Digital advertising in India gained strong momentum in the January–July 2026 period. Ad impressions rose 44% year on year, according to the TAM AdEx Advertising Report on Digital Medium, with the impression index moving from 100 in 2025 to 144 this year.
Services remains the engine
Services held on to its position as the largest contributor, accounting for 47% of all digital ad impressions. Education was a distant second at 7%, while Computers, Personal Care/Personal Hygiene and Personal Accessories each took 6%.
Banking/Finance/Investment contributed 5% of impressions, followed by Retail at 4% and Auto at 3%. Personal Healthcare and Textiles/Clothing rounded out the top ten with 2% each. Together, the top ten sectors delivered 87% of the period’s digital ad impression volume.
Categories on the move
At the category level, Ecom-Other Services replaced Ecom-Online Shopping as the largest category with a 10% share. Five of the top ten categories came from Services, and the top ten collectively accounted for 45% of digital ad impressions.
Growth was broad: more than 280 categories recorded positive growth. Lifestyle rose 92%, Ecom-Real Estate grew 90%, Ecom-Other Services advanced 85%, Software added 51% and Multiple Courses grew 49%.
- Advertiser leader: Adobe Software India topped the list with a 4% impression share.
- Next in line: Flipkart.Com and OpenAI each held 3%, while Amazon Online India and Reliance Retail took 2% each.
- Top platform: Instagram captured 69% of web ad impressions.
Who is spending and where ads appear
Adobe Software India led digital advertisers during the period. Flipkart.Com and OpenAI followed with 3% each, while Amazon Online India and Reliance Retail accounted for 2% each. Hindustan Unilever, Google, Info Edge India, Myntra Designs and Facebook Inc each held a 1% share.
On web publishers, Instagram was the clear leader with 69% of total web ad impressions. The top five web publishers together supplied 83%. Among non-Instagram web publishers, Facebook.com led with a 41% share, ahead of Youtube.com at 23%, X.com at 15% and Cricbuzz.com at 3%.
Format and buying method
Display remained the dominant creative format with 91% of digital ad impressions, while video contributed 9%. Programmatic buying was the default transaction method at 96%, compared with 2% for ad networks and 1% for direct transactions.
What this means for marketers
The report also shows a widening advertiser base: the medium counted more than 1.1 lakh exclusive advertisers compared with television during the period. Attitudist, from the Ecom-Clothing/Textile/Fashion category, was the leading exclusive digital advertiser over TV.
A practical read for marketing teams is to follow the concentration: track the fastest-growing sectors and categories before allocating budgets, lean into Instagram-heavy web inventory, and treat programmatic as the default buying route. At the same time, don’t assume a TV-only campaign covers digital-first advertisers, and don’t spread digital investment evenly across low-growth formats when display and programmatic dominate.
Source: MediaNews4U
