half the budget, competes at nearly the same level of real efficiency as one of the most aggressive global advertisers in retail.
 
**Temu: top quality, balanced mix**
Temu has the smallest volume of the three, **405 million ad contacts** and **9.5 million real users**, but the best quality metrics in the group.
**Viewability rate: 70.34%**, the highest of the three. **Ad contact time: 8.99 seconds**, almost one and a half seconds more than Trendyol. Frequency of **42.55** and reach of **76.91%**.
The channel distribution is the most balanced of the group: **67% social media apps**, but with a stronger weight on **Google Search at 17.5%** and on Romanian publishers (.ro domains) at **almost 10%**, similar to eMAG. Temu also invests in **non-social international publishers (5.7%)**, more than either of the other two. A more diversified mix, which partly explains the higher contact quality.
Temu's profile points to a premium inventory strategy: larger formats, more relevant contexts, less volume but more impact per contact. The user who sees a Temu ad actually sees it, and sees it longer than with either competitor.
 
**Three brands, three strategies, one market**
If we had to sum up April 2026 in one line per brand:

**Trendyol** went for maximum coverage. 88% reach, frequency of 89, an omnipresent presence built almost entirely on global platforms. The cost of this approach shows up in efficiency per contact and in a near-total absence from the local publishing ecosystem.

**eMAG** went for balance. High reach, reasonable frequency, better exposure quality and a deliberate presence on both global platforms and Romanian publishers. The best ratio between volume and efficiency in the group.

**Temu** went for contact quality and channel diversification. Best viewability and ad contact time in the group, a balanced mix across social, search and display, with an audience that still has room to grow.
There is no right or wrong strategy here. There are different choices, with different consequences, that show up clearly in the data.
 
**Why this matters for you**
If you are a marketing or research director at a retail brand and you do not know exactly what your competition is doing in online advertising, now you know it is possible to find out.
gemius AdReal measures exactly what we described above: who delivers what, where, how often and how effectively. For any brand that wants to understand the market it competes in, the data is there.
 
_Data in this article comes from gemius AdReal, user-centric study, trade industry, Romania, April 2026, Mobile + PC, Population: 14-74y, F+M._

In April 2026, we analyzed online advertising across the entire trade industry in Romania. Dozens of active brands, hundreds of millions of ad contacts, a highly fragmented market. 

 eMAG vs Trendyol vs Temu: how a local brand competes with two global giants in online advertising

#### Intrarea Starlink pe piața din România a fost inițial prudentă, dar 2026 marchează o schimbare clară de ritm și strategie.

Brandul internațional a început să comunice în aprilie 2025, exclusiv în ecosistemul Alphabet, cu o campanie limitată (sub 1 milion ad contacts, reach de 2.40%). Pe parcursul anului, prezența s-a extins gradual, ajungând la peste 12.3 milioane ad contacts și un reach de 14.69%. Deși interesul utilizatorilor a fost ridicat (timp mediu de vizualizare de 12.48 secunde), execuția a rămas imperfectă, cu expuneri frecvente la creații în limba engleză şi germană, probabil reutilizate din alte piețe.

Mixul media din 2025 ridică semne de întrebare: peste 70% din livrări au fost pe desktop (8.8M vs 3.5M mobile), în contradicție cu realitatea pieței locale, unde consumul este dominant mobil. În plus, distribuția pare să fi fost realizată aproape exclusiv prin programmatic, în special prin Google AdSense, și nu prin parteneriate directe. Publisherii / Sales Houses principali au inclus Google, Thematic Digital, OLX, Ringier și SomaSocial, dar fără o strategie clară de premium sau control al contextului.

Începutul lui 2026 sugerează o retragere temporară: volum foarte scăzut (aprox. 10K ad contacts) și prezență limitată la desktop. Această pauză este urmată însă de o accelerare abruptă în martie 2026, când Starlink livrează peste 11.5 milioane ad contacts într-o singură lună, aproape la nivelul întregului an anterior. Reach-ul urcă la 18.51%, iar view rate-ul la 63.34%, indicând o eficiență mai bună a livrării.

Schimbarea majoră este mutarea pe mobile, cu Facebook App ca principal canal, completat de Yahoo și publisheri locali. Chiar și așa, execuția rămâne predominant programatică, ceea ce sugerează o strategie orientată spre volum și cost eficient, nu spre controlul strict al plasării sau calității contextului.

Din punct de vedere al audienței, comunicarea este dezechilibrată: reach de 23.32% în rândul bărbaților vs 13.87% la femei. Asta indică fie o targetare intenționată (zone rurale, tech adopters), fie o consecință directă a mixului de inventar cumpărat programmatic.

Întrebarea reală nu este dacă Starlink crește, este evident că o face, ci dacă strategia actuală construiește brand sau doar acoperă rapid volum. Dependența de AdSense și lipsa unui mix premium sugerează că, în acest moment, eficiența de cost este prioritară în fața controlului și a poziționării.

