Zeta Global Holdings Corp (ZETA) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Zeta first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 Zeta 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Matt Pfau, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

現在我很高興介紹主持人、投資者關係資深副總裁 Matt Pfau。謝謝您，先生。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Zeta's First Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Today's presentation and earnings release are available on Zeta's Investor Relations website at investors.zetaglobal.com where you will also find links to our SEC filings, along with other information about Zeta. Joining me on the call today are David Steinberg, Zeta's Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Greiner, Zeta's Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝您，接線生。大家好，感謝您參加 Zeta 2025 年第一季電話會議。今天的簡報和收益報告可在 Zeta 投資者關係網站 investors.zetaglobal.com 上查閱，您也可以在該網站上找到我們向 SEC 提交的文件連結以及有關 Zeta 的其他資訊。今天與我一起參加電話會議的還有 Zeta 的共同創辦人、董事長兼執行長 David Steinberg；以及 Zeta 財務長 Chris Greiner。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this call as well as in the presentation and earnings release contain forward-looking statements regarding our financial outlook, business plans and objectives, and other future events and developments, including statements about the market potential of our products, potential competition, revenues of our products, and our goals and strategies.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒大家，本次電話會議以及簡報和收益報告中的陳述包含有關我們的財務前景、業務計劃和目標以及其他未來事件和發展的前瞻性陳述，包括有關我們產品的市場潛力、潛在競爭、我們產品的收入以及我們的目標和戰略的陳述。

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include those described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC and speak only as of today's date. In addition, our discussion today will include references to certain supplemental non-GAAP financial measures which should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for our GAAP results.

這些聲明受風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與預測結果有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括公司收益報告和向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件中所描述的風險和不確定性，並且僅代表截至今天的情況。此外，我們今天的討論將包括對某些補充非 GAAP 財務指標的引用，這些指標應被視為對我們的 GAAP 結果的補充，而不是替代品。

We use these non-GAAP measures in managing our business and believe they provide useful information for our investors. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, where appropriate, can be found in the earnings presentation available on our website as well as our earnings release and our other filings with the SEC.

我們在管理業務時使用這些非公認會計準則指標，並相信它們為我們的投資者提供了有用的信息。非公認會計準則 (non-GAAP) 指標與相應公認會計準則 (GAAP) 指標的對帳表（如適用）可在我們網站上的收益報告以及我們的收益報告和向美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提交的其他文件中找到。

With that, I will now turn the call over to David.

說完這些，我現在將電話轉給大衛。

Thank you, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2025 began much like 2024 ended with Zeta exceeding expectations and gaining share in a dynamic market. This marks our 15th consecutive quarter of beating and raising our guidance, reflecting the strength of our innovation, execution, and consistent delivery of customer value.

謝謝你，馬特。大家下午好，感謝大家今天的參與。 2025 年的開始與 2024 年的結束非常相似，Zeta 超出了預期並在充滿活力的市場中獲得了份額。這是我們連續第 15 個季度超越並提高預期，體現了我們的創新、執行力以及持續提供客戶價值的實力。

While macro uncertainty has become more pronounced at the start of the second quarter, Zeta's value proposition continues to stand out, particularly in environments where marketers are under pressure to deliver measurable results and do more with less.

儘管宏觀不確定性在第二季初變得更加明顯，但 Zeta 的價值主張仍然脫穎而出，尤其是在行銷人員面臨著提供可衡量成果並以更少的投入做更多事情的壓力的環境中。

Our omnichannel people-based artificial intelligence platform delivers both scale and precision, enabling marketers to target, personalize, measure and optimize across owned and paid media more efficiently and effectively than alternative solutions. We proved the strength of our model during COVID-19 and the tech reset of 2022, growing revenue by 20% in 2020 and 29% in 2022, despite challenging macro conditions.

我們的全通路以人為本的人工智慧平台兼具規模和精確度，使行銷人員能夠比其他解決方案更有效率、更有效地在自有媒體和付費媒體上進行定位、個人化、衡量和優化。我們在新冠疫情和 2022 年技術重置期間證明了我們模型的優勢，儘管宏觀環境充滿挑戰，但 2020 年收入增長了 20%，2022 年增長了 29%。

Our focus on delivering predictable, profitable and measurable ROI is driving continued market share gains and has contributed to our strong first quarter results. In the first quarter of 2025, we generated revenue of $264 million, up 6% year over year with adjusted EBITDA of $47 million, up 53% year over year, both well ahead of our guidance. Given our first quarter's outperformance, strong pipeline and second quarter visibility, we are raising our second quarter and full year 2025 guidance.

我們專注於提供可預測、可獲利且可衡量的投資報酬率，這推動了市場份額的持續成長，並促成了我們第一季的強勁業績。2025 年第一季度，我們的營收為 2.64 億美元，年增 6%，調整後的 EBITDA 為 4,700 萬美元，年成長 53%，均遠高於我們的預期。鑑於我們第一季的優異表現、強勁的銷售管道和第二季的可見性，我們上調了第二季和 2025 年全年的業績預期。

While our momentum supports a larger raise, we're taking a disciplined and conservative approach in light of the ongoing macro uncertainty. We believe one of the key reasons our business has remained resilient is our focus on performance-based outcomes and exposure primarily to lower funnel marketing. Let me share a few examples of existing super scaled customers that illustrate this. For a large telecommunications customer, we have consistently performed their benchmark for new customer acquisition cost, most recently beating their target by 53%. Our ability to be a repeatable, scalable solution has led to an increase in commitments culminating in the recent signing of a two-year agreement that more than doubles their annual investment with data.

儘管我們的勢頭支持更大幅度的加薪，但鑑於持續的宏觀不確定性，我們採取了嚴謹而保守的態度。我們相信，我們的業務保持彈性的關鍵原因之一是我們專注於基於績效的成果並主要接觸低漏斗行銷。讓我分享一些現有的超大規模客戶的例子來說明這一點。對於一家大型電信客戶，我們始終如一地執行其新客戶獲取成本的基準，最近更是超越其目標 53%。我們作為可重複、可擴展解決方案的能力已導致承諾的增加，最終導致最近簽署了一項為期兩年的協議，該協議使他們在數據方面的年度投資增加了一倍以上。

For a major insurance provider, we helped drive 7% lower new customer acquisition cost versus their 2024 target. We expect this success to drive a 50% increase in spend with us this year. For a financial institution, we beat their target new customer acquisition cost by 14% in 2024, and the customer is expected to increase their spend in 2025 by close to 20% after nearly 150% increase in 2024. Importantly, these results are not self scored. They're validated either directly by our customer or through third-party attribution methods.

