The First Quarter of 2016 has now faded into our rearview mirrors, leaving behind the top advertisers that kicked off the New Year with a bang. Procter & Gamble made a strong push across all channels, taking the top spot on mobile and video. Telecom hip-checked (for all you hockey playoff fans out there) Financial Services out of the top advertising category ranking on mobile, led by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. On desktop, direct buys dropped 8% from Q4, giving share to the growth of ad networks used to purchase impressions.

Download our newly released Q1 top digital advertisers report here detailing the top ten advertisers by impression volume across desktop, mobile, and video, along with the top direct advertisers and breakdowns of how impressions were bought.

Procter & Gamble Leads on Mobile & Video

Procter & Gamble (excluding CoverGirl) climbed to the top mobile advertiser position, by impression volume, for Q1, and held on to its #1 video ranking from Q4. On mobile, P&G purchased 91% of total impressions through direct buys, while the CPG retailer targeted top sites reddit.com,amazon.com, walmart.com, yahoo.com and answers.com. Here’s a look at how spend and impressions compare across the top five sites. See also the percentage breakdown of how impressions were purchased, direct (green arrow) vs. indirect (blue arrows).

 

Source: Pathmatics US Mobile Data, 1/1/16-3/31/16.

 

On video, Procter & Gamble's buying strategy was more diversified. 40% of video impressions were purchased via ad networks, followed by 38% of impressions purchased via direct buys, 9% through DSPs, 7% through SSPs and 6% through exchanges. The top video partner was the ad network, Yahoo! Advertising, which served 29% of Procter & Gamble’s video impressions, and led the brand to targeting the top video site: yahoo.com. See the other top sites targeted by Procter & Gamble for video creatives below:

 

Source: Pathmatics US Video Data, 1/1/16-3/31/16.

 

The Telecom Category Tops Mobile

Bumping Financial Services out of the top spot from Q4, the Telecom category led on mobile by impression volume to kick off 2016. AT&T ranked third on mobile, followed by Verizon in fifth place and Sprint keeping a nose above the top ten, at ninth. T-Mobile just missed the top ten rankings by impression volume, following at 14th.

 

We saw Telecom heat up in March and looked at how the top telecom advertisers were buying impressions. Here is a look at how the Telecom category, as a whole, was buying mobile impressions during Q1, and which partners they were using:

 

Source: Pathmatics US Mobile Data, 1/1/16-3/31/16.

 

47% Of Display Impressions Purchased Via Ad Networks

Google AdX + AdSense was the top network for display advertisers during Q1, taking 29% of the share of all display impressions for the top 500 advertisers. The top advertisers for the network on desktop during Q1 were Chevrolet Dealerships, Wayfair LLC., and Builders Digital Experience, while the top site for the network was (not surprisingly) youtube.com.

 

Direct buys have decreased across the board, dropping 8% quarter-over-quarter on display alone. Capital One led on desktop as the top direct advertiser, but was overshadowed by Verizon in overall impressions, favoring an ad network focused strategy. Here's a breakdown of how display advertisers were buying during Q1, and the share of impressions served by specific partners:

 

Source: Pathmatics US Desktop Data, 1/1/16-3/31/16.