September's Top Digital Advertisers 2015

Fall is here and so is football, basketball and a new season of television (#tgit anyone?). With that, it is also a new season for advertisers changing up our top 10 rankings across desktop, mobile, and video. Between fantasy sports dominating every game you watch, to auto companies gearing up for an end-of-the-year push, and fall TV shows vying for your attention, be sure to download all of the top digital advertisers here.

Direct purchases jumped 11% on desktop and a new advertising category climbed to the top. Financial Services continues to dominate mobile by way of auto insurance and credit card ads. Video impressions continue to be purchased primarily through direct channels with Google Adx + AdSense being the most used ad network. See below for more purchase channel insights of the top 500 desktop and video advertisers, along with September's top trends.

Fantasy Sports Sites Make a Big Impact

September marked the beginning of fantasy sports companies bombarding all of your devices. While DraftKings, Inc. made a splash across desktop and mobile, FanDuel put more emphasis on video. DraftKings, Inc. went almost entirely direct across desktop (93%), mobile (98%), and video (93%) targeting top sites such as yahoo.com, reddit.com, espn.go.com, nfl.com and mlb.com. Their exclusive with mlb.com proved valuable on desktop and mobile giving them a leg up on total impression share over FanDuel. FanDuel targeted yahoo.com and cbssports.com for video ads (both sites untouched by DraftKings) giving them 87% of the total video impression volume compared to DraftKings. This face-off will continue to get interesting as more exclusive deals are inked.

Auto Takes the Top Desktop Advertising Category

The Financial Services sector has dominated desktop and mobile for months, but Auto took the #1 spot in September, led by Chevrolet Dealerships, Chevrolet, Kia Dealerships, Ford Dealer Associations, and Ford Motor Company. We detected an increase of local dealership creatives in an effort to clear 2015 inventory, even leading to a jump in sales recently. 44% of all auto impressions were purchased through ad networks, followed by 43% of impressions purchased directly. Top sites included ebay.com, youtube.com and yahoo.com.

Fall TV is Back

NBC Universal, Hulu and FOX all landed in our Top 10 Video Advertisers for the month of September, a stark contrast from only one network making the list in August. The Voice, Empire, and The Hotwives dominated creatives. Youtube.com and yahoo.com were the top sites targeted by the three networks through nearly all direct channels.

Free Download: September's Top Advertisers

Download our free monthly report detailing the top digital advertisers across desktop, mobile and video. Included is the top 10 direct advertisers across platforms and top advertising categories. Sign up for our blog updates to be notified when our next report is released.