$servername = "localhost";
$username = "";
$password = "";
$dbname = "";

// Connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT company FROM ads ORDER BY company ASC";

$result = $conn->query($sql);

if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // output data of each row
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {

       // Display the company name
       echo $row["company"];

       // I WOULD LIKE TO ECHO OUT HERE THE TOTAL OF EACH COMPANY HAS IN RESULTS!

    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
  }
$conn->close();
?>