對於一家大型保險公司，我們幫助他們將新客戶獲取成本降低了 7%，遠低於 2024 年的目標。我們預計這項成功將推動我們今年的支出增加 50%。對於一家金融機構，我們在 2024 年的新客戶獲取成本超出其目標 14%，並且預計該客戶的支出在 2024 年增長近 150% 之後，2025 年將增加近 20%。重要的是，這些結果不是自我評分的。它們由我們的客戶直接驗證或透過第三方歸因方法驗證。

Now let's talk about one of our biggest long-term drivers, artificial intelligence. This quarter, we launched AI Agent Studios, a suite of generative AI tools that enable users to select and activate built agents create custom agents and link them together to execute complex marketing tasks. As a part of AI Agent studios, we also announced Agentic Workflows, which were available in beta.

現在讓我們來談談我們最大的長期驅動力之一——人工智慧。本季度，我們推出了 AI Agent Studios，這是一套生成式 AI 工具，使用戶能夠選擇和啟動內建代理、建立自訂代理並將它們連結在一起以執行複雜的行銷任務。作為 AI Agent 工作室的一部分，我們也宣布了 Agentic Workflows，目前已推出測試版。

Agentic Workflows give marketers the ability to build and customize AI agents that work together to complete complex tasks across the entire customer journey. Unlike generic tools, Agentic Workflows are flexible and adaptive, making AI not only actionable but also potentially transformational to a marketer's productivity.

Agentic Workflows 使行銷人員能夠建立和自訂 AI 代理，這些代理可以協同完成整個客戶旅程中的複雜任務。與通用工具不同，Agentic Workflows 具有靈活性和適應性，使得 AI 不僅可操作，而且有可能改變行銷人員的工作效率。

Here is a real world example of how a customer uses our Agentic Workflows. The customer needed a multi-agent workflow to identify high-value audiences and activate to them across multiple channels. With one prompt, this workflow coordinates intelligent agents to speed up planning and execution. Through this workflow, our insights agent binds target audience segments. The strategy agent crafts the messaging and personas and the activation agent deploys the marketing through multiple channels.

以下是客戶如何使用我們的 Agentic Workflows 的真實範例。客戶需要多代理工作流程來識別高價值受眾並透過多種管道向他們發起啟動。只需一個提示，此工作流程即可協調智慧代理以加快規劃和執行。透過這個工作流程，我們的洞察代理人綁定了目標受眾群體。策略代理精心設計訊息和角色，啟動代理商透過多種管道部署行銷。

This process streamlines collaboration, reduces time from insight to execution, enhances precision and creates meaningful return on investment all within a single AI-powered workflow. Now I'd like to provide an update on our agency business, which has seen great momentum to the start of the year. I'll begin with an update on our efforts with independent agencies. We executed and platformed two new independent agencies in the first quarter and are finalizing agreements with two additional ones, proving early traction in a market with over 1,000 potential prospects. We also experienced solid year-over-year growth with large holding companies in the first quarter.

這個流程簡化了協作，縮短了從洞察到執行的時間，提高了精確度，並在單一 AI 驅動的工作流程中創造了有意義的投資回報。現在我想介紹一下我們的代理業務的最新情況，今年年初我們的代理業務發展勢頭強勁。我將首先介紹我們與獨立機構合作的最新情況。我們在第一季執行並平台化了兩個新的獨立代理機構，並且正在與另外兩個代理機構敲定協議，這在擁有超過 1,000 個潛在客戶的市場中證明了早期的吸引力。第一季度，大型控股公司也實現了穩健的年成長。

For our holding company customers, we believe Zeta is by far one of their most profitable partners, which is important in good times but even more important during challenging times. Agencies choose to partner and expand with Zeta, not only because we drive efficiencies in their businesses, but also because our platform offers advantages that assist in securing new business. For example, one of the independent agencies we platformed in the first quarter used our retail audience intelligence to support its pitch to a prospective new customer, Zeta's deterministic attribution capabilities were a key differentiator, providing a level of measurement that the agency had not previously been able to offer. These capabilities help the agency secure the customers' business, which, in turn, creates additional revenue opportunities for Zeta. A true win, win, win.

對於我們的控股公司客戶，我們相信 Zeta 是迄今為止他們最賺錢的合作夥伴之一，這在順境中很重要，但在逆境中更為重要。各機構選擇與 Zeta 合作並拓展業務，不僅因為我們能夠提高他們的業務效率，還因為我們的平台提供了有助於獲得新業務的優勢。例如，我們在第一季平台化的一家獨立機構利用我們的零售受眾情報來支持其向潛在新客戶的宣傳，Zeta 的確定性歸因能力是一個關鍵的區別因素，提供了該機構以前無法提供的測量水平。這些能力有助於該機構確保客戶的業務，進而為 Zeta 創造額外的收入機會。真正的勝利，勝利，勝利。

At Zeta, we have faced challenging macro times before and emerged stronger by controlling the uncontrollable, how we think how we act, how we deliver value for our customers. In the end, execution is the difference between surviving uncertainty and driving through it. As always, I would like to sincerely thank our customers, our partners, team Zeta and all our shareholders for the ongoing support of our vision.

在 Zeta，我們以前曾面臨過充滿挑戰的宏觀時期，並透過控制不可控因素、我們的思維方式、我們的行為方式、我們如何為客戶創造價值而變得更加強大。最終，執行力就是在面對不確定性時生存下來和克服不確定性之間的差異。一如既往，我要真誠感謝我們的客戶、合作夥伴、Zeta 團隊和所有股東對我們願景的持續支持。

Now let me turn it over to Chris to discuss our results in greater detail. Chris?

現在讓我把話題交給克里斯來更詳細地討論我們的結果。克里斯？

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. Before diving into the details of our quarterly results and updated 2025 guidance, I want to highlight four key takeaways. First, despite global macro uncertainty, we reported a strong quarter with broad-based contribution across all areas of our business. Second, our increased 2025 projections are reflective of our momentum exiting the first quarter and the good visibility we have into the second quarter, while being thoughtfully conservative in the second half given macroeconomic and policy uncertainty. Third, we've looked at our capital allocation strategy and are taking significant steps to reduce dilution and stock-based compensation expense.

謝謝你，大衛，大家下午好。在深入了解我們的季度業績和更新的 2025 年指引之前，我想強調四個關鍵要點。首先，儘管全球宏觀經濟存在不確定性，但我們報告了一個強勁的季度，所有業務領域都做出了廣泛的貢獻。其次，我們上調了 2025 年的預測，這反映了我們在第一季之後的發展勢頭以及對第二季度的良好預期，同時考慮到宏觀經濟和政策的不確定性，我們對下半年的預測是謹慎保守的。第三，我們研究了我們的資本配置策略，並正在採取重大措施減少稀釋和股票薪酬費用。

And fourth, our increased focus on free cash flow generation is evident in our first quarter results, with free cash flow growth significantly ahead of revenue and adjusted EBITDA and a substantial improvement in free cash flow conversion. Now let's get into the details of our first quarter results. In Q1, we delivered revenue of $264 million up 36% year over year or 26% excluding the contribution from LiveIntent. Total scale and customer count grew to 548, up 19% year over year and an addition of 21 customers sequentially. We had 159 superscale customers at the end of the first quarter, an increase of 10% year over year and 11% quarter-to-quarter.

