Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Snap report Ad-pocalypse earnings

Ad-pocalypse 2020... The period during which advertisers tightened their wallets due to a corona-halted economy. The US economy had its worst quarter ever: GDP nosedived at a 33% annualized rate from April to June. So it comes as no surprise that:

• Companies slashed spending on ads, since you weren't buying anything besides hand sanitizer. That Kylie Lip Kit Insta ad does nothing when you're in sweats at home or in a mask at TJ's.
• US ad spend will decline by 25% this year, according to some forecasts. Small ad-reliant companies (like local newspapers) are suffering the most, but Big Tech is feeling it too.

The Adpocalypse 2020 results are in... Investors held their breath as 4 big ad-reliant platforms reported earnings. Some fared better than others in the digital adpocalypse. We're rounding them up from worst to best:

• #4: Twitter's ad sales plunged a disappointing 23%, despite strong user growth (aka more people to show ads to). Now it's looking at subscriptions and other non-ad ways to make money.
• #3: Google, which makes 70% of its revenue from ads, had its 1st sales decline ever. Ad sales for its core Google search plopped 10%. Even Google itself cut marketing spending by half.
• #2: Snap sales jumped a better-than-expected 17%, but the little ghost fell short on user growth. Compare that to the 44% sales growth it notched in its (non-corona) 1st quarter.
• #1: Facebook sales jumped an expectation-beating 11%. While investors were pleasantly surprised, that's much slower than FB's average quarterly growth of 25%. The massive FB ad boycott happened in July, so we'll see its impact in Q3 results come September.

Who didn't make the leaderboard?... Microsoft. But it'll join the ranks of internet ad giants if it follows through on its talks to buy TikTok's US operations.