Evercore Survey Shows Meta and Google Leading Digital Ad Spending
Digital advertising remains resilient, but the latest Evercore survey of advertising agencies suggests that marketers are becoming more selective about where they put incremental dollars. Meta Platforms and Alphabet's Google emerged with the strongest near-term revenue trends, while Amazon, Netflix and Reddit received more constructive assessments.
Evercore based its findings on conversations with seven advertising-agency executives managing client budgets ranging from more than $10 million to over $3 billion across performance marketing and brand advertising. The survey indicates that advertisers are not necessarily expanding budgets across the entire digital ecosystem. Instead, spending is increasingly being directed toward platforms that can demonstrate stronger returns and measurable performance.
For investors, that distinction matters. A resilient advertising market can still produce winners and losers if marketers concentrate spending on platforms with better targeting, automation, measurement and conversion performance.
Meta and Google stand out in Evercore survey
The clearest takeaway from the survey was the positive assessment of Meta (NASDAQ: META) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
Evercore found the strongest near-term revenue trends among the companies it surveyed for Meta and Google. Amazon, Netflix and Reddit were also viewed positively, although with a less pronounced assessment. AppLovin and Pinterest received more cautious views, while Snap and The Trade Desk were assessed negatively in the survey.
The findings are particularly relevant because digital advertising is increasingly being shaped by performance rather than simply audience size.
Advertisers want to know whether a campaign produces sales, leads, app installations or other measurable outcomes. Platforms capable of using large amounts of user and conversion data to automate targeting and bidding can therefore have an advantage when marketing budgets become more disciplined.
That appears to be benefiting the largest platforms.
Why Google Search continues to attract advertisers
Google's core Search business remains an important source of advertising demand.
According to the Evercore survey, Google Search continues to perform well as higher query volumes and the use of artificial intelligence support spending. YouTube is also benefiting from premium content and automated advertising-buying tools.
Alphabet's latest reported results provide some context for that assessment. In the second quarter of 2026, Google Services revenue increased 15% to $94.5 billion, while Google Search and other revenue rose 17%. YouTube advertising revenue increased 13%.
The significance goes beyond headline revenue growth.
Generative AI has raised questions about whether traditional search advertising could eventually lose traffic to AI assistants. Yet Google's recent operating data suggests that Search remains a major commercial channel while the company incorporates AI into its search and advertising products.
Evercore's survey therefore points to an important near-term trend: advertisers appear willing to continue allocating money to Google where Search delivers measurable commercial intent.
Meta is benefiting from stronger advertising performance
Meta's advertising business is showing similarly strong momentum.
Meta reported $59.36 billion in advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 27% year over year. Ad impressions across its Family of Apps increased 14%, while the average price per ad increased 12%.
That combination is significant.
Ad impressions measure how many advertising opportunities Meta delivers, while average price per ad reflects what advertisers are paying for those opportunities. Growth in both suggests that Meta has been able to expand advertising inventory while maintaining strong advertiser demand.
Meta's total second-quarter revenue reached $60.80 billion, up 28% year over year. However, the company also faced sharply higher expenses, including spending associated with infrastructure, AI and other investments.
Evercore's survey adds another layer to the picture: advertisers are reportedly seeing improving returns from Meta and shifting performance-driven market share toward the platform. The survey also pointed to Meta's Business Agents as an early potential growth opportunity, although the feature remains at an early stage.
AI is changing advertising—but not evenly
Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important factor in digital advertising.
For advertisers, AI can automate campaign creation, audience targeting, bidding, creative testing and optimization. The potential benefit is straightforward: a company can potentially reach more relevant customers while spending less time managing campaigns manually.
But the Evercore findings suggest that these benefits are not being distributed evenly.
Large platforms such as Google and Meta have enormous datasets, billions of users and established advertising infrastructure. That gives them more opportunities to train and deploy automated systems across a large volume of campaigns.
The survey also found that advertisers are testing ChatGPT, but recurring spending remains limited because of immature advertising tools, limited inventory and weak renewal rates.
