Once a major player in the digital advertising market in the United States, Temu, a Chinese-owned e-commerce platform, has drastically reduced its presence on Google Shopping.
Four different data sources show that the company’s social ad spend and its proportion of impressions in Google’s shopping auctions have both decreased to zero in the last week.
As President Trump tightens trade regulations with China, the dramatic retreat occurs. Companies like Temu, whose business strategy relies on delivering inexpensive goods straight from Chinese suppliers, are rushing to modify their supply chains and prices as a result of tariffs on Chinese goods that have risen to as high as 125%. The platform had previously profited from a tariff exemption for items under $800, but its U.S. strategy is now uncertain due to mounting political pressure to shut that loophole.
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As recently as March 31, Temu purchased 19% of U.S. Google Shopping ad impressions, according to data from performance marketing company Tinuiti.
According to Mark Ballard, director of digital marketing research and analysis at the firm, when both Temu and Tinuiti’s clients were qualified to serve an ad, the platform earned the impression 19% of the time.
According to Ballard, the fact that by April 12 that number had fallen to zero is a clear indication that Temu is no longer actively vying for Google visibility, which is a crucial gauge of the level of advertising activity in the market.
“Due to tariffs in the U.S. market, they have made a fairly significant strategic shift,” he continued.
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Sponsored TikTok videos from Temu’s U.S. activities have decreased from two on April 1st to zero, according to data from Tubular Labs, a social video intelligence company. During the same period last year, Temu sponsored a number of videos on the platform every week in April.
Temu’s impression share in early April was between 40% and 50%, which is a fairly normal range, according to a third piece of data from Mike Ryan, head of Ecommerce Insights at Smarter Ecommerce, who brought attention to the shift in Temu’s LinkedIn advertising strategy. But it suddenly fell to zero between April 9 and April 12.
Ryan remarked, “That seems like a very quick wind down of their advertising.”
In the meantime, Sensor Tower reports that Temu’s ranking as a shopping app fell from #1 on April 9th to #11.
Ryan claimed that when e-commerce companies disable their advertising, they lose out on a large amount of searches. “They won’t be able to get that person to download their app in that scenario.”
Temu’s U.S. digital ad spend on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Snapchat, among other key social media platforms, has also plummeted, according to data from Pathmatics.
“Most advertisers are unlikely to see a significant change in their average click or impression costs from the departure of a single competitor—even one as big as Temu—given the size and complexity of Google’s ad marketplace,” Ballard said.
“In order to maintain a steady return on investment, shopping advertisers also frequently actively manage their CPCs,” he stated. “So, if their average click costs suddenly dropped, they would probably try to scale traffic.”
However, given the instability of the market, brands might not be fast to fill the void left by Temu.
“There would be a lot of advertiser demands to pick up those impressions left behind by Temu if everything was going well,” Ryan stated. However, the market is at a delicate time, and many firms are reconsidering their spending plans and even stepping back. Therefore, it’s unclear why anyone is hurrying to fill the void.
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