TEMU is the fastest-growing brand in search

The most significant climber last year in the ranking of most searched brands in Slovakia is undoubtedly the Chinese marketplace TEMU, which grew by a massive 1.66 million searches (+57.6%). Their recipe is a lesson in brutal efficiency. In the analysis of media investments, TEMU clearly dominates the online space, where it invested approximately 4.2 mil. €. It's fascinating that up to 70% of their media mix consists of performance-based online campaigns on Google, through which they aggressively capture demand at the moment a customer is searching for a product, not a brand.

The complete visualized study with over 90 brands in various categories can be reviewed in detail on the website data.thinkbig.sk

The entire department store segment is growing

The segment grew compared to last year by 20.89% (Alza +12.18%, Allegro +45%, Vinted +36.09%. From a creative perspective, TEMU's communication primarily focuses on simple sales arguments – discounts, low prices, Black Friday offers, and the option of cash on delivery. Therefore, it's not primarily about building emotion or a brand story, but rather a very direct and clear communication of the offer, which is why the brand currently relies solely on online communication without TV advertising support.

TEMU is also testing Slovak mainstream portals

Quite surprisingly (for a Chinese discount brand), TEMU is also purchasing advertising directly on the largest Slovak internet portals, investing over 300,000 euros (7% of its media budget) in 2025. Thus, in its expansion, it doesn't rely solely on Meta and Google ads but supplements them with advertising on Slovak portals.

In 2025, they utilized the Christmas season for the first time

In the last quarter of 2025, TEMU's search volume grew to half a million monthly, accompanied by increased investment in Google campaigns. From this, we deduce that the brand decided for the first time to leverage strong pre-Christmas demand for further growth in the Slovak market, similar to how market leader Alza has been doing for several years. TEMU's media mix consists of up to 70% performance campaigns on Google, where the brand aggressively targets demand with product ads. 

‍Expert insight from Tomáš Mladý (Head of Digital Media) 

According to our data, Temu invested approximately €4.2 million in advertising on Meta and Google platforms, with almost 80% of this amount going to Google advertising. This suggests that the brand is not trying to build brand awareness but primarily to actively capture people at the moment they are already searching for specific products or are close to making a purchase.

TEMU's strategy is based on a combination of an extremely performance-driven e-commerce approach and a massive digital presence. The main driver of growth is not a unique brand emotion, but low prices, a wide assortment, and the ability to be visible precisely when a consumer is searching for a product. The significant increase in investments in Q4 2025, during the pre-Christmas period, when the brand more intensively leveraged seasonal shopping demand, is also noteworthy. A smaller portion of the budget also went to local online media, which may indicate testing broader visibility beyond major advertising platforms. However, the core strategy remains clear: digital dominance, scalability, and very aggressive capture of shopping demand.

You can review the complete visualized study with over 90 brands in individual categories in detail on the website data.thinkbig.sk