X’s ad business improved under departing CEO Linda Yaccarino, but it’s still tough times ahead

Former NBCU ad exec Linda Yaccarino’s tenure at X may have been fairly short — just two years from start to finish — but she did manage to make an impact on the social network’s ad business, new data from ad intelligence firm Guideline shows. Yaccarino will be leaving X in a better position with its advertisers than she found it, it says.

In the U.S., ad spending was up 62% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, Guideline notes. In addition, Yaccarino previously claimed that 96% of X’s advertisers returned to X as of May 2025.