• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 3, 2018

Ad and marketing technology companies are poised for another big year, analysts suggest.  

Growth areas include Web-based advertising, agency services, measurement services and enterprise software, Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser writes in a new note to investors.

Among other well-positioned players, Wieser believes 2018 will be good to Google, large tech-focused companies like Adobe and Salesforce.com, and pure-plays Criteo, The Trade Desk, HubSpot and Yext.

Among other pure-players, DSPs, ad quality, social-media management and location-based companies have room to grow in the new year, Wieser writes. However, SSPs and video-focused companies are seeing declining growth.

“We can also see how larger companies are generally growing faster than smaller ones,” according to Wieser.

Companies focused mainly on marketing tech also appear to be growing faster than those focused primarily on ad tech.

During the fourth quarter of 2017, Criteo’s staff size grew by more than 23%, which represented a deceleration over the prior quarter’s 27% growth rate. Also, The Trade Desk grew by more than 53%, which was well ahead of the previously quarter’s 45%.

HubSpot’s headcount was up more than 26%, which was down from 39% growth during the third quarter of 2017.

Shopify saw 62% growth in headcount during the fourth quarter, which was similar to its 64% growth during the previous quarter.

More broadly, Pivotal’s composite of more than 280 companies -- representing more than 100,000 employees and around $25 billion in annual net revenue -- expanded headcount by more than 8%.