Meta, Google Dominate Digital Ad Spending Amid Resilient Market

Digital advertising remains resilient, according to an Evercore survey of seven advertising agency executives who manage client budgets ranging from over $10 million to more than $3 billion. The executives provided feedback on Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet's (GOOGL) performance in the space.

The survey results showed that Meta Platforms and Alphabet are leading digital ad spending, with Google Search continuing to perform well due to artificial intelligence and higher query volumes supporting spending. YouTube benefits from premium content and automated buying tools. Meta stands out for improving returns and performance-driven market share gains, with its Business Agents feature showing encouraging but early signs of potential growth.

Amazon's (AMZN) Sponsored Products growth has stabilized, and it is seeing strength in its demand-side platform and video offerings, as well as broader adoption from non-endemic advertisers. Reddit (REDDIT) is increasingly earning recurring budget allocations through better targeting and advertiser support, though audience scale remains a constraint.

Netflix (NFLX) sees strong demand for premium inventory and improving targeting capabilities, but elevated cost per thousand impressions may weaken advertiser returns. Pinterest's (PINS) spending growth has slowed, with uneven returns and limited category breadth despite product improvements.