How Businesses Spent on Advertising in July 2026
Using anonymized business card transaction data, this report examines where businesses directed their advertising budgets and how platform and industry behavior changed in July 2026.
Business advertising spend increased across most major tracked platforms in July, but the overall market structure barely moved: Meta still represented 86.4% of tracked activity. The clearest change happened below the surface. TikTok spend grew 69.0% month over month and gained 0.75 percentage points of share, the largest share increase of any platform, while Google Ads grew 25.3% and gained 0.30 points.
Methodology
This analysis uses aggregated, anonymized Slash card transaction data across the same tracked platform set used in the June report: Meta, Google, Google Ads, TikTok, AppLovin, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Reddit, and X/Twitter.¹
The main comparison is July 1–31, 2026 vs. June 1–30, 2026. Public figures are shown as shares, percentage changes, share-point changes, basis-point changes, concentration percentages, and relative indexes rather than raw spend, transaction volume, or customer counts.
Key takeaways
- Meta remained the center of gravity. Meta represented 86.4% of tracked advertising-platform spend in July, down only 0.53 percentage points from June.
- TikTok had the strongest scaled growth. TikTok spend increased 69.0% month over month and its share rose from 1.7% to 2.5%.
- Google Ads continued to expand. Spend increased 25.3%, lifting its share from 4.5% to 4.8%.
- Industry strategies remained sharply different. Agencies were 90.2% Meta-led, while contractors directed 89.3% of tracked spend to Google and Google Ads combined. Software was the most diversified major segment.
- Healthcare showed the largest median same-store increase in advertising intensity. The median share of card spend directed to tracked ads rose 141 basis points, although the aggregate movement was highly concentrated.
- Payment behavior still varied widely by platform. AppLovin’s average charge was roughly 84x Meta’s, while Meta remained the highest-frequency, lowest-ticket channel.
1. Meta still dominates advertising spend
Meta remained the largest tracked advertising platform by an overwhelming margin in July.
Tracked July advertising-platform share:
Meta’s share declined by just 0.53 percentage points from June. That is a small change relative to its scale, and it left Meta larger than every other tracked platform combined.
The market was not standing still, however. Tracked advertising spend rose approximately 17.5% overall from June to July. Meta grew 16.8%, close to the market rate, while faster growth from TikTok and Google Ads shifted a modest amount of share toward those platforms.
2. TikTok gained the most momentum in July
Platform growth from June to July:
- TikTok:+69.0%
- Snapchat:+47.6%
- LinkedIn:+38.3%
- Google Ads:+25.3%
- Meta:+16.8%
- AppLovin:+9.4%
- Google:+3.0%
- Reddit:-43.0%
The more important result is TikTok’s movement at scale. Its share increased by 0.75 percentage points, from 1.7% in June to 2.5% in July. That was the largest share gain in the tracked set.
Google Ads also had a strong month. Spend increased 25.3%, and share rose by 0.30 percentage points to 4.8%. Snapchat and LinkedIn grew faster in percentage terms, but both remained much smaller parts of the overall mix.
Tiny-base growth requires extra caution. X/Twitter’s percentage increase was exceptionally large, but its June base was negligible, so the percentage change is not representative of a scaled market shift.
3. Platform mix still varies dramatically by industry
The overall market is Meta-heavy, but industry-level acquisition strategies remain very different.
- Agencies were overwhelmingly Meta-led: 90.2% Meta, 4.1% Google Ads, 2.3% TikTok, and 1.6% each for Google and AppLovin.
- Ecommerce remained Meta-led but diversified: 76.2% Meta, 10.9% AppLovin, 7.1% Google Ads, 3.8% Google, and 1.0% each for TikTok and Snapchat.
- Healthcare leaned heavily toward Meta but showed a meaningful TikTok allocation: 81.0% Meta and 12.9% TikTok, followed by 3.1% Google Ads and 2.4% Google.
- Affiliates were the most Meta-concentrated major segment: 95.1% Meta.
- Contractors remained search-oriented: 65.9% Google, 23.4% Google Ads, and 10.6% Meta.
- Travel agencies were split between social and search: 48.2% Meta and 43.1% Google.
- Software was the most diversified major segment: 49.1% Google Ads, 19.6% Meta, 15.1% Google, 10.0% TikTok, and 4.6% Snapchat.
The July industry view reinforces the pattern from prior months: agencies, affiliates, and ecommerce continue to rely heavily on Meta, while contractors and software use much more search-oriented and diversified mixes.
Healthcare was the most notable shift. TikTok represented 12.9% of the segment’s July tracked advertising spend, making it the clear second platform behind Meta.
4. Healthcare increased advertising intensity the most
Same-store analysis helps distinguish changes in typical business behavior from changes caused by new advertisers or a few large accounts. Here, we measure the median change in the share of card spend directed to tracked advertising among businesses active in both June and July.
Median same-store advertising-share change:
Healthcare recorded the largest median increase, at 141 basis points. That direction is consistent with the segment’s stronger TikTok allocation, but the aggregate industry movement was concentrated: the three largest advertisers represented 94.9% of the segment’s July tracked ad spend. The median result is therefore more useful than the aggregate growth rate, but it should still be interpreted as an emerging signal rather than a broad market conclusion.
Contractors posted the second-largest median increase at 28 basis points. That extends the segment’s pattern of leaning into paid acquisition, although July’s increase was much smaller than the jump recorded in June.
Most large categories were comparatively stable. The median ecommerce, affiliate, and software advertiser was flat, while agencies declined by 3 basis points despite higher aggregate spend.
5. Payment behavior varies by platform
Advertising platforms continue to create very different payment-management patterns.
Meta remained the highest-frequency, lowest-ticket channel in the tracked set. Its spend is typically distributed across a very large number of relatively small charges.
AppLovin remained at the opposite extreme. Its average July charge was roughly 84x larger than Meta’s, with far lower relative transaction frequency. Snapchat also skewed toward larger, less frequent payments, with an average charge roughly 22x Meta’s.
Google Ads sat between those extremes. Its average charge was substantially larger than Meta’s, but far below AppLovin’s. TikTok’s average charge was closer to the middle of the tracked distribution, while its transaction frequency was relatively high.
Two businesses with similar advertising budgets may face very different cash-management and card-control needs. Meta-heavy businesses tend to manage frequent smaller charges, while AppLovin- or Snapchat-heavy businesses may be more exposed to larger campaign-style payments.
Apply in less than 10 minutes today
Join the 10,000+ businesses already using Slash.
