📰 Microsoft Advertising, LinkedIn Ads, Amazon Ads and other platforms news

Microsoft Advertising is introducing new device targeting options and search term landing page reports for Performance Max campaigns. This update allows advertisers to include or exclude specific device types, enhancing campaign precision and efficiency. In addition to device targeting, the new sear

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.

Since October, Microsoft Advertising has allowed advertisers to use LinkedIn company lists of up to 10,000 firms for campaign targeting, integrating LinkedIn data into the ad platform.

Microsoft Advertising made age and gender targeting generally available in Performance Max, and added new search term and auction insights reporting.

Microsoft Advertising announced on October 28 that its Conversions API is now generally available, sending website, app, CRM and point-of-sale conversions server to server alongside the UET tag.

Microsoft Advertising has launched a redesigned homepage for its official website , introducing a modern layout, updated navigation, and a stronger focus on its advertising solutions. The new homepage highlights Microsoft's reach of over 1 billion people across 187 markets globally and showcases its

Microsoft Advertising has expanded its MCP server functionalities with two new tools, GetAssets and GetChangeHistory . The server now allows AI-driven interfaces like Claude , ChatGPT , Copilot Studio , and GitHub Copilot to retrieve asset-level performance metrics and detailed account change histor

Microsoft Advertising has updated its options for LinkedIn profile targeting within Audience campaigns . Advertisers can now restrict ad delivery using "Target and bid" settings, allowing ads to be served only to users with the selected LinkedIn profiles. This change marks a significant shift from p

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.

Bing is currently testing a call-to-action (CTA) button within its Copilot ads. The test includes a "Learn more" button appearing on the left side of sponsored results. This update was spotted by Sachin Patel . The post Bing Tests CTA Button in Copilot Ads appeared on PPC News Feed .

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.

Since October 1, Microsoft Advertising has stopped offering Max CPC as an option when creating certain new campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value or Maximize Clicks, while existing campaigns keep the setting.

Microsoft is rolling out a new beta feature in Bing Webmaster Tools, within the 'AI Performance' section, grouping related search queries into broad themes to better understand visibility in AI-generated responses.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has introduced practical upgrades to its UI, enabling more efficient data manipulation within accounts. Advertisers can now use OR logic with multiple criteria in a single filter, benefiting performance tables and search terms reports. Additionally, users can filter tables by s

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.

Microsoft Advertising has introduced significant updates to its API, with new capabilities for tool builders and agencies managing accounts at scale. Conversion value rules can now be managed in bulk via the Bulk API, allowing adjustments to conversion values based on conditions like location, devic

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

Microsoft Advertising's Gambling and Games policy has been updated to prohibit online casino and sports betting advertisements in Brazil. This change aligns with the September presidential declaration that restricts such advertising activities. Advertisers targeting Brazil will need to comply with t

Microsoft Advertising has introduced Messaging guidelines to its text guardrails, expanding control for advertisers over AI-generated ad content. This new feature allows advertisers to specify themes, claims, products, offers, or topics to emphasize or avoid, in addition to existing term exclusions.

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.

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.

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.

Microsoft Advertising opened the nomination period for its partner awards, including a Product Champion Award, and launched a partner sweepstakes offering prizes like Xbox Series X consoles for actions such as linking new client accounts.

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.

Microsoft Advertising now includes a "consumer review" extension in Bing's sponsored results section. These are one-line snippets from sources like Trustpilot, visible under sponsored ads. This resembles Google's third-party endorsement ads. This update was spotted by Khushal Bherwani and Barry Schw

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

Microsoft Advertising set October 1, 2026 as the date when all new features become REST-only, with full SOAP deprecation scheduled for January 2027.

Microsoft Advertising stopped letting advertisers add a Max CPC cap to new non-portfolio campaigns starting October 1, 2026, first affecting the web interface and Editor.

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.

Microsoft Advertising announced optimization experiments are now generally available for Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns, with a unified side-by-side results page.

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.

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.

Optimization experiments now cover Search, Shopping, Audience and Performance Max campaigns, with a unified side-by-side results page to compare against the original setup and apply winning changes. LinkedIn company lists were also expanded from 1,000 to 10,000 names.

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.

Starting January 12, 2027, Microsoft Advertising will remove access to the MaxCpc field in the API for new campaigns and existing campaigns that do not currently use it. Advertisers relying on scripts, bulk uploads, or bid management tools using MaxCpc should review their setups ahead of the deadlin

Microsoft has removed the limited release restriction for Excluded content terms within its Microsoft Advertising platform. Advertisers can now block ads from appearing alongside unwanted page titles by specifying up to 1,000 terms at account or campaign level. Campaign-level terms apply across all

Microsoft Advertising has updated its bid strategies to allow setting a maximum CPC for portfolio strategies. The prior restriction to campaign-level only configurations has been lifted, and the eligible strategies list has been removed. Previously, maximum CPC was limited to campaigns using Enhance

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.

Microsoft Advertising's recent API update introduces several enhancements, particularly for tool builders and script users. Among the changes, a new Search Term Landing Page Report has been added, providing deeper insights into ad performance. Additionally, the update allows for campaign-level devic

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.

Microsoft Advertising is testing Copilot Audience Generation, a new feature available in closed beta for Audience campaigns in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Advertisers can use natural language to describe their ideal customer, and Copilot will generate a custom AI-driven audience along with it.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has launched a HubSpot integration designed to connect advertising activity with CRM data and enable closed-loop marketing. Advertisers can track, measure, optimize, and report on Microsoft Advertising activity directly within HubSpot, opening up several new possibilities for shared users.

