Report: IAC Is Google’s Biggest Ad Spender, According to Kantar

Kantar Media is taking a stab at estimating advertiser spend on Google, and a new report it produced for AdAge shows IAC/InterActiveCorp spent $174 million on paid search ads in the first three quarters of the year.

IAC is, of course, the parent company of Ask.com, Match.com and the Newsweek Daily Beast, among many other online brands.

Next on the list of top spenders according to the report, with $118.5 million, is Amazon.com, which promotes its flagship Amazon online store, as well as products like the Kindle Fire. Amazon’s largest ecommerce competitor, eBay, also made the list, dropping $70.6 million on Google.

Close behind Amazon was AT&T, with $115.6 million in spending. It’s competitors in the wireless space, Sprint Nextel ($53.4 million) and Verizon ($52.7 million), were also among the largest advertisers on Google during the period.

Expedia, and other companies with travel-related businesses also pony up the cash for ads on Google, the AdAge report indicated. Expedia spent $92 million in the first three quarters of the year; Priceline spent $67.6 million; and the Blackstone Group (parent of the Hilton and Orbitz brands) spent $47.5 million on Google. Enterprise Holdings ($43 million) and Avis Budget Group ($42 million) were also among the top spenders in the period. Enterprise Holdings owns the Enterprise, National, Alamo and WeCar rental car brands.

Google’s biggest competitor in the search space in the U.S., Microsoft, was also among the larger spenders, dropping $70 million.

Financial services companies were also well-represented, according to the report. Experian Group, Capital One, State Farm, Allstate, JP Morgan Chase, Progressive and Bank of America all made the list.

The lone automotive brand represented in the report was General Motors, which was said to have spent $49 million in advertising on Google during the first three quarters of 2011.

About The Author

Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.