US Internet "Takeaways from 2Q26 Ad Expert Call Series - 1" Ju

Research evidence excerpt

US Internet "Takeaways from 2Q26 Ad Expert Call Series - 1" Ju

Global Research

17 June 2026ab

US Internet Equities

AmericasTakeaways from 2Q26 Ad Expert Call Series - 1

Internet Services

Stephen Ju

Key Takeaways for US Digital: Analyst

Snapshot takeaways from the expert call: 2Q26 Ad Budget Growth and 2026 stephen.ju@ubs.com

Outlook for Digital Platforms. As a reminder, we will be hosting six more calls +1-212-882 5192

between June 18 - 30. To register or access our replays, please see here. Esha Vaish

Analyst

2Q26 (Directionally +ve): Our expert's budget growth forecast moves to 30% esha.vaish@ubs.com

YOY (vs 29% set in early Apr and almost back to 32% projected in mid Feb), with +1-212-713 3328

advertisers releasing brand budgets in June post wind-down of Middle East

Vanessa Fong

conflict and consumer spending holding up. Weaker verticals were tech and travel

Associate Analyst

whereas B2B spend boomed. vanessa.fong@ubs.com

+1-212-882 0079 2026 (Directionally +ve): Raised to 27% YOY from 26.5% earlier, with our

expert noting that digital budgets were accelerating irrespective of macro Nur Robleh

conditions due to; 1) Faster SEO / organic search traffic declining forcing Associate Analyst

advertisers to opt for more paid, and 2) innovation from Google (showcased at I/O nur.robleh@ubs.com

+1-212-713 4530 2026 and Marketing Live 2026) and Meta (showcased at Conversations 2026)

driving up ROAS / new budget unlocks. Dino Weinstock

GOOGL (Directionally +ve): Search closed out 2Q26 in-line with prior 27% YOY dino.weinstock@ubs.com

expectation, while YouTube outperformed as brand budgets returned to deliver +1-212-713 3172

24% YOY (vs 21% projected in early-Apr and 23% in Feb). 2026 Search growth Tarini Padmanabhan

expectations now at 26% and YouTube at 21% (vs 15% earlier).