📰 Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Amazon Ads and other platforms news

Reddit shares fell sharply after its CEO warned that search referral traffic dropped significantly in the third quarter, weighing on the platform's advertising revenue outlook.

Amazon's ad revenue growth slowed to 11% in the third quarter due to the Prime Day timing shift, though it expects high-teens growth to return in Q4.

At the unBoxed 2026 event, Amazon Ads unveiled a major restructuring that merges its DSP and console into Amazon Ads Agent, alongside Full-Funnel Campaigns, DVA+ and conversational shopping ads.

Pinterest announced programmatic deals with Magnite allowing its video and display inventory to be bought through DSPs such as Amazon DVA+, Google DV360 and Yahoo DSP, expanding its earlier partnership with Amazon Ads.

Pinterest made its Programmatic Deals program generally available in North America, South America and Asia Pacific, letting buyers purchase display and video inventory through Amazon DVA+, Google DV360 and Yahoo DSP, though Europe remains excluded for now.

LinkedIn and Google announced that LinkedIn's CTV Ads are now available through Display & Video 360 for US-targeted campaigns, extending B2B professional targeting into connected TV.

Meta updated its Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms, folding in Product Catalogue and Generative AI Ad Creative terms, and continuing to advertise after October 30 counts as accepting the changes.

Pinterest introduced Business Assistant, an AI collaborator built into Ads Manager that surfaces trends and performance alerts, along with Pinterest MCP, a connector letting AI agent tools pull campaign data.

LinkedIn introduced In-Stream Ads, a pre-roll video format running across eligible creator and publisher content without individual deals, alongside expanded Creator Marketplace search tools.

LinkedIn announced seven new features, including In-Stream Ads to pay creators for pre-roll ads, citing a 70% rise in profiles adding 'founder' and more members reporting multiple positions.

Starting October 14, advertisers began receiving a notice in Ads Manager saying the previously optional product browsing feature will switch to on by default for live ads starting October 28. Advertisers must opt out manually before that date if they don't want it.

LinkedIn began testing In-Stream Ads with select US creators and advertisers, while also opening Advice Sessions to Business Premium subscribers and launching a new creator dashboard.

On October 15, Meta announced three new ad formats for Facebook and Instagram: Ads Super Burst with 3-to-24-hour reach windows, First Impression Ads reserving the first daily feed slot, and Reels Trending Ads.

LinkedIn and Amazon Ads announced that advertisers can now buy LinkedIn's CTV ads through Amazon DSP for US targeting, activating LinkedIn professional audience data such as job title, industry and seniority for streaming TV campaigns.

Meta announced it will automatically turn on in-ad product browsing for already-running campaigns starting October 28, 2026, unless advertisers opt out.

Meta unveiled four brand advertising updates: Ads Super Burst (3-24 hour booking windows with category exclusivity), First Impression Ads (first Facebook Feed slot in US testing), expanded Reels Trending Ads and a new Aggregated View Time metric.

LinkedIn announced new tools for professionals running side hustles and confirmed it is testing In-Stream Ads with select partners in the US, alongside a possible new Network feed and digital business cards for mobile.

Starting October 28, Meta will automatically enable product browsing on existing ads unless advertisers manually opt out via Ads Manager.

At its unBoxed 2026 event, Amazon introduced Amazon Ads Agent, merging the ad console and DSP into a single agentic AI-powered platform, along with Full-Funnel Campaigns and DVA+ for display, video and audio.

Meta notified advertisers that starting October 28, active ads on Facebook and Instagram will show in-app product details and suggestions before redirecting to the website, unless manually opted out. The company claims this feature drives 3% more conversions on average.

Amazon's AI campaign intelligence dashboard, which recommends targeting, bid and budget actions, is reaching all US sponsored ads advertisers during October 2026.

Since October 8, Meta has blocked ByteDance ads and third-party campaigns directing traffic to TikTok in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam amid an escalating feud between the platforms.

Since October 8, Meta has stopped accepting ads from ByteDance and from any advertiser driving traffic to TikTok in seven countries, including the US and Canada, just three days after TikTok opened its global ad network to US buyers.

