June's Top Digital Advertisers

Time to dust off that carry-on that's been sitting in the closet all winter! 2016 is more than halfway over (or there's half still to go, depending on which water glass you're looking at) which means you're overdue for that vacay, right? Brands are planning out the last of their ad dollars to close out the year, led by top advertisers such as the Priceline Group, nabbing the top video advertising spot for the month as they try to lure you on that beach getaway.

Here’s a deeper dive into some of the top advertisers during the month of June by impression volume, and the campaigns they were running. See how the top categories were buying across channels and the brands that led the charge. Download our June report here and let your end-of-year prospecting and planning begin! Also, don’t forget to grab a free advertising stats report here to get these insights on any brand: which sites they're running on, how they purchased impressions, which partners they used and how much they spent - work smarter, not harder!

Priceline Group Tops Video

The Travel category is on a mission to win your summer fun money, ranking as the 3rd top category on desktop, 4th on mobile and 3rd on video. Spending over $14M on pre-roll video advertising during the month of June, Priceline Group represented the travel category well as the top overall video advertiser for the month by impression volume. The Priceline Group family includes Agoda, Booking.com, Kayak.com, OpenTable, Priceline, RentalCars.com and Swoodoo - making it a huge player in the travel game, and in the advertising game overall.

The parent company released 47 unique creatives during the month overall, 18 of which were for Booking.com. 100% of total video spend was funneled through ad networks, contrasting the buying strategy of the top 500 video advertisers, averaging 73% of spend going direct. Amazon’s ad network was the top video partner for the Priceline Group with 88% spend share, while Google AdX + AdSense, AppNexus and TubeMogul spitting the remaining 12% of spend. Not coincidentally, Priceline’s top site was amazon.com, followed by youtube.com, msn.com and foxnews.com.

Source: Pathmatics US Video Data, 6/1/16-6/30/16.

Signet Jewelers Dazzles on Desktop

Capital One Financial Corporation has long been a leader on desktop, and now it has a new partner at the top in Signet Jewelers. Jumping 6 spots by impression volume, the jeweler parent company owns H. Samuel Jeweller, Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, Kay Jewelers, Movado Watches, Peoples Jewellers, Piercing Pagoda, Sterling Jewelers and Zales. With a hefty collection of brands under their belt, Signet released a number of HTML5 creatives favoring Kay Jewelers and Zales.

Spending over $5.9M on desktop during the month, The Trade Desk was the top partner by far with 44% of spend. Ad networks, including Google AdX + AdSense, Steelhouse Media, Radium One and Curse Network were the preferred buying channel for June, accounting for 53% of Signet’s desktop spend. DSP’s (mostly The Trade Desk plus 1% through Turn) accounted for 45% of spend, followed by 1% each through exchange AppNexus and SSP Rubicon Project.

Source: Pathmatics US Desktop Data, 6/1/16-6/30/16.

Auto Category Still Dominating Desktop and Mobile

Still the top advertising category on desktop and mobile+tablet by impression volume, the auto industry is definitely booming on digital. Two out of the top ten desktop advertisers by impression volume were auto manufacturers, and one out of ten on mobile. General Motors was the leading auto advertiser on desktop beating out closest competitors Chevrolet Dealerships, Chevrolet, Mazda and Nissan.

Sixty one percent of the Auto category’s desktop spend was on direct deals, 36% through ad networks and 3% through DSPs. Of the top 500 desktop advertisers, only 21% of spend was direct - quite a difference in comparison to the Auto category that clearly prefer direct deals. This may not be the best buying channel however, as only 25% of the auto category’s desktop impressions originated from direct deals while ad networks were responsible for placing 68% of the category’s desktop impressions. While auto advertisers may be going direct, their dollar is really stretching through ad network placements, led by top category partner Google AdX + AdSense.

On mobile, the auto category also favored direct buys accounting for 60% of spend, but conversely only accounting for 30% of the category’s mobile impression share. The top mobile partners for auto advertisers by spend were Google AdX + AdSense, Rocket Fuel, Advertising.com and Amobee. See below for the top desktop and mobile sites for auto advertisers.

Top Auto Desktop Sites

Top Auto Mobile+Tablet Sites

Source: Pathmatics US Data, 6/1/16-6/30/16. *By impression volume.

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June Top Digital Advertisers

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