Internet/e-Commerce: Takeaways from Ben Legg advertising call

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Internet/e-Commerce: Takeaways from Ben Legg advertising call

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Internet/e-Commerce

Takeaways from Ben Legg advertising call

Industry Overview

2Q ad spend tracking slightly ahead at major platforms 10 June 2026

We hosted Ben Legg, former CEO of Ad Parlor to discuss latest trends in Online media ad Equity

spending. Our top sector takeaways include: 1) AI will open Online ad spend to smaller United States

SMBs, and drive a very personalized ad experience for consumers, 2) 2Q Ad spend across

larger ad platforms (Meta & Google) tracking slightly ahead of his April expectations JustinResearchPostAnalyst

(consistent with our latest Internet advertising survey, see our note: BofA Internet BofAS

+1 415 676 3547

Advertiser survey: 2Q tracking well, Google taking share), 3) Larger platforms are gaining justin.post@bofa.com

incremental advertiser spend (some spend was put on hold in April due to macro Nitin Bansal, CFA

uncertainty and was released in May) due to faster AI innovation, 4) OpenAI’s ads platform Research Analyst BofAS

adoption growing rapidly (30 of 300 advertisers now spending on the platform) but most +1 415 676 3551

advertisers expected to remain in test mode until 4Q, 5) Reddit continues to outperform nbansal7@bofa.com

the broader sector and y/y client spend accelerated in 2Q, while y/y spend on Snap &

Pinterest decelerated (innovation continues but at a slower pace than large platforms), 6)

ROI: Return on Investment

TikTok seeing strong adoption & growth, possibly impacting some spend on Snap.

Decel: Deceleration

AI Max & new ad formats should aid Search monetization Accel: Acceleration

CPM: Cost per milleMr. Legg’s tracked advertisers saw a minor (-1pt) q/q deceleration in Google Search y/y

AI/ML: Artificial Intelligence/Machine

growth in 2Q.