Market insights · Warsaw
EC APPS Digital · ul. Hoża 86, lok. 410
Notes on the Polish advertising market
Practical observations for anyone planning campaigns in Poland: where digital budgets sit, how outdoor regulation works, and where the agency economy is concentrated. These notes are meant to make planning conversations more realistic, not to sell a forecast.
Channel mix
Where digital spend concentrates
For a planner the practical reading is simple: search captures existing demand, while programmatic and video build reach around it. Budgeting for only one of those layers usually leaves either demand or awareness uncovered.
Figures below come from IAB Poland reporting summarised in Polsat Plus Group's 2026 investor materials, and describe the shape of the market rather than any single campaign.
Baseline channel
Why search remains the default starting point
Search advertising is the largest digital ad-share segment in Polish market commentary for 2026, and it is the standard benchmark against which other channels get compared. It works for performance, lead generation and ecommerce demand capture. The reason to start here is not fashion: intent-based traffic converts more predictably, which makes it a fair baseline for judging everything else.
Google Ads is the dominant platform. Microsoft Advertising is the secondary channel worth testing, and it sometimes delivers cheaper clicks for desktop and older audiences — worth a controlled trial rather than a default line in every plan.
Municipal rules and outdoor inventory
Outdoor advertising in Poland is controlled locally through the municipal landscape resolution, a legal mechanism that governs signage, billboards and visual clutter. Digital Network's 2026 materials link it directly to barriers in the out-of-home market.
In practice this means the same campaign can be straightforward in one city and restricted in another. Advertisers planning street-level media should check the local resolution before assuming a site is available, and should expect inventory lists to change as cities revise their rules.
Before you book street-level media
- Confirm whether the municipality has adopted a landscape resolution.
- Ask for the current site list in writing, with the format each location permits.
- Build a substitution rule into the plan so a withdrawn site does not stop the flight.
Site checks happen before the booking, not after
Two cities, two regulatory situations
Kraków and Warsaw sit at different points of the same process, and both matter if you buy outdoor media in Poland. The comparison below is the part of the plan that changes fastest.
Kraków as a regulated outdoor market
- Status
- Landscape resolution adopted by July 2026.
- Effect
- Which formats can run and where is constrained, especially in central districts.
- Planning note
- Digital out-of-home still works well here, but the site list is narrower than in cities without such rules.
Warsaw: a live regulatory test case
- Status
- The earlier resolution was annulled; a new draft entered statutory consultation on 31 July 2026.
- Next step
- Public consultations were planned as the following stage in the opinion process.
- Planning note
- Verify site status close to the booking date; Warsaw is the country's largest media market and the test case for how cities will regulate going forward.
Regional hubs
Agency hubs beyond the capital
Warsaw concentrates media owners, media houses and agency headquarters, which makes it a practical base for national buying. It is not the only hub, and for clients the practical consequence is that specialist skills are not Warsaw-only.
A fragmented agency market
Analysis of the Polish advertising agencies market describes it as large and highly populated, with over 41,000 businesses in the industry. Most of those are small firms, with a limited number of larger players. A fragmented market means most agencies compete on specialisation rather than scale.
It also means quality varies widely. A client comparing proposals should look at who actually does the work, what the measurement setup will be, and whether the plan explains its assumptions. Ask for the team names, not the agency logo; ask how success will be measured before the campaign starts, not in the wrap-up deck.
Outdoor rules differ street by street, not only city by city
Reading the market without over-reading it
Market data is useful for budget allocation and for setting expectations about channel behaviour. It is less useful for predicting a specific campaign. A growing channel can still be the wrong choice for a particular product, audience or margin structure.
The figures on this page describe the shape of the Polish market; they do not tell you what your cost per acquisition will be. Treat them as context for the plan, not as the plan itself.
Use the data to
Split budget across demand capture and reach building, and set expectations about how each channel behaves over a flight.
Do not use it to
Promise a cost per acquisition before the account data has been reviewed. Channel share is not a forecast for your product.
Planning a campaign in Poland this year?
Send us the brief and we will tell you which parts of the market apply to it — channel mix, regional buying, and whether street-level media is realistic for the cities on your list. If outdoor is the question, bring the city and the format you have in mind and we will check the local rules with you.
Or ask about outdoor planning for a specific city
Warsaw office · ul. Hoża 86, lok. 410, 00-682 Warszawa · Mon–Fri, 9:00–18:00
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