Meta dropped the requirement that Threads and Instagram usernames match in order to run Threads ads, allowing businesses without an Instagram profile to advertise natively on Threads.

Meta is removing the ability for advertisers to exclude ads from Facebook search results and in-stream Reels placements, giving its AI ad system more flexibility on where to display ads.

Starting October 6, Meta is testing a conversational AI assistant that can create campaigns, generate imagery and text, update targeting and change budgets from chat prompts. Meta claims advertisers adopting the assistant's recommendations see 5% more conversions at the same cost.

Meta's new Commercial and Self-Serve Ad Terms, announced October 8, shift legal liability for AI-generated ad content to advertisers and grant Meta rights to run tests affecting campaign delivery.

Meta began implementing a complete restriction on ads and paid marketing messages placed on its platforms by ByteDance, with the ban taking effect in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Meta has banned ads from ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, on its platforms in the United States and several other countries amid escalating rivalry.

X released a new update to its ranking repository raising the coordinated-spam threshold to 125,000 followers and adding a value-events module that counts purchase, content-view and add-to-cart conversions capped at $100,000 per event.

X introduced X Lift, a feature that automatically converts a business URL into a full AI-generated advertising campaign.

Meta made its tool that turns static images into video generally available in Advantage+ Creative, while also widening access to Ads Creative Studio and opening Customer Lifecycle Strategy to all advertisers.

At Advertising Week New York, Meta made static-to-video generation generally available in Advantage+ creative and opened Customer Lifecycle Strategy to all advertisers, while testing an AI assistant that edits campaigns.

Meta announced that from October 27 to November 3, new political ads without prior impressions cannot run, recommending advertisers complete authorization by October 13.

Amazon Ads announced Amazon Marketing Stream v2, replacing hourly JSON data delivery with Apache Parquet files updated every 15 minutes, alongside Ads Data Manager to unify first-party data within AMC.

Meta will implement a restriction period for ads about social issues, elections or politics in the US ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, consistent with its approach in prior election cycles.

Reddit announced enhancements to its Lead Gen Ads, including expanding its AI-powered Max campaigns to lead gen objectives, plus a test of in-market audiences and a new HubSpot integration.

The feature that generates video from static images is now generally available to all advertisers in Advantage+ Creative, while other AI tools remain in testing.

Meta announced an agentic business assistant in Ads Manager that can create campaigns, adjust targeting and budgets via chat, alongside generative video in Advantage+ and in-conversation checkout.

At its annual unBoxed conference, Amazon Ads unified Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP into a single system with three campaign types, including a new Display, Video & Audio (DVA) format that can be AI-optimized automatically.

LinkedIn's October 2026 update introduced a new logo that now covers roughly the top 15 percent of mobile videos, requiring advertisers to adjust caption and text placement in video creatives.

LinkedIn is testing a feature letting verified members confirm the work and education experience of their connections, awarding a verification badge after enough confirmations; LinkedIn says verified members get roughly 50% more post views.

LinkedIn announced on September 15 that private feedback on generic AI content will appear in post analytics once enough reports are received.

Snapchat reached the milestone of 2 trillion Snaps sent while unveiling new ad formats to attract advertisers despite its modest ad revenue share.

Amazon Ads added pre-built brand penetration indices to Geographic Insights and Activation (GIA), letting advertisers in nine countries visualize where their brand over- or under-indexes versus its category and activate geographic optimization without building an AMC model.

Google is testing making the sponsored products search results block or grid look more like the organic products/shopping grid.

X launched its Cashtag Partner Program, letting US users tap any stock or crypto cashtag, view a live price chart alongside related posts, and trade through partner brokerages like Interactive Brokers, Kraken and Coinbase.

Pinterest unveiled Visual Search Ads, a new format placing sponsored products in search results and Pin closeups, aimed at lower-funnel campaigns and compatible with Performance+.

Amazon renamed its unified ad platform Ads Agent, combining Sponsored Ads and Amazon DSP into one place manageable via natural language, while introducing new Full-Funnel Campaigns and DVA+ combining display, video and audio.

