Meta's ad revenue is now within $300M of Google Search

A chart from App Economy Insights shows Meta's Family of Apps advertising revenue almost level with Google Search. In Q3 2026 Meta booked $63.06B of ad revenue, up 26% year on year, against $63.35B for Alphabet's Google Search & other, up 12%, according to the two companies' earnings releases. In Q1 2021 the gap was about $6.5B ($31.9B against $25.4B). YouTube ads brought in $11.2B in the quarter. Both stocks fell after earnings: Meta about 7% as heavy AI spending pushed free cash flow negative, and Alphabet more than 10% after results missed forecasts and free cash flow turned negative.