Digital Ads Are Surging While AI Spend Explodes: What Sales Leaders Should Do Next
Big Tech's ad engines are humming again. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft all posted strong growth in their advertising businesses, even as they push record capital into AI.
Investors rewarded Amazon and Google. Microsoft got a lukewarm response, and Meta took a hit after lifting its capex outlook. For sales teams planning Q4 and 2025, the message is clear: digital channels are absorbing budget and getting more capable by the week.
The scoreboard: Q3 ad performance
- Meta: Total revenue up 26% YoY to $51.24B; 98% from ads. Fastest ad-related growth among peers.
- Amazon: Ads revenue up 24% YoY to $17.7B; outpacing AWS growth (+20%).
- Alphabet: Total ads revenue $74.18B (+13%); YouTube ads $10.26B (+15%).
- Microsoft: Search and news advertising $3.7B (+14%).
- Reddit: Revenue +68%; global daily active uniques up 19% to 116M.
Despite economic noise (including tariff risk), ad budgets are holding. Some spend likely shifted from traditional formats to digital-especially social, retail media, and search.
Why this matters for Sales leadership
- Pipeline and revenue depend on where attention sits. Attention is leaning into retail media, search, short-form video, and CTV.
- AI-driven optimization inside ad platforms is improving delivery and conversion. Creative and audience quality are the new choke points.
- Budget agility beats fixed annual plans. Weekly reallocations will outperform static buys through the holidays.
Amazon's retail media edge (and how to use it)
Amazon's ads are growing faster than AWS. The company is expanding its demand-side platform (DSP) to more third-party apps and sites, with added reach via Roku, plus access to inventory in Netflix, Spotify, and SiriusXM.
- Combine retail search with DSP display/CTV for full-funnel impact. Use retail signals to warm audiences, then close with bottom-funnel search and coupons.
- Push CTV tests on audiences with high purchase intent; watch view-throughs and branded search lift within 48-72 hours.
- Standardize creative variations (product, offer, testimonial) and rotate weekly. Creative fatigue is the new tax.
- If you're new to Amazon's DSP, start here: Amazon Advertising DSP.
Google and YouTube: steady growth, video that sells
Alphabet's ad engine delivered double-digit growth; YouTube rose 15%. That's strong mid- and upper-funnel demand meeting measurable performance outcomes.
- Use video to create demand, then retarget with search and shopping. Track blended CAC and time-to-purchase, not just last-click ROAS.
- Short-form matters. Test 6-15 second variants and ensure the first 2 seconds show the product and the benefit.
Meta: strong ads, investor concern about AI ROI
Meta's ad business is humming, but the stock slipped after the company raised capex guidance ($70-$72B). Leadership says profits may be "lumpy" as it invests to lead in AI.
On the product side, Meta AI and the new Vibes short video service signal fresh surfaces to test. The near-term opportunity is still performance ads-better creative, smarter targeting, faster iteration.
- Prioritize creative sprints: 10-20 concepts per month, cut the losers in 72 hours, scale the top 2-3.
- Lean into broad targeting and let delivery optimize, but protect with strong hooks, proof, and offer clarity.
- Build your own first-party audiences now (email/SMS) to reduce CPM risk later.
Microsoft: quiet but consistent
Search and news advertising rose 14% to $3.7B. It's not flashy, but it's predictable reach for incremental volume.
- Add Bing placements to capture cheaper clicks in high-ROI keywords. Monitor conversion rate and CPA delta vs. Google weekly.
Don't sleep on Reddit (and other challengers)
Reddit's 68% revenue jump and growing daily active uniques show momentum. Niche intent inside communities can beat broad targeting for complex products.
- Run AMA-style promotions and community-tested creatives. Use clear value props and respect community norms.
- Keep small, fast tests on Snap and Pinterest if your audience skews visual or Gen Z.
AI spend is soaring-expect faster tools and more inventory
Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively expect capex above $380B this year. Meanwhile, OpenAI's partners have announced data center and cloud deals totaling around $1T. No one is tapping the brakes.
- Expect more AI features inside ad platforms: better targeting, creative automation, and new ad surfaces.
- Your edge will come from inputs: first-party data quality, creative velocity, and speed of iteration.
- Skill up your team on prompt-driven creative and workflow automation. If you need structured options, see AI courses by job.
Q4 watchlist: Black Friday is the stress test
Holiday performance will reveal whether economic concerns or tariff-driven price hikes dent consumer demand. Prepare for fast shifts.
- Set daily guardrails: spend caps, CPA/ROAS floors, and auto-pauses on underperforming ad sets.
- Front-load testing in early November; lock winners by mid-month; keep 10-20% budget flexible for rapid redeploys.
- Align sales and media calendars so reps are ready to follow up within hours of peak traffic days.
30-day action checklist
- Allocate +10-20% of budget to retail media and CTV tests tied to search lift.
- Spin up 3 creative themes per channel (product, proof, offer) with at least 5 variants each.
- Map a retargeting ladder: video viewers → site visitors → cart/lead → win-back.
- Stand up a weekly reallocation ritual: move spend from losers to winners every Monday and Thursday.
- Track three metrics daily: blended CAC, MER (revenue/ad spend), payback period.
- Feed CRMs with ad engagement signals; trigger same-day outreach for high-intent actions.
- Test Reddit in 2-3 relevant communities with low budgets and high message specificity.
- Build a first-party data sprint: one lead magnet and one offer test before Black Friday.
- Review channel-level incrementality using holdouts or geography splits where possible.
Digital ads are working. AI is accelerating the pace. The sales teams that win will be the ones that test fast, protect cash with clear guardrails, and keep their creative and data loops moving every week.
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