12:16 PM EDT, 04/09/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Mid-March checks indicate potential online ad spending risk due to weak economic indicators and the impact of the latest tariff announcements, BofA Securities said in a note Wednesday.

The investment firm said it lowered its 2025 online ad spend estimates by about $21 billion, assuming a 15% to 20% lower brand spend and a 4% to 5% reduction in direct response, or DR, budgets.

The tariffs and macroeconomic uncertainty could worsen current company-specific challenges, such as tough comps with increased financial and insurance spending in 2024 for Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), possible 3% revenue exposure from Temu and Shein in the US for Meta Platforms ( META ) , "significant" exposure to home goods and consumer packaged goods categories for Pinterest ( PINS ) , brand spend headwinds for Snap (SNAP), and difficult IPO comps and a potential pullback in experimental ad spend for Reddit ( RDDT ) , according to the note.

The firm lowered its 2025 revenue estimates by 3.7% for Alphabet, 4.4% for Meta, and 5.8% to 6% for Pinterest ( PINS ), Snap and Reddit ( RDDT ).

BofA also lowered its price targets to $185 for Alphabet, $640 for Meta, $35 for Pinterest ( PINS ), $10.50 for Snap, and $110 for Reddit ( RDDT ).

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