‘Disappointed Again’: Ad Companies Suffer as Tech Firms Clip Spending

Some of the major advertising holding companies are still feeling the impact of lower spending from technology clients—with some hit harder than others.\

Recent quarterly results from Interpublic Group, Omnicom Group, WPP and Publicis Groupe showed that many of their units are seeing more caution from some advertisers, slower project work, delayed starts of new business or other signs of a pullback.

It is a continuation of a trend agencies started to report earlier this year, when they said tech and telecom clients were spending less. Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms, for instance, on Wednesday said its outlays for marketing and sales in its third quarter had decreased 24%, primarily due to lower marketing spend and headcount-related costs.

WPP, which reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday, again saw reduced spending from its tech clients. The ad giant downgraded its expectations for this year, now saying it expects like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs to grow in a range of 0.5% to 1%, down from an earlier 1.5% to 3% forecast. Like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs strips out currency fluctuations, acquisitions, disposals and costs such as expenses billed to clients.