第四，我們更重視自由現金流的產生，這從第一季的業績中可以看出，自由現金流的成長遠遠超過收入和調整後的 EBITDA，自由現金流轉換率也有了顯著提高。現在讓我們來了解第一季的業績詳情。第一季度，我們的營收為 2.64 億美元，年增 36%，若不計 LiveIntent 的貢獻，則成長 26%。總規模及客戶數量成長至548家，較去年同期成長19%，較上一季增加21家客戶。截至第一季末，我們擁有 159 個超大規模客戶，年增 10%，季增 11%。

Scaled customer quarterly ARPU of $467,000 increased 12% year over year and superscale customer quarterly ARPU of $1.4 million increased 23% year over year. From an industry perspective, on a trailing 12-month basis, 6 of our top 10 verticals grew faster than 20% year over year. We ended the quarter with 173 quota carriers, up 22% year over year and down seven heads sequentially. The sequential decline was in line with our expectations and driven by the completion of the LiveIntent integration. Our direct mix in the first quarter was 73%, down from 74% in the fourth quarter of 2024, but up from 67% a year ago, resulting in direct revenue growth of 48% year over year.

規模客戶季度 ARPU 為 467,000 美元，較去年同期成長 12%，超規模客戶季度 ARPU 為 140 萬美元，較去年同期成長 23%。從產業角度來看，在過去 12 個月中，我們前 10 個垂直產業中有 6 個產業的年成長速度超過 20%。本季結束時，我們的配額承運商數量為 173 家，年增 22%，比上一季減少 7 家。這一連續下降符合我們的預期，並且是由 LiveIntent 整合的完成所推動的。我們第一季的直接營收組合為 73%，低於 2024 年第四季的 74%，但高於去年同期的 67%，導致直接營收年增 48%。

Our GAAP cost of revenue in the quarter was 39.1%, a 90 basis point improvement sequentially and a 30 basis point improvement from the first quarter of 2024. This improvement in cost of revenue as well as leverage in other areas of our operating expenses resulted in our 17th straight quarter of expanding adjusted EBITDA margins year over year. In the first quarter, we generated $46.7 million of adjusted EBITDA at a margin of 17.7%, 200 basis points higher year over year and $2.2 million better than the midpoint of our guidance. One of the facts to adjusted EBITDA was $3 million of restructuring expenses, which were anticipated and primarily related to the integration of LiveIntent. Our GAAP net loss for the first quarter was $22 million, an improvement from $40 million in the first quarter of 2024.

本季我們的 GAAP 營收成本為 39.1%，比上一季改善了 90 個基點，比 2024 年第一季改善了 30 個基點。收入成本的改善以及其他營運費用領域的槓桿作用使我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率連續第 17 個季度同比增長。第一季度，我們的調整後 EBITDA 為 4,670 萬美元，利潤率為 17.7%，比去年同期高出 200 個基點，比我們預期的中點高出 220 萬美元。調整後的 EBITDA 的事實之一是 300 萬美元的重組費用，這是預期的，主要與 LiveIntent 的整合有關。我們第一季的 GAAP 淨虧損為 2,200 萬美元，較 2024 年第一季的 4,000 萬美元有所改善。

First quarter net cash provided by operating activities was $34.8 million, up 41% year over year, with free cash flow of $28.2 million, up 87% and representing a margin of 10.7%. This translated to a free cash flow conversion of 60%, a significant improvement from 45% in the fourth quarter of 2024 and 50% in the first quarter of 2024. We also repurchased 1.6 million shares for $25 million, accounting for 89% of our free cash flow generated in the quarter. We continue to repurchase shares after the close of the quarter, acquiring an additional 1.8 million shares for $21 million between April 1 and April 25. We have approximately $38 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization and upon completion of this authorization, we plan to initiate a new one.

第一季經營活動提供的淨現金為 3,480 萬美元，年增 41%，自由現金流為 2,820 萬美元，成長 87%，利潤率為 10.7%。這意味著自由現金流轉換率為 60%，較 2024 年第四季的 45% 和 2024 年第一季的 50% 有顯著改善。我們也以 2,500 萬美元回購了 160 萬股股票，佔本季產生的自由現金流的 89%。本季結束後，我們繼續回購股票，在 4 月 1 日至 4 月 25 日期間又以 2,100 萬美元的價格回購了 180 萬股。我們目前的股票回購授權剩餘約 3,800 萬美元，在完成此授權後，我們計劃啟動新的授權。

Before diving into our 2025 guidance, I want to highlight a few key elements of our business model that are especially relevant given the current macro environment and informed how we approached guidance. First, as David discussed earlier, we deliver a clear, measurable ROI to our customers. This value proposition has helped us maintain an annual net revenue retention rate of 111% or higher per year since our IPO in 2021. Second, nearly all of the marketing and advertising spend we support is tied to measurable KPIs, particularly lower funnel conversion metrics. We believe this makes our platform more resilient in volatile macro environments as lower funnel spend tends to be less discretionary than top-of-funnel brand awareness efforts.

在深入探討我們的 2025 年指引之前，我想強調我們商業模式中的一些關鍵要素，這些要素在當前宏觀環境下尤其重要，並指導我們如何制定指引。首先，如 David 先前所討論的，我們為客戶提供清晰、可衡量的投資報酬率。這項價值主張幫助我們自 2021 年 IPO 以來維持了每年 111% 或更高的年度淨收入保留率。其次，我們支持的幾乎所有行銷和廣告支出都與可衡量的 KPI 掛鉤，尤其是較低的漏斗轉換指標。我們相信，這使得我們的平台在動盪的宏觀環境中更具彈性，因為較低漏斗支出往往比頂部漏斗品牌知名度努力更不具自由裁量權。

Third, we primarily address large enterprises whose marketing spend tends to be more stable than small businesses in our view. And fourth, Typically, more than 90% of our annual revenue comes from customers that have been with us more than a year. These dynamics have contributed to our relative outperformance during challenging periods. For example, in 2022, a year when many tech companies experienced a sharp slowdown in growth amid rising inflation and broader budget rationalization, our revenue growth accelerated by 4 percentage points, reaching 29%. Lastly, and relevant in the context of the current macro environment, our direct exposure to federal government and China is minimal.

