May Ad Metrics: New Citations Data; RDDT Puts & Takes

Research evidence excerpt

May Ad Metrics: New Citations Data; RDDT Puts & Takes

I N D U S T R Y N O T E

J u n e 9 , 2 0 2 6

Internet

CONCLUSION Thomas Champion

May ad spend growth was above estimates and our buyer revised his estimates higher for Sr. Research Analyst, Piper Sandler & Co.

2Q and 2026. Positive standouts in our coverage were Youtube, ROKU, and RDDT, while 212 284-6132, tom.champion@psc.com

notable underperformers included NFLX, TTD, and AMZN. Reddit ads manager data has

been volatile, but we believe it is not an exact proxy for underlying user trends. May Ahrefs Related Companies: Share Price:

data shows a notable improvement in Reddit as a share of citations fueling AI Overview AMZN 245.22

GOOGL 363.31and AI Mode, and it now ranks #2 in share of domains by citations.

META 585.39

NFLX 82.64

• Ad Spend (+): May ad spend was 30bps above estimates. Our buyer raised his PINS 21.99

2Q spending estimates by 30bps and his 2026 estimates by 50bps. The strongest PPLI 42.08

outperformers in May were X, Youtube, TikTok, Roku, and Reddit. Companies that RDDT 171.13

missed May estimates included NFLX, TTD, AMZN, and SNAP. The companies with ROKU 123.57

the biggest upward revisions for 2026 spend were X, GOOGL, and META. TTD had SNAP 5.65

the sharpest downward revision to 2026 spend. Recall, last month ad market estimates TTD 19.43

moved meaningfully higher: LINK. INDUSTRY RISKS

Macro, regulatory, weaker technology spend

• AI Search Citations Data (+): We updated our AI Search citations analysis with data

from the end of May (initial analysis HERE). Total citations fell m/m, but were still up 3.4x

y/y. The most notable move was RDDT, which continued to gain share and took the #2

spot in total citations with 9.3% share. RDDT is 2nd only to Alphabet, which lost share

at 16.7%.