This is something people don't credit enough. How many times have you search for something by name and received a direct competitor's product as top result? This is why I put no stock in digital ads for the little guy. The bigger guy will always have a larger ad buy budget and will outbid you at every turn.
Another metric comes to my mind: if a newcomer has money to spend on ads, then it's a stable firm.
I'm sure there are more.