第三，我們主要針對大型企業，我們認為大型企業的行銷支出往往比小型企業更穩定。第四，通常，我們每年 90% 以上的收入來自與我們合作超過一年的客戶。這些動力促使我們在充滿挑戰的時期表現相對優異。例如，2022年，由於通貨膨脹上升和更廣泛的預算合理化，許多科技公司的成長都急劇放緩，而我們的營收成長卻加快了4個百分點，達到29%。最後，在當前宏觀環境下，我們對聯邦政府和中國的直接影響很小。

Following a strong quarter and considering our current data points including a robust sales pipeline, positive customer interactions and good visibility into the second quarter, we would typically revise our full year guidance upwards by the amount we exceeded the first quarter's expectations as well as increase our second quarter forecast. However, we'd all agree these are not typical circumstances. Because of this, we prefer to adopt a thoughtful approach that blends short-term momentum and visibility with second half conservatism. We are increasing our second quarter revenue outlook by $2 million, while adjusting our growth expectations for the second half of the year. The conservatism in our guidance can be seen through three lenses.

在經歷了一個強勁的季度之後，考慮到我們目前的數據點，包括強勁的銷售管道、積極的客戶互動和對第二季度的良好預見性，我們通常會將全年預期上調，上調幅度超過第一季的預期，並提高第二季度的預測。然而，我們都同意這些並不是典型的情況。正因為如此，我們傾向於採取一種深思熟慮的方法，將短期勢頭和可見性與下半年的保守主義相結合。我們將第二季的營收預期上調 200 萬美元，同時調整下半年的成長預期。我們指導中的保守主義可以從三個角度體現出來。

First, we are one month into our second quarter and have good visibility for this period. Second, although we continue to see healthy demand, our guidance assumes a softer macro in the second half of the year. Third, to meet our guidance, our four fastest-growing industries in the first half of the year only need to grow at half that rate in the second half. To be clear, our customers have not expressed intentions to decrease their investments with data due to macro uncertainty, nor has there been pull forward in spending. Our intent is to create buffer by exercising prudent conservatism regarding expectations for the remainder of 2025.

首先，我們已經進入第二季一個月了，這段時期的前景很好。其次，儘管我們繼續看到健康的需求，但我們的指導假設下半年宏觀經濟將更加疲軟。第三，為了達到我們的預期，我們上半年成長最快的四個產業下半年只需要以上半年一半的速度成長。需要明確的是，我們的客戶並沒有表示出由於宏觀不確定性而減少數據投資的意圖，也沒有提前支出。我們的目的是透過對 2025 年剩餘時間的預期採取審慎保守的態度來創造緩衝。

Our 2025 revenue guidance is now $1.242 billion at the midpoint, an increase of $2 million versus the midpoint of our prior guidance. This represents reported growth of 23%, a growth of 21% when adjusting for LiveIntent and political candidate revenue in the year-over-year comps. For the second quarter, we now expect revenue of $297 million at the midpoint, $2 million higher than our previous guidance. For adjusted EBITDA, we're increasing the midpoint of our 2025 guidance to $258.5 million, up $2 million from our prior guidance and representing a year-over-year increase of 34% at a margin of 21%. In alignment with our conservative approach to revenue projections, we're confident we can achieve our adjusted EBITDA margin target for 2025, just through leverage in sales and marketing, R&D and G&A.

我們對 2025 年收入的預測中位數為 12.42 億美元，比我們先前預測的中位數增加了 200 萬美元。這意味著報告的成長率為 23%，如果根據 LiveIntent 和政治候選人的收入進行同比調整，則成長了 21%。對於第二季度，我們目前預計中位數收入為 2.97 億美元，比先前的預期高出 200 萬美元。對於調整後的 EBITDA，我們將 2025 年指引的中點提高至 2.585 億美元，比之前的指引高出 200 萬美元，年成長 34%，利潤率為 21%。根據我們對營收預測的保守方法，我們相信，僅透過銷售和行銷、研發和一般及行政費用方面的槓桿作用，我們就能實現 2025 年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率目標。

We have many levers we can pull within operating expenses and are confident we can protect our margins in the event our top line is adversely affected due to macro weakness. For the second quarter of 2025, we now expect adjusted EBITDA of $54.9 million at the midpoint, up from our previous expectation of $54.4 million and representing growth of 42% at a margin of 18.5%. We are increasing the midpoint of our 2025 free cash flow guidance to $131.5 million, up $2 million from the midpoint of our previous guidance and representing year-over-year growth of 43%. As I mentioned upfront, we revisited our capital allocation strategy. In addition to aggressively buying back shares, we have also decided to significantly reduce dilution and stock-based compensation.

我們在營運費用方面有很多可以利用的槓桿，並且有信心，如果我們的營業收入因宏觀經濟疲軟而受到不利影響，我們可以保護我們的利潤率。對於 2025 年第二季度，我們目前預計調整後的 EBITDA 中位數為 5,490 萬美元，高於我們先前預期的 5,440 萬美元，成長率為 42%，利潤率為 18.5%。我們將 2025 年自由現金流指引的中點提高至 1.315 億美元，比先前指引的中點增加 200 萬美元，年增 43%。正如我之前提到的，我們重新審視了我們的資本配置策略。除了積極回購股票外，我們還決定大幅減少股權稀釋和股票薪酬。

As such, we're introducing a new guidance item this quarter, stock-based compensation expense, which we expect to be $190 million for 2025, lower than the $195 million in 2024. In addition, for 2025, we expect our normal core share count dilution to be 4% to 6% and for 2026, we expect to improve further to 3% to 4%. This is a significant reduction from 15% total dilution in 2024 which included 8% normal course equity grant dilution.

因此，我們在本季推出了一項新的指導項目，即股票薪酬費用，我們預計 2025 年該費用將為 1.9 億美元，低於 2024 年的 1.95 億美元。此外，到 2025 年，我們預計正常核心股數稀釋率為 4% 至 6%，到 ​​2026 年，我們預計該比例將進一步提高至 3% 至 4%。這與 2024 年 15% 的總稀釋率（包括 8% 的正常股權授予稀釋率）相比有顯著減少。

Slide 20 in our earnings supplemental outlines how we plan on achieving these targets. Part of the improvement will be driven by David, Steve Gerber, and myself not participating in the annual equity grant process in 2025 and instead, we'll have our compensation tied to longer-term goals.

我們的收益補充報告的第 20 張投影片概述了我們計劃如何實現這些目標。部分改進將由 David、Steve Gerber 和我本人推動，我們將不再參與 2025 年的年度股權授予流程，而是將我們的薪酬與長期目標掛鉤。

We recognize that stock-based compensation expense and dilution are important topics for our investors, and we're taking significant steps to improve both. Lastly, we remain confident in our Zeta 2028 plan and are reaffirming our long-term targets, which project over $2 billion in annual revenue, at least 25% adjusted EBITDA margin and 16% plus free cash flow margin in 2028.

我們認識到股票薪酬費用和稀釋對我們的投資者來說是重要的主題，我們正在採取重大措施來改善這兩個問題。最後，我們仍然對 Zeta 2028 計畫充滿信心，並重申我們的長期目標，即到 2028 年，年收入將超過 20 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率至少為 25%，自由現金流利潤率超過 16%。

Now let me hand the call back over to the operator for David and me to take your questions. Operator?