On August 31, the FTC and attorneys general from 22 states sued Amazon, alleging that for more than seven years it used an 'invented bidder' to inflate prices paid by over a million brands and sellers across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display.

Meta has started notifying advertisers it will remove placement, platform, device, and operating system exclusions from the ad set level, replacing them with value rules that currently cover only about seven eligible placements.

At unBoxed 2026, Amazon announced Amazon Ads Agent, a unified platform with agentic AI combining the former Ads Console and Amazon DSP, along with new Full-Funnel Campaigns and DVA+.

Amazon announced Sponsored Services to connect shoppers with local service providers (with Yelp as the anchor partner) and generative AI creative tools built directly into the Amazon Ads Agent conversational experience.

Meta now lets brands amplify a creator's live Instagram broadcast as a paid advertisement, extending a feature that already exists on Facebook to Instagram for the first time.

Reddit announced general availability of its Max campaigns, which automate targeting, creative selection and rotation, placements, and budget allocation, after testing them with a limited group of advertisers since January 2026.

Full-Funnel Campaigns combines sponsored ads, display, video and streaming TV into a single AI-managed campaign, and is now available to all US advertisers selling on Amazon.

The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon, alleging it secretly overcharged advertisers in its search ad auctions for more than seven years, rising from 30-40% of auctions in 2021 to about 80% by 2024.

Amazon and OpenAI launched a managed-service pilot placing Amazon DSP ads inside ChatGPT responses, with product feed ads auto-generated from Amazon catalogs, US-only at launch.

Amazon Ads introduced a new tier of tools on its Ads MCP Server allowing third-party AI agents to access specialized capabilities; the first, the AMC SQL Generator, translates natural-language requests into validated Amazon Marketing Cloud SQL queries and is now in closed beta in the US.

Amazon Ads unveiled its new "Amazon Ads Agent" platform at unBoxed 2026, replacing the former Ads Console and Amazon DSP with three campaign types: Sponsored Ads, Display, Video and Audio+ (DVA+), and Full-Funnel Campaigns, all powered by AI with a natural-language chat experience.

Meta and YouTube confirmed they will accept advertising for director Alex Gibney's upcoming Elon Musk documentary, following earlier reports that several social platforms had rejected the ads.

Starting August 10, Amazon Sponsored Products campaigns began serving inside Amazon Influencer Program creator content with no advertiser action required, sparking controversy over the lack of clear notice about the expansion.

Meta introduced its official Ads CLI, a tool that enables system user token setup and campaign management commands, compatible with AI assistants like Claude Code or Codex.

Amazon Ads launched location-based interactive video ads and 'Next Up' ads that appear between episodes on Prime Video, expanding its streaming advertising offering in Australia.

Meta no longer requires matching Instagram and Threads usernames to run Threads ads, letting brands with no Instagram profile advertise directly on the platform.

Meta launched a new Creative Diversity rating inside Ads Manager that scores the creative variety of advertisers' campaigns.

At its 2026 Upfront, Amazon Ads highlighted its authenticated audience graph covering 90% of U.S. households and being named the only leader in omnichannel advertising by Forrester, alongside growth in Prime Video viewership.

Bing is testing a "Top Pick" label on its sponsored result product carousels, highlighting a potential new way for products to stand out in search results. The "Top Pick" label is prominently displayed in the product carousel, potentially drawing more eyes to specific listings. This update was shared.

Starting September 29, Meta made live video ads generally available on Instagram, allowing brands to sponsor creator livestreams as partnership ads.

LinkedIn added a 180-day attribution window option for conversion types like Purchase, Lead and Qualified Lead in its Conversions API, alongside richer company intelligence data and CREATIVE_NAME support in dynamic UTM tracking.

Snapchat announced it will focus on AI-driven performance improvements and expanding native ad formats like Reminder Ads and Sponsored Snaps, amid stalled user growth in the US and EU.

Amazon Ads announced that its Amazon Ads MCP Server is now available in open beta, aiming to reduce advertising workflow complexity through AI agent integration.

