Financial services surges into ChatGPT's top ad spenders

Sensor Tower found ad density on ChatGPT rose 163% between April and August 2026, averaging 26% monthly growth, with about 1,200 unique advertisers active by August — up 43% month over month since May. Financial services drove much of the shift, climbing from one top-100 advertiser in April to four of the top ten spenders in August and from 2% to 13% of total US ad spend, while shopping and retail’s share fell from 37% to 21% over the same span. Travel rose from 5% to 11% of spend and 23% of US desktop ad impressions used the new carousel format in the back half of August, per Sensor Tower’s findings reported by PPC Land.