現在，讓我將電話交還給接線員，以便大衛和我回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Terry Tillman, Truist Securities.

（操作員指示）Terry Tillman，Truist Securities。

Yeah, David, Chris and Matt, bear with me, I've got my own preamble here. First of all, congrats on the 15th beat and raise quarter. And then also on the color on the second half guidance velocity. That's actually very helpful. My first question relates to like progress on One Zeta in terms of accelerating the cross-sell and use case expansion.

是的，大衛、克里斯和馬特，請耐心聽我說完，我這裡有我自己的序言。首先，恭喜第 15 季取得突破並實現成長。然後也注意下半部引導速度的顏色。這確實非常有幫助。我的第一個問題與 One Zeta 在加速交叉銷售和用例擴充功能方面的進展有關。

I know you all brought in some key leaders recently some talent acquisition, but just maybe an update on One Zeta and how that's tracking. And then I have a follow-up. Thank you.

我知道你們最近引進了一些關鍵領導人，進行了一些人才招聘，但也許只是對 One Zeta 的更新以及其進展進行介紹。然後我有一個後續問題。謝謝。

Well, let me start by saying thank you, Terry. I'm losing my voice here a little bit. But One Zeta -- I get that. I get that. What I would tell you is the One Zeta data strategy is ahead of schedule.

好吧，首先我要對你說謝謝，特里。說到這裡我有點失聲了。但是 One Zeta——我明白了。我明白。我想告訴你的是，One Zeta 資料策略已經提前完成。

Even I just got back from the possible conference where during the course of the contract, we signed a deal which will be one of our biggest deals in history around this very same stuff. The concept of wrapping it together where instead of using one use case in multiple channels, they have multiple use cases and multiple channels continues to be one of the biggest drivers of the business.

我甚至剛從可能的會議回來，在合約期間，我們簽署了一項協議，這將是我們歷史上圍繞這一主題的最大協議之一。將其整合在一起的概念（即不再在多個管道中使用一個用例，而是擁有多個用例和多個管道）仍然是業務的最大驅動力之一。

In the first quarter, obviously, you saw a 36% year-over-year growth with 26% of that being organic. A big piece of that was One Zeta and how we're progressing on it. I was joking with someone the other day.

顯然，第一季年增 36%，其中 26% 為有機成長。其中很大一部分是 One Zeta 以及我們在它上面的進展。前幾天我和某人開玩笑。

I remember a few years ago when our goal was how do we get five or six customers to 5 million to 10 million a year. We're now looking at how do we get five or six customers to 100 million a year. And we're actually well on our way to that exiting the first quarter.

我記得幾年前我們的目標是如何讓五到六個客戶每年帶來 500 萬到 1000 萬美元的收入。我們現在正在研究如何讓五到六個客戶達到每年 1 億的銷售額。事實上，在第一季結束時，我們已經在朝著這個目標邁進了。

One just bringing the data points to like there, Terry, for you. All three of our use cases, the acquire, grow and retain. All three grew double digits year over year and our fastest-growing cohort in terms of channel expansion were those scaled customers that are using three or more, and that's up 42% year over year. So just to bring the data to David's point.

只需將數據點帶到那裡，特里，就為您服務。我們的所有三個用例是獲取、成長和保留。這三家公司都實現了兩位數的同比成長，而我們在通路擴展方面成長最快的群體是那些使用三個或更多管道的規模化客戶，這群人同比增長了 42%。所以只是為了用數據來說明大衛的觀點。

That's great. Just one question as we think about the growth algorithm, excluding live intent, which I'm sure you'll get some questions on. I'm just curious, how are you thinking about the rest of the year as it relates to scale customers and ARPU from skilled customers?

那太棒了。當我們考慮成長演算法時，只有一個問題，不包括即時意圖，我相信你會有一些疑問。我只是好奇，您如何看待今年剩餘時間與規模客戶和熟練客戶的 ARPU 之間的關係？

I think in line with our model, we did ARPU growth in the quarter was 12% year over year. Our model is 12% to 16%. Scaled customer count grew 19% year over year. Interestingly, the scale of customer count growth is obviously aided by LiveIntent. But the ARPU is impacted negatively by LiveIntent, just given what their average customer size is.

我認為，根據我們的模型，本季我們的 ARPU 年比成長了 12%。我們的模型是12%到16%。規模客戶數量較去年同期成長19%。有趣的是，客戶數量規模的成長顯然得益於 LiveIntent。但考慮到其平均客戶規模，LiveIntent 對 ARPU 產生了負面影響。

But I would expect us to continue to operate in a similar way as we did in the first quarter through the remainder of the scale of the customer count and ARPU growth side.

但我預計，在剩餘的客戶數量和 ARPU 成長方面，我們將繼續以與第一季類似的方式運作。

Jason Kreyer, Craig-Hallum.

傑森·克雷爾、克雷格·哈勒姆。

David, you had mentioned in your prepared remarks, just maybe more pronounced macro uncertainty at the start of Q2. Maybe you can break that down a little bit, what Zeta is seeing or what Zeta customers are seeing versus the broader macro?

大衛，您在準備好的發言中提到，第二季初的宏觀不確定性可能會更加明顯。也許您可以稍微分析一下，Zeta 看到了什麼，或者 Zeta 客戶看到了什麼，與更廣泛的宏觀相比如何？

Thanks, Jason. I appreciate it. At this point, we're not seeing any turbulence inside of Zeta either for Q2 or for the back half of the year. We've not had one client pause, and we have not had one client leave. So we continue to see that.

謝謝，傑森。我很感激。目前，我們尚未看到 Zeta 內部出現任何動盪，無論是第二季還是下半年。我們沒有遇過一個客戶暫停，也沒有遇過一個客戶離開。因此我們繼續看到這種情況。

Now at the same time, we're trying to be thoughtful in a world where there's a lot of uncertainty. We just wanted to make sure that we were being conservative in the back half. But as it relates to the Zeta platform itself, at this time, we have seen zero changes.

同時，我們正努力在這個充滿不確定性的世界中深思熟慮。我們只是想確保我們在後半部分採取保守態度。但就 Zeta 平臺本身而言，目前我們還沒有看到任何變化。

In fact, just in April, ended just as strong as March did. So we're -- the quarter itself is even off to a great start, which gives us the type of confidence we did we had to have to raise the quarter.

事實上，四月的表現與三月一樣強勁。因此，本季本身已經有了一個很好的開端，這給了我們提高本季業績所需的信心。

Perfect. Good to hear. I wanted to also just ask about this independent agent opportunity. curious there if the go-to-market like how the go-to-market with independents is different than holdcos? And then, Chris, in the past, we've dealt with some headwinds to margin and cash flow as you've seen greater opportunities with hold post.