That distinction is important for investors watching the emergence of AI-powered advertising. User adoption of an AI product does not automatically translate into advertising revenue.
Amazon is gaining ground in digital advertising
Amazon also received an incrementally positive assessment from the Evercore survey.
The company is seeing stabilization in Sponsored Products growth, while its demand-side platform and video advertising businesses are expanding. Evercore also noted broader adoption from non-endemic advertisers—companies that do not primarily sell products through Amazon.
Amazon's advertising model has a structural advantage: it can connect advertising with shopping activity.
For brands, an advertisement shown close to a purchase decision can potentially provide a clearer measurement of return on advertising spend than a campaign focused mainly on awareness.
This helps explain why retail media continues to attract interest even as the broader digital advertising market becomes more competitive.
Smaller platforms face a higher bar
The survey highlights a widening difference between scaled advertising platforms and smaller competitors.
Reddit received an increasingly positive assessment as better targeting and advertiser support helped it secure more recurring budget allocations. However, audience scale remains a constraint.
Netflix is benefiting from strong demand for premium advertising inventory and improving targeting, but higher costs per thousand impressions could make advertisers more cautious if returns do not keep pace.
Pinterest faces slowing spending growth and uneven returns, while Snap continues to face challenges associated with more labor-intensive campaign management. AppLovin's expansion beyond gaming is progressing, but inconsistent returns and verification concerns remain obstacles to recurring advertising budgets.
The Trade Desk faces another challenge: within Evercore's limited sample, the company was losing budgets primarily to Amazon. That does not necessarily describe the entire advertising market, but it highlights the competitive pressure facing independent ad-tech platforms.
What the survey means for investors
The broader message is not simply that Meta and Google are winning digital advertising.
It is that advertising budgets are becoming increasingly performance-driven.
When advertisers have limited confidence about the economic environment, they may prioritize channels where results can be measured and campaigns can be optimized automatically. That can strengthen the position of platforms with sophisticated AI systems, large audiences and extensive first-party data.
For Meta and Alphabet, this creates a potentially favorable environment—but investors also need to consider valuation, capital expenditure and competition.
Meta, for example, is investing heavily in infrastructure and AI. Its second-quarter capital expenditure, including principal payments on finance leases, reached $31.08 billion, while free cash flow was $784 million.
Alphabet is similarly spending heavily on AI infrastructure while expanding its advertising and cloud businesses.
Therefore, advertising revenue growth alone does not determine shareholder returns. Investors also need to monitor how efficiently these companies convert revenue into operating profit and free cash flow while funding increasingly expensive AI infrastructure.
What investors should watch next
Several indicators will be particularly important in upcoming quarters:
Meta ad impressions and average price per ad: These show whether growth is coming from volume, pricing or both.
Google Search growth: Search remains central to Alphabet's advertising economics.
YouTube advertising: Continued growth would strengthen Alphabet's broader digital-video position.
Amazon advertising: Sponsored Products, DSP and video growth will show whether retail media is taking more budget share.
Advertiser return on investment: Improvements in campaign performance could encourage larger recurring allocations.
AI advertising tools: Adoption and renewal rates will matter more than initial experimentation.
Smaller-platform performance: Reddit, Pinterest, Snap, AppLovin and The Trade Desk will need to demonstrate measurable returns to compete for incremental budgets.
Conclusion
The latest Evercore survey shows Meta and Google leading digital ad spending trends, but the more important takeaway is how advertisers are allocating those dollars. Budgets appear resilient, yet marketers are increasingly concentrating spending on platforms that provide measurable returns, stronger targeting and better automation.
Meta's strong advertising growth and Google's resilient Search business give both companies substantial exposure to that trend. Amazon is also gaining traction through retail media, while smaller platforms face a higher burden to prove that their advertising products can deliver competitive returns.
For investors, the next key test will be whether AI-powered improvements translate into sustained advertiser spending—and whether that revenue growth can outpace the rising cost of building the infrastructure behind it.
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This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.