Amazon squeezes affiliates: Commission cuts up to 50% and thinner data access rattle publishers already hit by AI search declines.

Snapchat courts creators: A new study touts deeper fan ties and longer ad views, but influencer spending still trails rivals by billions.

Q1 results show how the largest ad companies are weathering uncertainty around the Iran war and AI spending

Snap grows revenues faster than users: Sales rise 12% as North America DAUs fall 7% and Snap looks to prove it can sustain growth.

Snap turns chats into ad inventory: AI Sponsored Snaps put brand agents in Chat, betting 1B MAUs will buy via conversation.

This FAQ examines why the brand-versus-performance tension is intensifying, what the data reveals about budget shifts, and how marketers can prove brand marketing's value in an era of heightened accountability.

CSAM scanning halts as the ePrivacy Directive expires, complicating child safety as Greece and others eye youth social bans.

Australia's social media ban is struggling to take hold as users easily circumvent restrictions.

New Snapchat ad formats and strong engagement aim to sway marketers despite a modest ad revenue share.

Automation is now table stakes in social advertising. Platforms are pushing AI-driven campaigns at scale. But advertisers still demand control, transparency, and brand safety—and it’s all reshaping how performance media gets bought.

Snapchat revenues and users grew in Q3—but the company warned that age verification laws would have unpredictable results on its business. While innovative ad tools and a new partnership with Perplexity could offer more value, stagnant growth and new policies that would restrict access to over 18% of Snapchat’s audience make the social platform a riskier investment than those with ad businesses less reliant on a youth-oriented audience like Instagram.

The news: Facebook is promoting its Pokes feature in an effort to increase user engagement. Pokes—a mainstay feature of the early Facebook experience—are regaining popularity, prompting Facebook to make it a more central part of the user experience, per TechCrunch. Users can now track their “Pokes count” with friends, essentially a streak, on top of a dedicated Poke button added to Facebook profiles. Our take: Meta relies on Facebook for the lion’s share of its ad revenues. While Pokes may seem to be a low-stakes experiment, re-engaging younger users is a high-stakes battle, and even small features can tip the balance if they create sticky user habits.

On today’s podcast episode, we discuss Reddit’s most interesting recent development, if Snap’s emphasis on attention can help it bounce back, and whether Reddit can earn a permanent seat at the table for bigger brand budgets. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Jasmine Enberg, and Senior Analyst, Minda Smiley. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Snap debuted a new ad suite for marketers and developers, offering an “App Power Pack” that includes new bid strategies, ad formats, optimization strategies, and targeting capabilities to boost ROI, per MediaPost. Snap’s ad suite is an important step in the company’s efforts to cement its strength in advertising and curb slowing growth. We forecast the platform’s ad revenues will continue falling in the low single digits through 2027. But with competitors already offering similar products, Snapchat needs to go a step further to stand out.

The news: Snap is seeking outside funding for its AR Spectacles as it struggles to compete with Meta platforms and TikTok, per The Information. Our take: Bringing in outside capital could help Snap accelerate AR development without draining its core business. The possibility of gathering outside investment also highlights how critical Snap’s AR bet has become and how high the stakes are. Staying competitive requires Snap to prove Spectacles can evolve past a niche hardware play and compete with strong AI alternatives. If it can’t, Snap may get stuck in the middle, overshadowed by platforms that are faster, bigger, and richer.

The news: A Snapchat, WPP Media, and Lumen study unveiled key insights on the growth of attention-based metrics as key indicators of ad success. Even 5% more attention can double brand perception. Attention was 8 times more effective than view-through rates for predicting brand recall and 4 times more effective at determining brand favorability. Our take: Snap is looking to be a leader in a metric that advertisers are increasingly paying attention to—but on the back of a lukewarm quarter, can Snap’s emphasis on attention help it bounce back?

The news: Instagram added a host of new features for connecting with friends. The offerings could expand brands’ peer-to-peer visibility and location-based content and boost their chances of going viral. Our take: Brands should lean into organic discovery by creating engaging, visual-driven content that encourages reposts and peer engagement. Prioritize geo-aware promotions to tap into Instagram’s shift toward real-time social discovery and exploration.

Snap posted 9% YoY revenue growth in Q2 2025, reaching $1.35 billion, but fell short of expectations due to a technical ad platform error that temporarily underpriced inventory. DAUs rose 9% to 469 million and Spotlight engagement surged, yet global ARPU remained flat and margins tightened. Snap’s performance contrasted sharply with stronger ad results from Meta, Google, and Reddit, raising concerns about its ability to monetize growing usage—especially in fast-expanding but low-yield regions. Snap did see promising gains in subscription revenue and AI-driven commerce ads, but must execute better on monetization to remain competitive in a rebounding ad market.

The news: Netflix is dialing up its global ad game, with its latest UK hire signaling what’s to come next for the streaming giant. The company hired Ed Couchman, who previously served as the head of advertising sales for Spotify’s UK and Northern Europe business, to spearhead UK ad sales, per Business Insider. Couchman has served in ad sales roles at Meta, Snap, and Channel 4 in the past. Our take: Hiring Couchman is a critical step in shifting Netflix’s ad focus from the US market to reach foreign advertisers who haven’t taken advantage of its broad reach.

The news: ByteDance is working on lightweight mixed-reality goggles that could directly challenge Meta’s products, per The Information. Our take: If ByteDance can leverage its content ecosystem, creator network, and powerful algorithm, it could carve out a foothold with younger, social media–savvy users. Brands could sponsor AR lenses and place products within digital overlays to turn everyday activities into shoppable moments.