完美的。很高興聽到這個消息。我還想詢問這個獨立代理機會。好奇獨立公司的市場進入方式與控股公司的市場進入方式有何不同？然後，克里斯，過去，我們處理了一些利潤和現金流方面的阻力，因為你看到了保留職位帶來的更大機會。

So just curious if there's anything we need to think about as you deepen that opportunity with independent agents.

所以我只是好奇，當您與獨立代理商深化這一機會時，我們是否需要考慮任何事情。

So interestingly enough, you don't have those headwinds with independent agencies. Traditionally, we are platforming the entire independent agency at once, Jason. So you're seeing long-term contracts where you're -- you've got a lot more visibility almost all of it's on platform, and we're getting paid more in line with our normal DSOs than the DSOs from the agency holdcos. Although I will say our largest agency holdco in the first quarter did execute and move to a multiyear contract, and we expect that client to continue to be very, very solid and grow in the years to come.

有趣的是，獨立機構不會遇到這些阻力。傳統上，我們會一次為整個獨立機構建立平台，傑森。因此，您會看到長期合約——您對平台的了解要多得多，而且我們按照正常的 DSO 獲得的報酬比代理控股公司的 DSO 獲得的報酬要多。儘管我要說的是，我們第一季最大的代理控股公司確實執行並轉向了一份多年期合同，但我們預計該客戶在未來幾年將繼續保持非常穩固的發展。

Jason, on the cash flow point, I'm glad you raised it. Throughout the course of the quarter as we were meeting with investors, there were three things that were important to them that we delivered on. The desire to have a clean quarter with clean comps, we clearly delivered that. To address stock-based compensation and dilution, I think we've definitively addressed that as well. And then the third was to continue to focus on more and more free cash flow conversion and generation.

傑森，關於現金流問題，我很高興你提出這個問題。在本季與投資人會面的過程中，我們傳達了三件對他們來說很重要的事。我們希望本季業績乾淨、業績乾淨，我們明確實現了這一目標。為了解決股票薪酬和稀釋問題，我認為我們也已經明確解決了這個問題。第三是繼續關注越來越多的自由現金流轉換和產生。

So to your point, this quarter at a 60% conversion from adjusted EBITDA was a record for us on an as-reported basis. That still included a headwind in terms of working capital by virtue of the growth we're having with the agencies. But I feel like we've more than covered for that in our guidance conservatism for free cash flow conversion, which is right around 50%, again, compared to the 60% that we just generated this quarter. David?

所以正如您所說，本季調整後的 EBITDA 轉換率達到 60%，這對我們來說是一個報告基礎上的記錄。由於我們與代理商之間的成長，這仍然包括營運資金方面的阻力。但我覺得，我們在自由現金流轉換的指導保守性方面已經充分考慮到了這一點，這一比例大約為 50%，而本季度我們剛剛實現了 60% 的自由現金流轉換。戴維？

I would think about it, Jason, that the independent agency space is more like just signing a very large multinational enterprise, where you're looking at comparable margins and comparable term of contracts to those versus with the agency holdcos.

傑森，我認為獨立代理商領域更像是與一家非常大的跨國企業簽約，你正在尋找與代理商控股公司可比的利潤率和可比的合約期限。

In fact, this week, in addition to promise, we just signed another independent agency this week.

事實上，本週除了Promise之外，我們剛剛簽署了另一家獨立代理商。

Yeah. We're -- I mean we will -- I mean the independent agency ecosystem has over 1,000 potential prospects in it, and we doubled it in the first quarter over last year. And I think that's a trend -- I think you can't probably double it every quarter from a cyclical perspective. But I would say -- I would expect that strategy to continue to bear fruit in the form of expanded on-platform revenue and expanded conversion of EBITDA to free cash flow from where we originally projected.

是的。我們——我的意思是我們將——我的意思是獨立代理生態系統擁有超過 1,000 個潛在客戶，並且我們在第一季比去年同期增加了一倍。我認為這是一種趨勢——從週期性角度來看，你不可能每季都翻一番。但我想說的是——我預計該策略將繼續取得成果，形式是擴大平台收入，並將 EBITDA 轉化為自由現金流，超越我們最初的預期。

DJ Hynes, Canaccord Annuity.

DJ Hynes，Canaccord Annuity。

Congrats on the nice quarter. I'm glad to hear April closed equally as strong. David, you gave us some great expansion examples in telco and insurance and finance. If we think about some of the verticals that maybe you're keeping a closer eye on today in this current environment, what are those? And where would the impact show up first, right?

恭喜本季取得良好成績。我很高興聽到四月份的收官同樣強勁。大衛，您為我們提供了電信、保險和金融領域一些很好的擴張案例。如果我們考慮一下在當前環境下您可能正在密切關注的一些垂直行業，那麼它們是什麼？那麼影響力首先會體現在哪裡呢？對嗎？

Is it in ARPU? Like what are you paying attention to and what are the verticals?

是 ARPU 嗎？例如，您關注的是什麼以及垂直領域是什麼？

Yes. Sorry. Thank you, DJ. I would say, listen, I came into April most worried about automotive. We have a bunch of automotive manufacturing clients who are international in addition to manufacturing in the US, but as we all know, I think even organizations in the US that manufacturer here are bringing parts and they have supply chain issues in there.

是的。對不起。謝謝你，DJ。我想說，聽著，進入四月我最擔心的是汽車產業。除了在美國製造之外，我們還有許多國際汽車製造客戶，但眾所周知，我認為即使是在美國製造的組織也會帶來零件，並且在那裡存在供應鏈問題。

We saw the opposite. We actually saw the automotive space grow a little faster than we started looking with that pull forward, and it does not appear to be because most of the increase came from new contracts and new agreements that were signed for the calendar year or longer. But I would have been most worried about automotive. We're not seeing anything there yet.

我們看到的是相反的情況。事實上，我們看到汽車產業的成長速度比我們預期的要快一些，而且這似乎並不是因為大部分成長來自簽訂了年度或更長期限的新合約和新協議。但我最擔心的是汽車產業。我們還沒有在那裡看到任何東西。

And then retail. Right, as retailers look at their businesses, how did they perform and very similar. Through April, we've seen no disruption in the retail space. In fact, it's interesting. One retailer who I met with at the possible conference made a comment that because we are, by far, their most efficient partner, we might see additional growth out of them that we might not have expected as they shift budget from partners that don't have the type of return on investment and, quite frankly, the ability to prove it that we currently have an evidence.

然後是零售。是的，當零售商審視他們的業務時，他們的表現如何，非常相似。截至四月份，零售業並未出現任何中斷。事實上，這很有趣。我在可能的會議上遇到的一位零售商表示，由於我們是他們迄今為止最高效的合作夥伴，我們可能會看到他們帶來的額外增長，這是我們可能沒有預料到的，因為他們會將預算從那些沒有投資回報率的合作夥伴身上轉移，坦率地說，他們也沒有能力證明我們目前擁有的證據。

Chris?

