The Q1 2018 Top Advertisers Report

Kicking off the first quarter of 2018, the Financial Services category continued to dominate by relative frequency of impressions across display, mobile, and video digital advertising channels. You probably came across an ad for LendingTree, Geico, TurboTax, and H&R Block on sites like AOL, YouTube, and MSN.

The Financial Services category spent over $582.7M across platforms for the quarter, with the Retail category following at $485M across platforms. Retail looked to desktop display and video as the biggest parts of their advertising campaigns while Financial Services advertisers focused on display.

Almost 60% of digital ad spend for the Financial Services category in the First Quarter was invested on display advertising, up from 56% in Q4 2017. Financial Services brands historically focus on display as a key piece of their digital strategy to drive conversions for activities like credit card sign-ups, mortgage inquiries, and overall financial related items that consumers are more comfortable doing from a desktop computer.

 

The increased share in display detracted slightly from remaining channels: social advertising slightly decreased from 21% in Q4 to 20% in Q1. Similar 1% decreases occurred in video and mobile, with a very slight uptick of share (1%) in mobile video.

Our quarterly report covers the top digital advertisers across desktop, mobile, and video. Discover the top categories across devices and see which brands are leading by spend and impressions.

Highlights:

• Leading by impressions are TurboTax, Lending Tree, Grammarly, and Apple
• Desktop Video and Desktop Display platforms are preferred by the month’s top spending brands
• Platforms that track most closely re: spending and impressions are Mobile Video and Desktop Video
• Spend leaders include Lending Tree, Grammarly, Procter & Gamble, and Apple.