The ultrafast carrier dynamics of epitaxial ZnO and BaTiO3 thin films after intense excitation at 3.10 eV and 4.66 eV photon energy has been studied by femtosecond absorption spectroscopy. Modelling the transient transmission changes on the basis of spectroscopic ellipsometry data and pertinent equilibrium model dielectric functions extended by additional terms for the effects at high carrier density (P-band luminescence and stimulated emission from electron-hole-plasma), a self-consistent parameterized description was obtained for both materials. Excited carrier lifetimes in the range of ≈2 to ≈60 ps and long-lived thermal effects after several hundred ps have been identified in both materials. These findings form a reliable basis to quantitatively describe future femtosecond studies on ZnO/BaTiO3 heterolayer systems.