克里斯？

Yes. DJ, a few points of color on the industry vertical question because it's obviously really important as you start to break down your guidance. For us, and I mentioned in the prepared remarks, on a trailing 12-month basis, 6 out of our top 10 verticals grew over 20% and it was well over 20%.

是的。DJ，關於行業垂直問題，我想提幾點看法，因為當你開始分解你的指導時，這顯然非常重要。對我們來說，我在準備好的發言中提到過，在過去的 12 個月中，我們前 10 個垂直行業中有 6 個增長了 20% 以上，而且遠遠超過了 20%。

If you look at it on a first quarter basis alone, there were 7 out of the 10 that grew north of 20% and it was well now north of 20%. As I think about those verticals, and we put in our guidance commentary our four fastest-growing verticals can grow half that rate in the second half, and we still get to our guide.

如果僅從第一季來看，那麼 10 家公司中有 7 家公司的成長率超過了 20%，而現在這一數字已經遠遠超過了 20%。當我思考這些垂直產業時，我們在指導評論中指出，成長最快的四個垂直產業在下半年的成長率可以達到該水準的一半，而我們仍然可以達到我們的指導水準。

And again, we're not seeing any data-driven reasons as to why that would be the case in our sales pipeline, et cetera. It's just our conservatism and the buffer that we're putting in place. But we've even gone to the lanes in verticals like consumer and retail where we've gone customer by customer, and we've looked at it through two dimensions, what is their business model sensitivity to China and where are they on the curve of discretionary spending. And we walked away from that analysis in consumer retail and other verticals, not having -- being very comfortable with where we've set guidance in terms of our relative exposure and their exposure.

而且，我們沒有看到任何數據驅動的原因來解釋為什麼在我們的銷售管道等中會發生這種情況。這只是我們的保守主義和我們正在採取的緩衝措施。但我們甚至進入了消費者和零售等垂直領域，對每個客戶進行調查，並從兩個維度進行觀察：他們的商業模式對中國的敏感度如何，以及他們在可自由支配支出曲線上的位置。我們放棄了對消費零售和其他垂直行業的分析，對於我們在相對曝光度和他們的曝光度方面設定的指導，我們感到非常不滿意。

Yes. Yes. Okay. That's all very helpful color. Chris, maybe this is probably not a fair question, given the way you're talking about the business and the optimism going forward.

是的。是的。好的。這些都是非常有用的顏色。克里斯，考慮到你談論業務的方式和對未來的樂觀態度，這也許不是一個公平的問題。

But if growth were to slow to sub-20%, is it right to think that the trade-off would be showing more operating leverage. Maybe you could just talk philosophically with respect to the internal scenario planning that you're doing?

但如果成長率放緩至 20% 以下，那麼認為權衡的結果就是會出現更多的經營槓桿，這種想法是否正確？也許您可以就您正在進行的內部情境規劃從哲學角度來談談？

Yes. I mean we have -- our business model is we don't have to sacrifice one for the other. As we've been growing fast, we just talked about our 17th straight quarter of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. To your point, if we were to see a slowdown we have the levers in our business. When you think about it from a sales and marketing perspective, the amount of variable spend there, obviously, if revenue were to slow, that has an element of commissions expense that you have flexibility on.

是的。我的意思是，我們的商業模式是，我們不必為了其中一個而犧牲另一個。由於我們發展迅速，我們剛剛談到連續第 17 個季度調整後 EBITDA 利潤率擴大。正如您所說，如果我們看到經濟放緩，我們的業務就會有槓桿。當你從銷售和行銷的角度考慮時，顯然，如果收入放緩，那麼可變支出的金額就會成為佣金支出的一部分，而你可以靈活地處理這些費用。

And at the same time, within G&A and R&D, which we've done for a while, we continue to move work where it could be performed best and most effectively. So continuing to use our global distribution would be a lever that we have.

同時，在我們已經做了一段時間的 G&A 和 R&D 部門內，我們繼續將工作轉移到可以最佳、最有效地完成的地方。因此，繼續利用我們的全球分銷將成為我們的一個槓桿。

But I will point out even though we didn't fully roll through the revenue beat, we did fully roll through the adjusted EBITDA beat in the first quarter through the full year as well as free cash flow for the full year. That was an important signal to -- the Street that there's more leverage in our business for us to get for the rest of the year as well.

但我要指出的是，儘管我們的收入沒有完全超出預期，但我們確實在第一季將調整後的 EBITDA 和全年的自由現金流完全超出預期。這向華爾街發出了一個重要信號，表明我們的業務在今年剩餘時間內將擁有更大的槓桿作用。

Arjun Bhatia, William Blair.

阿瓊·巴蒂亞、威廉·布萊爾。

Congrats on a strong start to the year. David, I think you were right to point out earlier in the call that you grew through 2020, you grew through the post-COVID, post slowdown. But if I think about the business, it seems like you're in a very different situation now than you were two years ago or five years ago, just the business has grown, you have a lot more growth avenues.

恭喜您今年有一個好的開始。大衛，我認為你在電話會議早些時候指出的是正確的，你在 2020 年實現了增長，在後疫情時代、後經濟放緩時期也實現了增長。但如果我考慮一下業務，你會發現現在的情況與兩年前或五年前相比有很大不同，業務已經成長，成長途徑也多了很多。

So if there is -- in the back half of the year, some macro slowdown. I'm curious what strategies you have at your disposal now that you can maybe undertake to protect the growth rate somewhat, not suggesting that you'd be immune, but I'm sure there's maybe new products or different use cases or different customer types that you can lean into at this point.

因此，如果今年下半年出現一些宏觀經濟放緩的情況。我很好奇您現在可以使用哪些策略來在一定程度上保護成長率，這並不意味著您可以免疫，但我確信現在可能有新的產品或不同的用例或不同的客戶類型可供您選擇。

But I'm curious what that looks like.

但我很好奇它是什麼樣子的。

Arjun, as usual, you're totally right. I mean when you look at our business today, the incremental use cases and the incremental channels that we have available to us allow us to move things around in a way that we even couldn't in 2020 or 2022.

阿瓊，像往常一樣，你完全正確。我的意思是，當你看看我們今天的業務時，我們可用的增量用例和增量管道使我們能夠以 2020 年或 2022 年都無法做到的方式移動事物。

The other thing that has changed is our attribution capabilities are a step function better than they were even two years ago. When we look at return on investment, the return we give clients today is superior to at any point we've ever run this business. So what we believe would happen even if the -- if macro uncertainty went to macro headwinds, which we're not seeing today, we don't believe we will be as affected as others because of that return on investment.

