Nearly six years after TikTok ban, Instagram corners 65% of digital ad impressions

New Delhi: India’s digital advertising market grew sharply in 2025, but the year’s most striking data point was not the scale of growth. It was the concentration of that growth on one platform. 

Nearly six years after the short video app TikTok was banned in 2020, Instagram alone accounted for 65 per cent of digital ad impressions among web publishers in 2025, according to TAM AdEx, far ahead of Facebook.com at 14 per cent, YouTube.com at 8 per cent and X.com at 5 per cent. 

That makes Instagram not just the top digital publisher in the report, but the clear centre of impression delivery. TAM’s data shows all other publishers together accounted for the remaining 35 per cent, while the next 10 web publishers excluding Instagram were led by Facebook, YouTube and X, with the rest contributing marginal shares. 

Even the top five web publishers together accounted for 29 per cent of impressions, underlining how sharply the market narrowed at the distribution end. 

The platform split becomes even more pronounced when viewed through ad formats. Instagram Display alone accounted for 64 per cent of total digital ad impressions in 2025. Facebook Display followed at 14 per cent, X Display at 5 per cent, while Mobile Video and In App Video contributed 4 per cent each. 

TAM also found that programmatic accounted for 95.8 per cent of ad impressions, with ad networks at 1.5 per cent and direct buys at 1.1 per cent. In effect, India’s digital ad market in 2025 was not only platform-heavy, but also overwhelmingly automated in the way inventory was bought and served. 

TAM said digital ad impressions increased more than five times over 2021 and more than 2.5 times over 2024. 

The quarterly index rose from 100 in January-March 2025 to 115 in October-December 2025, suggesting that digital demand strengthened through the year. But the report also indicates that scale did not translate into a more balanced distribution landscape. 

Much of that growth appears to have flowed through a small set of social and programmatic pipes, led overwhelmingly by Instagram. 

On the advertiser side, the market remained broad. More than 187,000 advertisers were present on digital in 2025, and the top 10 advertisers together accounted for just 15 per cent of ad impressions. Flipkart.com and Amazon Online India led the list with 3 per cent share each. 

At the brand level too, the market looked diffuse, with more than 231,000 brands active and the top 10 contributing 12 per cent of impressions. Flipkart.com ranked first among brands as well. 

Participation in digital advertising is wide, but impression delivery is narrow. In simple terms, many advertisers are spending, but a large share of their visibility is being routed through a handful of platforms, especially Instagram. 

For agencies and marketers, that has implications for media planning, dependence on platform ecosystems and the kind of creative built for scale. 

Single Image Ads accounted for 83 per cent of digital ad impressions in 2025, far ahead of Video Ads at 10 per cent. Banner and HTML5 had 3 per cent each, while Carousels accounted for 0.5 per cent. 

That suggests the market’s actual delivery engine remained skewed towards static, display-led formats, despite the industry’s continued emphasis on video. 

Ecom-Online Shopping was the leading category with a 12 per cent share of ad impressions, and the top 10 categories together contributed 42 per cent. 

More than 400 categories registered positive growth in 2025. So the demand base widened, but the supply side of visibility remained concentrated.