Shelf space is paid.

What the listings cost

In April 2026 Sostav published a Data Insight estimate: the advertising revenue of Wildberries, Ozon and Yandex Market for 2025 came to between ₽500 and ₽600 billion. In total, advertisers spent ₽805 billion on e-retail media, and 80.5% of that sum went to the three platforms. In the first half of 2025, advertising on marketplaces grew by 44%.

For a seller these figures look different: the cost of a click rose by 20–30% over the year, most of all in competitive categories, and the average promotion budget reaches 20% of the product’s price. The forecast for 2026 is that the marketplaces’ share of the segment will dip slightly, to 77.6%, because other retail platforms are catching up, but the absolute money keeps growing.

The main shift is not in the sums but in the mechanics. Organic traffic in the listings has practically disappeared: the shop window has become paid, and a product card’s visibility is bought with budget. A product without advertising rarely ends up on the first pages, even if it is better on price and reviews.

How advertising works on the two platforms

Wildberries. The main tool is search advertising paid per impression (CPM). You pay for a thousand impressions at a specific position for a query, regardless of whether anyone clicked. So the cost of a mistake is not extra clicks but impressions to the wrong audience: the wrong keywords burn through the budget silently.

Ozon. The Ozon knowledge base now lists two product promotion tools: “Pay per click” and “Pay per order”. Separate Trafarety (template ads), described in older guides, are not on that list. In the first model you pay for a click on the product in search and recommendations, in the second you pay a percentage of an order that came from the promotion. Pay per order is closer to paying for results, but it will not rescue a weak card either: if people do not buy the product because of its price, photos or reviews, advertising will not fix that.

What both platforms share: advertising does not replace the card, it amplifies it. Content, price, reviews and delivery speed determine the conversion from impression to order, while advertising only buys the impression.

Working out whether to enter

Simple arithmetic before the first budget. Take the margin per unit after commission, logistics and returns. Estimate the card’s conversion to order using comparable products in the category — usually a few percent. Divide the cost of a click or impression by that conversion and you get the cost of an order through advertising. If it eats up more than half the margin, advertising on this product will not pay off with any settings.

Count the “ramp-up” separately: in its first 30 days a new card needs budget to gather orders and reviews, without which the algorithm will not lift it on its own. That is an investment that pays off later, and it must be planned separately from ongoing costs.

And remember that a marketplace is one channel, not the whole of marketing. When the market is shrinking, the temptation to move all the money to a platform with ready-made traffic is strong, but that is exactly where click inflation is fastest right now.

What works in 2026

Video in the card. According to Sostav, Avito raised conversion by 15% after adding video to its listings; on marketplaces the effect is similar — video shows the product in someone’s hands and removes the questions that otherwise turn into returns.

Narrow queries. On broad queries like “dress” the auction is overheated by big brands. Queries with parameters — size, material, purpose — are cheaper and bring people who have already made their choice.

Working on reviews before advertising. On both platforms reviews work through conversion: a card without them gets opened and ordered less often. The first twenty honest reviews give you more than doubling the bid.

External traffic. Visits to the card from your own site, from social media and from Yandex Direct ads are counted by the platform in ranking. It is a way to reduce dependence on the internal auction — and, incidentally, the only one where the customer data stays with you.

What not to do

Switching on advertising for a card with no reviews and half-finished content: you will pay for impressions and there will be no conversions. Setting the maximum bid “to be sure of reaching the top”: on a CPM model that is the fastest way to spend the budget on irrelevant impressions. Judging advertising by sales “overall”, without separating organic and paid orders: the platforms’ reports allow that separation, and without it any conclusions about profitability will be wrong.

In brief

• Advertising revenue of the three marketplaces for 2025 — ₽500–600 billion, 44% growth over the half-year.
• A click is 20–30% dearer, the promotion budget — up to 20% of the product price.
• There is almost no organic reach in the listings: visibility is bought.
• Wildberries — CPM in search, Ozon — “Pay per click” and “Pay per order”; advertising will not rescue a weak card on either.
• Work out the cost of an order through advertising before you start; video, narrow queries, reviews and external traffic are the levers that work.

Frequently asked questions

Can you sell on a marketplace without advertising?

In niche categories — sometimes yes. In mass-market ones organic traffic has practically disappeared, and without budget the card does not rise.

What budget should I plan at the start?

Calculate from the margin and the card’s conversion, not from “recommended” amounts. The first month is a separate budget for ramp-up and reviews.

Which is better value: CPM on Wildberries or pay per order on Ozon?

It depends on the card. CPM is risky because of irrelevant impressions, pay per order takes a percentage of every advertising sale. Work out the cost of an order in each model separately.

Does external traffic to the card help?

Yes: the platforms count it in ranking, and you get customer data that is not visible inside the marketplace.