Every category where a model named YouTube Ads for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.

Category	Function	Share	Rank	Negative rate	Labels	Quadrant
Video advertising	Marketing	17%	2 of 121	15%	41	accepted challenger
Search and social advertising platforms	Marketing	0%	107 of 137	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by Google Ads at 10%

Movement

This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for YouTube Ads yet. The next is due October 1, 2026. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.

By model

How each model treated YouTube Ads across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.

Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	1	1	1	1	4
GPT-5.4 mini	2	1	0	0	3
Gemini 3.5 Flash	2	0	1	0	3
Perplexity Sonar	1	1	0	1	3
Grok 4.1 Fast	1	2	1	0	4
Mistral Small	2	2	0	1	5
DeepSeek V4 Flash	2	1	1	0	4
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	1	1	2
Qwen 3.7 Flash	2	1	0	0	3
Kimi K2	2	1	0	0	3
GLM 4.7 FlashX	1	2	0	1	4
MiniMax M2.5	2	0	1	1	4

By framing

Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.

FramingLabels by classFirst choices

Direct26 labels4

Paraphrase4 labels1

Comparative21 labels12not counted in share

Budget-constrained22 labels11

Scale-constrained4 labels2

Negative25 labels5not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative102 labels in all, every segment counted; 18 of the 35 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.

What the models said for it

Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.

“The Overall Winner: YouTube Ads (via Google Ads)... widely considered the best video advertising platform for companies on a tight budget” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Video ads · budget prompt · first choice

“YouTube/Google Ads | Brand awareness, wide reach | Largest global reach, diverse ad formats, strong targeting across Google network” MiniMax M2.5 · Video ads · comparative prompt · first choice

“Best for: Everything — awareness, consideration, and conversion on a single buy. Performance brands use it as their video anchor.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · Video ads · comparative prompt · first choice

“Largest mainstream reach and strong targeting across YouTube and Google inventory; often the default choice for advertisers.” Perplexity Sonar · Video ads · comparative prompt · first choice

And against it

Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.

“Brand Safety: Content classification issues, especially in sensitive categories” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Video ads · negative prompt · hard negative

“recommends avoiding influencer and UGC channels on YouTube due to brand safety risks... brands have been advised to be cautious when advertising on the platform” Llama 4 Maverick · Video ads · negative prompt · soft negative

“YouTube (when using GVP/non-premium inventory) ... While YouTube itself has better controls, the Video Partners network that runs alongside it is the major risk” Mistral Small · Video ads · negative prompt · soft negative

“YouTube has repeatedly faced brand-safety issues where ads appeared on channels with extremist or disturbing content, despite its large reach and low cost.” Perplexity Sonar · Video ads · negative prompt · soft negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as YouTube Ads, over the 102 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and YouTube Ads was named but was not.

ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

TikTok Ads64 of 1024Not in the top three

Meta Ads59 of 10213Not in the top three

Vibe.co35 of 1026Not in the top three

LinkedIn Video Ads30 of 1029Not in the top three

The Trade Desk27 of 1022Not in the top three

StackAdapt26 of 1022Compare →

LinkedIn Campaign Manager24 of 10211Compare →

MNTN19 of 1020Not in the top three

Roku14 of 1020Not in the top three

Adwave11 of 1022Not in the top three

A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.

What carried it into the answer

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named YouTube Ads. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 18 of the 102 answers that named YouTube Ads and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

vibe.co10

indiemedia.club6

support.google.com6

adwave.com5

atlassian.com5

business.linkedin.com5

g2.com5

influencermarketinghub.com5

adcreate.com4

demandbase.com4

Fifty-five of the fifty-five domain citations in answers naming YouTube Ads came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

vibe.co/blog/how-to/video-advertising-platforms10

indiemedia.club/tools/best-video-advertising-networks6

adwave.com/resources/video-marketing-for-small-business5

atlassian.com/blog/loom/video-marketing-platform5

influencermarketinghub.com/video-advertising/video-ad-platforms5

demandbase.com/blog/best-ctv-advertising-platforms4

learn.g2.com/best-video-advertising-tools4

mobidea.com/academy/best-video-ad-networks4

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Names read as YouTube Ads

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as YouTube Ads; a claim can dispute any of them.

YouTube 18YouTube (Google Ads) 3YouTube (via Google Ads) 3YouTube/Google Ads 2Google Ads / YouTube Ads 1YouTube (Google Video Partners) 1YouTube / Google Ads 1YouTube Ads (Google Ads) 1YouTube Ads (Google Video) 1YouTube Ads (via Google Ads) 1

Is this your product?

Claim this page

Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when YouTube Ads's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as YouTube Ads, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.

It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at youtubeads.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.

Your name and company appear on the claimed page, or the company alone if you ask below. A title and a LinkedIn address appear there too if you give them, and are left off if you do not. Your email address is never published.