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.

The Microsoft Advertising API's GetEditorialReasonsByIds service now supports ImageAsset and TextAsset types alongside the existing Ad and Keyword entities. This lets advertisers programmatically retrieve disapproval reasons for these assets, improving workflows for managing Responsive Search Ads and other asset-based formats.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has expanded its Customer Match partner list to include several new customer data platforms (CDPs), effectively doubling the number of available partners to 20 and giving advertisers more options for syncing customer data. New additions include Adobe Real-Time CDP, among others.

Starting October 1, 2026, new non-portfolio campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, or Maximize Clicks will lose the Max CPC cap option, while campaigns created before that date keep the setting.

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.

Microsoft emailed advertisers notifying them that Microsoft Advertising will update UTM auto-tagging beginning on September 2, 2026, to improve how campaign performance is measured in third-party analytics platforms like GA4. Format-specific UTM tags will be applied automatically, with no action required from advertisers.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has published a dedicated help page outlining transparency rules for AI-generated and synthetic content. Advertisers are now required to disclose AI use in their ads, preserve metadata, and avoid deepfakes in order to maintain consumer trust. Read the official announcement, spotted by Hana Ko.

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.

Microsoft introduced Curate, a tool that helps publishers and data owners turn proprietary assets into scalable revenue through programmatic curation, announced on September 10, 2026.

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.

Microsoft sent emails confirming that Max CPC will no longer be available when creating new non-portfolio campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, or Maximize Clicks after October 1, 2026; existing and portfolio-strategy campaigns keep the setting.

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

Starting Oct. 1, Microsoft Advertising will stop allowing advertisers to set Max CPC limits on new campaigns using several standalone automated bidding strategies. Existing campaigns with Max CPC won't immediately lose it, but removing it after that date will be irreversible.

Starting October 1, Microsoft will remove the Max CPC setting from new campaigns using Maximize Conversions, Maximize Conversion Value, or Maximize Clicks, pushing advertisers toward budget and CPA/ROAS-based controls instead. Existing campaigns created before that date will keep the setting.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has published its 2026 Holiday Playbook, outlining six key global trends advertisers need to keep on their radar heading into the holiday season. The guide puts a strong focus on AI's growing influence on shopping behavior, with 76% of U.S. shoppers saying they plan to use AI to help with their holiday purchases.

Microsoft Advertising has rolled out new average target metrics to help advertisers track performance more accurately as their targets shift over time. These metrics are now available in the Campaign overview, Campaign grid, and portfolio bid strategies, giving advertisers a cleaner way to analyze trends and measure results against fluctuating goals.

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.

Microsoft Advertising is rolling out a Dual-ID requirement to strengthen account security when linking accounts. Advertisers managing multiple accounts will now need to provide two identifiers instead of one. For Manager account (CID) linking, both identifiers must be included to complete the process — reducing the risk of unauthorized account access.

Microsoft has updated its advertising guidelines for the Xbox Dash placement within the Microsoft Audience Network. The revised rules significantly expand the list of prohibited ad categories — including credit cards and other sensitive verticals — and introduce new requirements specifically for non-endemic campaigns running on the placement.

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.

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.

Microsoft Advertising unveiled the finalists for its annual Partner Awards across multiple global regions, recognizing innovation and client impact within its partner ecosystem.

Microsoft Advertising unveiled the finalists for its 2026 Partner Awards, recognizing achievements, innovation and client impact across its North American partner ecosystem.

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.

As AI Max rolls out across Microsoft Advertising, advertisers will see changes to their Search campaigns. Existing auto-generated assets for Responsive Search Ads will migrate into the text customization feature within AI Max, ensuring previous AI settings are preserved during the transition.

Microsoft Advertising has unveiled a refreshed UI featuring redesigned navigation and improved tables, aimed at making the platform cleaner and easier to use. The update brings greater clarity, consistency, and smoother data interaction, while users who prefer the old layout can still switch back to the classic experience.

Microsoft Advertising announced AI Max for Search becoming generally available, along with new tools to view asset policy status directly in the Assets tab, helping advertisers resolve delivery issues faster.

Microsoft Advertising has launched a new aggregate delivery status column in the Campaigns grid, currently rolling out to select users. It shows an overall delivery status per campaign, surfacing the single highest-priority issue affecting performance, making it easier to spot and prioritize problems at a glance.

Microsoft Advertising has updated its help documentation to cover campaign-level tracking templates for Performance Max shopping product URLs. Advertisers can use dynamic parameters like {AdGroup} in campaign-level tracking templates to populate asset group values, with a sample UTM string provided as a reference.

Microsoft Advertising has updated its Government Services Policy, effective August 19, 2026. Under the new guidelines, third-party providers of government-related services — such as passports and visas — must now provide documentation proving their authorization in the target market and obtain pre-approval through the Government Services program.

Microsoft Advertising is doubling down on its bidding and measurement capabilities. Advertisers using conversion-based strategies like tCPA and tROAS are finding it easier to hit their targets, while legacy controls like Max CPC are increasingly seen as disruptive to spend efficiency. Microsoft is removing Max CPC as an option for conversion-based bidding strategies.

Microsoft Advertising has released official documentation for its Conversions API (CAPI). Currently in beta, this server-side solution lets advertisers send conversion and customer interaction data directly from their own systems to Microsoft Advertising, supporting a range of measurement scenarios.

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.