Study
Ads in the top results at four retailers, September 2026
Ads fill 71% of the first four positions at Wayfair and 17% at Lowe’s, across every category the two retailers have.
At a glance
- 41%of Wayfair’s top results are ads, across all categories
- 10%of Lowe’s top results are ads, across all categories
- 63%of The Home Depot’s categories carry banner ads
Key findings
- Across every category, not only bathroom and kitchen, ads are 41% of Wayfair’s top results and 10% of Lowe’s.
- At Wayfair, ads fill 71% of the first four positions.
- Samsung is on 4% of Wayfair’s ads, more than any other brand.
- ProFlo, Ferguson’s own brand, is on 6% of Ferguson’s banner ads, the most of any brand.
About this report
This study covers the top results of every category at Lowe’s, The Home Depot, Wayfair and Ferguson, not only the bathroom and kitchen categories in the monthly reports, 1 to 30 September 2026. Top results are the first 24 products a shopper sees in a category or a search. It shows what a shopper sees, not what sells.
How it is measuredAd share by retailer
Across every category, not only bathroom and kitchen, ads are 41% of Wayfair’s top results and 10% of Lowe’s.
- Wayfair41%
- Lowe’s10%
Categories with banner ads above the results
- The Home Depot63%
- Ferguson47%
What it shows
Ads are 41% of the top results at Wayfair, about ten places in every 24, and 10% at Lowe’s, about two places in every 24. At Wayfair, 95% of categories have a quarter or more of their top results paid; at Lowe’s, 0% do. At The Home Depot and Ferguson no product in the results is marked as an ad: banner ads sit above the results in 63% of categories at The Home Depot and 47% at Ferguson.
Why it matters
One ad budget does not buy the same thing at each retailer. Where ads are a large part of the top results, fewer unpaid places are left for a brand with no ads.
What to do
Decide retailer by retailer. Before you buy ads in a category, check the unpaid places you already hold there, so you do not pay for them.
Where the ads sit
At Wayfair, ads fill 71% of the first four positions.
Wayfair
- Positions 1 to 471%
- Positions 5 to 2435%
Lowe’s
- Positions 1 to 417%
- Positions 5 to 249%
What it shows
At Wayfair, ads are 71% of positions 1 to 4 and 35% of positions 5 to 24. At Lowe’s they are 17% and 9%. The position that is most often an ad is position 4 at Wayfair (74%) and position 12 at Lowe’s (54%); at Lowe’s, 17 of its 24 positions are an ad less than 1% of the time.
Why it matters
Where the ads sit decides how many unpaid places are left at the very top, which is the part of the results a shopper meets first.
What to do
Look at where the ads sit in your own category before you judge an unpaid position there. Compare it with the same category at the other retailer.
Brands on the most ads
Samsung is on 4% of Wayfair’s ads, more than any other brand.
Wayfair
- Samsung4%
- Ebern Designs (the retailer’s own brand)3%
- Wrought Studio (the retailer’s own brand)3%
- Frigidaire2%
- Moen2%
- ZLINE2%
Lowe’s
- KitchenAid5%
- Kohler4%
- Whirlpool2%
- Bosch2%
- LG2%
- EVERSTEIN2%
Share of all ads in the top results, across all categories.
What it shows
The ads are spread across many brands. At Wayfair, Samsung is on 4% of the ads, more than any other brand; at Lowe’s, KitchenAid is on 5% of the ads, more than any other brand. The six biggest advertisers together are on 16% of the ads at Wayfair and 16% at Lowe’s; two of Wayfair’s six are its own brands.
Why it matters
When the ads are spread across many brands, no one advertiser holds the paid places, and a category’s ads can look very different from the retailer’s as a whole.
What to do
Open the category reports for the categories you sell in and see which brands are on the ads there. Those are the brands you would advertise beside.
Brands on the banner ads
ProFlo, Ferguson’s own brand, is on 6% of Ferguson’s banner ads, the most of any brand.
The Home Depot
- American Standard3%
- DeerValley2%
- DreamLine1%
- Glass Warehouse1%
- Pfister1%
- Swiss Madison1%
Ferguson
- ProFlo (the retailer’s own brand)6%
- Millennium Lighting4%
- Moen3%
- InSinkErator3%
- Kohler3%
- Avallon (the retailer’s own brand)2%
Share of all banner ads above the results, across all categories.
What it shows
A brand is named on 24% of the banner ads at The Home Depot and 34% at Ferguson; the rest name no brand here. At Ferguson, ProFlo is on 6% of the banner ads, more than any other brand; it is Ferguson’s own brand. At The Home Depot, American Standard is on 3% of the banner ads, more than any other brand.
Why it matters
Banner ads are the paid space counted at these two retailers, where no product is marked as an ad. They sit above the results, so a brand on a banner is seen before the first product.
What to do
Ask your contact at each retailer which banner ads above your categories can be bought, and for how long. Compare the brands on them now with the brands in the top results.
What this report does not show
- Sales: a bigger share means a brand is seen more, not that it sells more.
- Lowe’s results depend on the shopper’s store.
- Who paid for an ad is not visible. At The Home Depot and Ferguson no product is marked as an ad, so a paid place without a mark is not counted.
Cite this report
Altavane Research, “Ads in the top results at four retailers, September 2026”, published 2 October 2026. https://altavane.com/research/paid-shelf. Free to quote with a link.