Snapchat, Pinterest and Reddit are leveraging AI tools to make ad buying easier for small and medium businesses, aiming to diversify revenue beyond major brand budgets.

Reddit introduced a Split Testing feature in Ads Manager offering five test types, including Max-vs-standard campaign comparisons, to optimize ad performance.

LinkedIn now allows advertisers to target audiences based on LinkedIn profile data within Search and Audience campaigns, improving B2B targeting precision.

Meta released its own first-party MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for ads, enabling AI agents to connect directly to ad account management.

Meta introduced Meta One on September 15, a four-tier paid subscription that gates previously free features like Competitive Insights and Custom Audience Insights, available across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta AI.

Amazon Ads officially announced that its flagship unBoxed 2026 conference will take place from September 28–30 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco, expected to bring new ad formats, AI capabilities, and measurement tools. The event will gather advertisers, agencies, and developers to learn about upcoming platform innovations.

Snapchat introduced Total Snap Takeovers, a format placing brands in the first ad slot across all app tabs, and opened its ads platform to third-party AI agents via its own MCP server.

Amazon Ads confirmed its flagship unBoxed 2026 event will take place September 28-30 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where it will unveil new AI-powered advertising products.

Amazon Ads announced a partnership with OpenAI to enable conversational advertising within ChatGPT, with select U.S. advertisers currently testing the format as part of a pilot.

Meta's Marketing API v24.0 sunsets on October 6, 2026, and on October 27 the v26.0 field removals extend to all remaining API versions, affecting developers and integration tools.

X is rolling out a new ad platform that consolidates campaign objectives and standardizes structure, including ad-group-level budgets and simplified optimization options.

Amazon Ads announced that Prime Video advertising will be introduced in Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Turkey during 2026, expanding its streaming ad inventory in Europe.

LinkedIn announced new ad options including Reserved Ads to maximize impact, ad personalization, and AI-generated ad variants.

TikTok struck a first-of-its-kind IP licensing deal with Disney that turns fan content into a formal distribution channel, amid a month of major regulatory and platform shifts.

Reddit introduced a new 15-second Engaged Video Views optimization goal that lifted view-through rates by 51% and completion rates by 71% in alpha testing, suited for trailers and testimonials.

Starting August 1, a specific group of Amazon advertisers contacted directly lost the ability to use a credit card as their primary ad payment method, with costs now deducted from seller/vendor account balance or via Pay by Invoice. Amazon clarified the change is narrow and does not affect most advertisers, who were already paying via account balance deduction.

Pacvue, a commerce operating system for retail media, integrated Reddit Ads in 2026 so brands can buy and track campaigns alongside more than one hundred retail media networks like Amazon and Walmart.

Meta announced new AI-powered tools to boost purchases from livestreams working with platforms like CommentSold and Firework, and rolled out 'Post-view ads,' a new ad format for Instagram Reels.

The FTC and 22 state attorneys general filed suit against Amazon alleging it secretly inflated prices in its advertising auctions after 2019 rule changes, potentially costing advertisers more than $20 billion.

Reddit launched Max campaigns on a limited basis in January 2026 and, after encouraging initial results, opened them to all advertisers in September 2026; the tool automates nearly the entire ad creation process.

Amazon Ads invited advertisers to its annual flagship conference, where it will share how AI and new advertising solutions aim to make it easier for brands of every size to drive results.

Meta now allows advertisers to build custom audiences specifically for excluding groups such as existing customers or opted-out users, helping avoid wasted budget on unwanted audiences.

Meta is removing placement checkboxes from ad sets, replacing them with a value rule that can cut bids by 90% but cannot fully switch off a placement, impacting existing brand-safety exclusions.

LinkedIn confirmed that Marketing API version 202508 will be sunset on August 17, 2026, recommending developers migrate to newer versions to avoid service disruptions.

LinkedIn added AI ad copy generation, a reusable Brand Kit, and multi-variant ad creation to Campaign Manager to speed up testing of BrandLink creatives.

Meta introduced Muse Image, its first image generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, rolling out into Advantage+ creative, alongside text-on-media translation in five languages and AI voiceover in eleven.