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Intrarea Starlink pe piața din România a fost inițial prudentă, dar 2026 marchează o schimbare clară de ritm și strategie.

Starlink intră în forță pe piața de publicitate online din România: de la experimente discrete la scaling agresiv în 2026

The reach of TV Stations based on Out-Of-Home TV platform looks quite different in June in comparison to May 2024 due to sport events of Eurocup 2024. The most significant increase could be observed for ZDF TV channel – Reach (%) growth in 2 times (43% in June vs 21% in May). Next position occupied by Das Erste (39% in June vs 27% in May). And for RTL, Deluxe Music and Sat.1 Tv stations differences are less noticeable.

As for Share of time (%) metric, the top-3 TV Stations were the same with similar differentiation in May versus June. Forth position placed by Sat.1 and had higher value for May – 8% (2,7 times more than in June).

In terms of Average Time Spent metric, the first 3 leader also the same – ZDF, Das Erste and RTL. The maximum ATS had ZDF in June - 2 hours 2 minutes and 14 seconds. The minimum reached by Deluxe Music in June – 4 minutes and 44 seconds. The highest difference in ATS had Sat.1 – almost 2 times in June vs May.

Gender reach distribution for OOH TV platform showed increase for all TV Stations among Men in June, for ZDF in 2,3 times and for Das Erste in 1,6 times, for RTL – 1,4 times in comparison to May. As for Deluxe Music and Sat.1 – variations were minimum (1-2%). Trend for women is similar, except RTL and Sat.1 with slight decrease in June vs May.





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Eurocup OOH TV in Germany, measured by AdReal

Out-Of-Home TV in Germany during Eurocup 2024

From April 2022, the gemiusAdReal cross-media study in Poland was enriched with a new breakthrough functionality. As the first study in this country it will provide information about advertising expenses, including ad types and formats, based on data from a single-source research panel.

Information about advertising expenses are presented for all types of media covered by gemiusAdReal's research, i.e. PC and Mobile (display ads, excluding web browsers and social networks: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram), TV (video ads) and Radio (audio ads). The results are estimated based on the official price lists of publishers and the size of advertising traffic. The price lists used in the estimation are updated on an ongoing basis for each subsequent month and take into account not only the price of advertisements in a given medium, but also the type of advertising format or the duration of audio and video spots.

The gemiusAdReal research is an internationally award-winning solution that enables comprehensive cross-media analysis of the advertising market. The introduced expense module is the next stage of research development, thanks to which users can trace the distribution of expenses between publishers, compare the costs of building coverage in individual media or analyze advertising strategies of the competitive environment.

The new module is available in the gemiusAdReal study in Poland from April 6 and covers data for the period from January 1, 2021, thanks to which users will be able to analyze historical data.

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From April 2022, the gemiusAdReal cross-media study in Poland was enriched with a new breakthrough functionality. As the first study in this country it will provide information about advertising expenses, including ad types and formats, based on data from a single-source research panel.

Advertising expenses data in the gemiusAdReal study in Poland

Gemius was recognised in the this year’s IAB Europe's Research Awards. The innovative cross-media solution for measuring both media consumption and post-campaign ad exposure was the best project in the Audience Measurement category!
Gemius’ solution is the first single-source cross-media research of TV, radio and Internet in Poland. The study is dedicated for all media parties, publishers and advertisers, providing complete data for planning marketing strategy and effective inventory management. The solution was awarded the silver statuette in the Audience Measurement category. A gold trophy in this category was not awarded.

The recognised solution consists of three renowned products: marketing intelligence study, gemiusAdReal and post-campaign analytics tool, gemiusPostBuy, and also well-established gemiusAudience research that has been recently extended to cross-media measurement. Thanks to the new gemiusAudience possibilities, the research is now able to provide detailed information about audience media consumption among TV, PC, mobile and radio, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube applications. All mentioned products are fuelled by data from single-source panel measurement which ensures high quality and consistent data. The new comprehensive Gemius’ solution finally delivers the market with a reliable tool that helps publishers and advertisers in building the entire media strategy process, from content and ad distribution planning, to post-exposure verification.

Gemius’ unique products and methodology were repeatedly recognized by renowned IAB Europe Research Awards. In 2015, Gemius was awarded for the Behavioral Panel Synthesis methodology allowing media owners to see the campaign reach from all devices. In 2016, Gemius won by presenting its Overnight methodology enabling production of daily data for website viewership statistics. In 2017, IAB recognised gemiusAdReal, the solution enabling comprehensive measurement of the online advertising market. Last year, the project True Single Source: gemiusPostBuy and gemiusAdReal, brought Gemius the fourth statuette in the IAB Research Awards contest.

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Gemius was recognised in 2020 by IAB Europe's Research Awards with yet another prize.