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The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 LINKEDIN EXPANDS INTO CREATOR MONETIZATION

LinkedIn is rebranding its Wire program as BrandLink and expanding it to include influencer video content, marking its first move toward creator monetization. Until now, the program was limited to pre-roll ads on videos from premium publishers like Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. Now BrankLink will also let marketers place ads alongside top creators, though participation is currently limited. more

• While LinkedIn hasn’t disclosed revenue-sharing details, participating creators will earn a cut, which could push more video content on the platform.

• The rollout is limited for now, with only a small group of approved brands and creators involved.

🥈 REDDIT: MORE USERS, MORE REVENUE

⬆️ Upvote the revenue: Reddit reported a strong Q1, with revenue up more than 60% year-over-year to $392 million and an increase in users. The platform is now up to 108 million daily active users, adding almost 7 million since Q4… but many aren’t sticking around. more

• Weekly active users surpassed 400 million, up 31% YoY.

• Unlike most platforms, Reddit sees a 4x increase in weekly versus daily users, suggesting a more transactional app use, where users seek specific answers rather than daily engagement.

• Logged-in users increased by 23%, while logged-out visitors climbed by 38%.

• This could mean a less stable audience, impacting ad targeting, and suggests Reddit is more reliant on Google referrals compared to other platforms.

🥉 AMAZON’S GROWTH SLOWS

Amazon $AMZN ( ▲ 2.0% ) reported its slowest growth in North American retail yesterday since the pandemic, delivering mixed Q1 results. Despite a 9% year-over-year increase in sales to $155.7 billion and a 65% jump in profit to $17 billion, the company warned investors that operating profits could fall in the coming quarter due to economic uncertainty and shifting trade policies. more

• Advertising revenue remained a bright spot, up 18% to $13.9B.

• For Q2, Amazon expects sales between $159 billion and $164B, but said operating income could fall as low as $13 billion.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• Following insights from Meta's $META ( ▲ 1.62% ) Q1, the company has highlighted five key strategies for advertisers:

  1. Open your wallet: Put more trust in its AI-powered ad tools.

  2. Boost video content: With rising video consumption on Facebook and Instagram, integrate video ads into your strategy.

  3. Focus on business messaging: As more conversations move to messaging apps, implement AI agents for customer support and sales, and use click-to-message ads to drive engagement.

  4. Advertise on Threads.

  5. Look to partner with relevant influencers on promotional campaigns.

• Starting this month, Google Ads $GOOGL ( ▼ 7.26% ) will display the payment profile name as the payer name for verified advertisers, if it's different from their verified name. For agencies, Google will show the client’s payment profile name if it differs. Agency advertisers should re-verify as an agency (not a direct advertiser) before May 31 to avoid the wrong name being shown. more

  • Starting in June, advertisers will be able to edit the displayed payer name via the advertiser verification page under billing.

Search 🔍

• 👀 Search habits die hard: A new study found a third of Google users kept using Bing $MSFT ( ▲ 0.01% ) after a two-week trial, suggesting Google’s grip on search may owe more to habit than quality. Of those who stayed, 65% said Bing was better than expected, and 60% said they got used to it. more

Social Media 📱

• WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly users, joining Facebook as one of the few apps to reach this milestone. The company also reported strong growth for its WhatsApp Business platform, which it said accounted for a large portion of the $510 million in revenue generated by its apps. more

• TikTok has been fined more than $600 million for sending European users’ data to servers in China, violating the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. The Irish Data Protection Commission ruled that TikTok couldn't guarantee the data would be protected to EU standards. Concerns were raised over China's anti-terrorism and counterespionage laws, which could let authorities access the data. The company now has six months to comply, pending any potential appeals. more

• Pinterest $PINS ( ▲ 1.3% ) is having some moderation issues, and not even your grandma’s quilt patterns are safe. Users are reporting account suspensions and pin removals for absurd reasons, like quilting magazines, cross-stitch art, and Minecraft bunk bed builds flagged for “adult content.” The company acknowledged the issue as part of its safety efforts but didn’t address claims that an AI moderation system may be to blame. Pinterest is allowing appeals but warned that wait times are long due to high request volumes. more

The Ticker

📈 HOW DIGITAL MARKETING STOCKS ARE DOING

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