Digital advertising impressions in India surged 44% year-on-year during January-July 2026, according to the latest TAM AdEx report. The growth is being significantly driven by artificial intelligence companies, with OpenAI ranking among India's top three digital advertisers and outpacing traditional giants like Google and Facebook. This shift represents a fundamental transformation in India's digital advertising landscape, moving beyond the traditional e-commerce focus to encompass services, software, and technology sectors. The report highlights that OpenAI has been marketing ChatGPT around major cricket properties including the IPL and Women's Premier League as part of its strategy to build the platform as a mainstream consumer brand, with India having more than 100 million weekly ChatGPT users.
Services have emerged as the dominant force in India's digital advertising market, accounting for 47% of digital ad impressions in January-July 2026. The Ecom-Other Services category became the largest individual category with a 10% share, replacing Ecom-Online Shopping as the market leader. Two new sectors, Personal Healthcare and Textiles/Clothing, entered the top 10 categories during the period, while two sectors improved their rankings compared with January-July 2025. Five of the top 10 digital categories now come from services, demonstrating how the market is broadening beyond traditional e-commerce applications. Growth extended across multiple sectors, with software advertising rising 51%, real estate and travel growing 90% and 71% respectively, and clothing and textiles increasing 39%. The top 10 categories collectively generated 45% of total volume.
The top digital advertisers during January-July 2026 included Adobe Software India as the largest with 4% of ad impressions, followed by Flipkart and OpenAI at 3% each. Amazon Online India and Reliance Retail accounted for 2% each, while Hindustan Unilever, Google, Info Edge India, Myntra Designs, and Facebook Inc had 1% each. Notably, more than 1.1 lakh advertisers were exclusive to digital during this period, with Attitudist leading the list of advertisers that were exclusive to digital when compared with television. Newer AI and technology companies such as GPAI, Keevx, Caffeine Inc, Little Bird, Futureproof Lab Inc, Morphic, and Vivimedia Corp are also entering the market, bringing businesses with minimal traditional television advertising presence. Over 280 categories registered positive growth in digital ad impressions, with Ecom-Other Services recording an 85% increase and Ecom-Real Estate growing 90%.
Display advertising continued to dominate the digital advertising landscape, accounting for 91% of digital ad impressions in January-July 2026, while video accounted for the remaining 9%. Programmatic buying accounted for 96% of total digital ad transactions, with Ad Network being a distant second at 2% share. This concentration of digital advertising towards automated ad placements reflects the expanding digital advertising landscape and the increasing scale of digital-first businesses. The report notes that digital advertising is not only expanding in scale but is also broadening across advertiser categories, with established e-commerce, consumer and technology companies remaining significant buyers while sectors such as real estate, travel, lifestyle, software and education show wider adoption of digital advertising.
Among web publishers, Meta-owned Instagram dominated ad inventory, commanding a 69% share of publisher impressions within a top-five publisher concentration that held 83% of the total market. The high-growth segments included lifestyle advertising with 92% growth, Ecom-real estate with 90% growth, and Ecom-travel & tourism with 71% growth. The top 10 categories collectively generated 45% of total volume, with 'Ecom-Clothing/Textile/Fashion' following 'Ecom-Other Services' at 7% share and 'Software' at 4% share. This concentration reflects the maturation of India's digital advertising ecosystem and the increasing sophistication of programmatic buying platforms.
