Earned & Paid
Companies · Tech

Alphabet

Advertiser Ad platformGOOGL

Alphabet spent $9.90B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2025, up 13.8% on the year before and +46% since 2019. That's 2.5% of revenue, less than in 2019: the business outgrew its marketing.

$9.90Bmarketing spend, FY2025
+13.8%vs the year before
2.5%of revenue (-1.7 pts vs 2019)

Marketing spend by year

2013: $2.39B132014: $3.00B2015: $3.20B152016: $3.90B2017: $5.10B172018: $6.40B2019: $6.80B192020: $5.40B2021: $7.90B212022: $9.20B2023: $8.70B232024: $8.70B2025: $9.90B252.5%

Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.

Google advertising, by quarter

2023Q3: $59.6B2023Q4: $65.5B2024Q1: $61.7B2024 Q12024Q2: $64.6B2024Q3: $65.9B2024Q4: $72.5B2025Q1: $66.9B2025 Q12025Q2: $71.3B2025Q3: $74.2B2025Q4: $82.3B2026Q1: $77.3B2026 Q12026Q2: $81.6B2026 Q2

From each 10-Q and 10-K; fourth quarters are the full year minus nine months.

Revenue and margin

2014: $66.0B2015: $75.0B152016: $90.3B2017: $111B172018: $137B2019: $162B192020: $183B2021: $258B212022: $283B2023: $307B232024: $350B2025: $403B2532.0%

Bars: revenue, $B (10-K). Line: operating margin.

What they told investors

“Financial services company SoFi has been using PMax to meet its ambitious growth targets and help drive a 39% improvement in its conversion volume year-over-year.”Philipp Schindler · 2025 Q3 · transcript

Say vs do

We found no statement about the size of Alphabet's marketing budget on its earnings calls or in its 10-Ks, so here is its record against its peers.

What they said

No statement about the size of its marketing budget.

What they did

YearMarketing spendChangeShare of revenue
FY2025$9.90B+13.8%2.5%
FY2024$8.70B0.0%2.5%
FY2023$8.70B-5.4%2.8%
FY2022$9.20B+16.5%3.2%
FY2021$7.90B+46.3%3.1%
FY2020$5.40B-20.6%3.0%

Against its peers. Compared with the 3 other Tech advertisers we track (Apple, Microsoft, Meta): since 2019 its marketing spend went +46% (peer median +51%); its share of revenue moved -1.7 pts (median -0.8); last year +13.8% (median +28.6%).

In interviews, its leaders made 148 statements about marketing: 11 argued for investing in brand and 0 for cutting.

How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.

What they say about media

The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

AI in marketing 2× since 2024Creative campaigns 2× since 2022Paid search 1× since 2025SEO & AI search 1× since 2025Connected TV & streaming 1× since 2024

What they see in the market

What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.

Paid search 102× since 2019Paid social 77× since 2019AI in marketing 56× since 2019Creative campaigns 37× since 2019Influencers & creators 30× since 2021Connected TV & streaming 21× since 2020Programmatic & display 18× since 2019Measurement 10× since 2022Sponsorships & athletes 9× since 2024Affiliate & lead gen 4× since 2021

In the news

Peers

AppleMicrosoftMeta