North America Internet: Citi Internet Insight Series: Online Advertising Momentum Ramped Throughout 2Q; Trends Continuing into 3Q

Research evidence excerpt

North America Internet: Citi Internet Insight Series: Online Advertising Momentum Ramped Throughout 2Q; Trends Continuing into 3Q

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10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 ET │ 15 pages

North America Internet

Citi Internet Insight Series: Online Advertising Momentum Ramped

Throughout 2Q; Trends Continuing into 3Q

Ronald Josey AC

CITI'S TAKE +1-212-816-4545

We are incrementally positive on the broader online advertising ronald.josey@citi.com

environment following our call with Andrew McLean, Principal and Jamesmichael Sherman-LewisManaging Partner of Inventus Media, whereby his tracked 2Q26 ad spend

grew 8.4% Y/Y, ~90bps above expectations. April softness abated into a +1-415-627-6014

stronger May/June supported by a robust events calendar (World Cup jamesmichael.shermanlewis@citi.com

contributing ~200bps of growth), with momentum carrying into 3Q. This is Jake Hallac, CFA

consistent with our takeaways from Cannes (see our recap) and we believe +1-212-816-2001bodes well for 2Q advertising results and 3Q guidance, particularly across

Google, Meta, Amazon and Reddit. Some of our key takeaways from the call jake.hallac@citi.com

include: Google Search CTRs +125 bps Q/Q to +2.65% Y/Y on AI-Max and

PMax benefits; YouTube spend growth accelerating on tentpole content,

Meta’s ad demand improving throughout the quarter with WA, BizAgents,

and Creative catalysts in 2H; and Amazon’s DSP share gains. Our Top Online

Advertising Picks: GOOGL, META, AMZN, RDDT.

Key Online Advertising Takeaways:

– Online Advertising Macro Strengthened throughout 2Q with Momentum into

3Q: Mr. McLean’s tracked ad budget growth accelerated from +7.5% Y/Y in 1Q

(~10bps above forecast) to +8.4% Y/Y in 2Q (~90bps above forecast, representing

a significant beat vs. expectations). Within 2Q, April’s +5% Y/Y was the low