另一個變化是，我們的歸因能力比兩年前有了很大的改善。當我們考慮投資回報時，我們今天給予客戶的回報比經營這項業務的任何時候都要高。因此，我們相信，即使宏觀不確定性轉化為宏觀逆風（我們今天沒有看到這種情況），我們也不會像其他人一樣因為投資回報而受到影響。

Now we are already out speaking with clients showing them clear return on investment, wrapping our arms around them, and we're seeing upsells currently that we might not have expected because we're being more proactive in wrapping our arms around our clients than maybe others would be. But I do think, as Chris said, in addition to the levers we have in the EBITDA and free cash flow, we have a number of levers in growth as well.

現在我們已經開始與客戶溝通，向他們展示明確的投資回報，全力支持他們，而我們目前看到的銷售成長是我們可能沒有想到的，因為我們比其他人更積極主動地支持客戶。但我確實認為，正如克里斯所說，除了 EBITDA 和自由現金流的槓桿之外，我們在成長方面也有許多槓桿。

The other thing that I think people might not understand are our relationships with the holdcos are really helped there because as they see turbulence we are so much more profitable than the other partners they work with they're already bringing us new brands to get started in case they need to really scale those in the back half of the year. So once again, we don't want anybody to confuse conservatism with any weakness in the business.

我認為人們可能不理解的另一件事是，我們與控股公司的關係確實很有幫助，因為當他們看到動盪時，我們比他們合作的其他合作夥伴盈利得多，他們已經為我們帶來了新的品牌，以防他們需要在下半年真正擴大規模。因此，我們再次強調，我們不希望任何人將保守主義與業務弱點混為一談。

All right. Yes, perfect. Very helpful. And then one for you, Chris. It's encouraging to see the cash flow conversion get better, obviously something investors have been focused on, but what are you doing actually to drive cash flow conversion higher?

好的。是的，完美。非常有幫助。然後還有一個給你，克里斯。看到現金流轉換率不斷提高令人鼓舞，這顯然是投資者關注的重點，但您實際上做了什麼來提高現金流轉換率？

And maybe what's still available to get that metric higher through the year?

那麼，還有什麼方法可以讓這項指標在全年保持在高水準呢？

Yes. Look, something that we have talked about with investors and -- the Street is we fully expected our -- if you look at CapEx, it's just drilling on that as an example, not only do we expect that to continue to be more efficient from an EDR perspective. But you saw a really sizable tick down in CapEx, both software capitalization and data capitalization from the fourth quarter. So it's areas like that, that we talked about. We expected to see that we're executing on.

是的。你看，我們已經與投資者討論過一些事情了——華爾街完全預料到我們會——如果你看一下資本支出，這只是以它為例，我們不僅預計它會從 EDR 的角度繼續變得更加高效。但從第四季開始，你會發現資本支出（包括軟體資本化和數據資本化）都出現了大幅下降。我們討論的就是這樣的領域。我們希望看到我們正在執行。

And just more and more of the business is dropping to the bottom line. It's -- the headwind that we have is just pure timing of when the agencies pay us right now. And we're optimistic as to where we ended the first quarter free cash flow for sure.

越來越多的業務開始轉向獲利。我們現在面臨的阻力只是代理商向我們付款的時機問題。我們對第一季自由現金流的狀況肯定持樂觀態度。

Elizabeth Porter, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的伊麗莎白波特。

I first just wanted to ask on the mix between integrated and direct. The direct growth remained really strong and elevated -- well, it's like integrated just slowed a bit. So I was wondering if there was anything to call out there as it relates to customer changing their mix or agencies that typically spend more on that integrated platform.

我首先只是想問一下整合和直接的混合。直接成長仍然保持強勁且高位——嗯，就像綜合成長只是放緩了一點一樣。所以我想知道是否有任何需要注意的地方，因為它與客戶改變他們的組合或通常在該整合平台上花費更多的代理商有關。

No, Elizabeth. We're actually going through the process we expected to go through, right? So we've been saying for a while that we expected the early agencies to follow the same pattern as our first agency client, which started very, very highly on integrated and then move to direct. We're already seeing the agencies that are scaling very, very rapidly begin to move to direct a little faster than we expected them to.

不，伊麗莎白。我們實際上正在經歷我們預期要經歷的過程，對嗎？因此，我們一直在說，我們希望早期的代理商遵循與我們的第一個代理客戶相同的模式，即從高度整合開始，然後轉向直接。我們已經看到，那些擴張速度非常快的機構開始以比我們預期更快的速度轉向直接運作。

In fact, Elizabeth -- are amongst our fastest-growing channel, CTV is still the fastest, but social grew really nicely. So nothing there at all that alarmed us or caused us any concern.

事實上，伊麗莎白是我們成長最快的頻道之一，CTV 仍然是最快的，但社交成長也非常好。所以那裡根本沒有什麼讓我們驚慌或擔心的事情。

Great. And then just as my follow-up, I wanted to just get more perspective on how you're thinking about the growth opportunity with agencies longer term. I think it was about 20% of the business last year. And given the move more into the independent side is to -- could we start to think about the agency business as being a majority piece of the business in the not-too-distant future? And then any more in term changes to be thinking about as it relates to the cohort in 2025.

偉大的。然後，作為我的後續問題，我想更多地了解您如何看待與代理商的長期成長機會。我認為它佔去年業務量的 20% 左右。考慮到進一步轉向獨立業務——我們是否可以開始考慮在不久的將來將代理商業務作為業務的主要部分？然後，我們還需要考慮與 2025 年人群相關的其他術語變化。

Yes. So let me say that in order for that agency business to get 50%, it would have to grow substantially faster than we're currently growing and what we expect. So I think it's going to continue to grow. It will continue to inch up as a percentage of revenue. as they move from indirect to direct, I think we'll continue to see on platform and cost of goods sold continue to get better.

是的。所以我想說，為了讓代理業務達到 50%，其成長速度必須遠遠快於我們目前的成長速度和預期。所以我認為它會繼續增長。其占收入的比例將持續緩慢上升。隨著他們從間接轉向直接，我認為我們將繼續看到平台和銷售成本繼續改善。

We're just -- right now, we're seeing that as very, very solid. But our direct-to-enterprise business is still growing very rapidly. So we're not seeing a slowdown there. And I will also point out that I think it's important to note that the independent agencies, of which we doubled that business in Q1 over Q4, and we expect to continue to grow that at an accelerated pace, really acts like the enterprise business. You're platforming there.

我們只是——現在，我們認為這非常非常可靠。但我們的直接面向企業的業務仍在快速成長。因此，我們並未看到那裡出現放緩。我還要指出的是，我認為值得注意的是，獨立代理商的業務在第一季比第四季翻了一番，我們預計將繼續以加速的速度成長，這實際上就像企業業務一樣。你正在那裡搭建平台。

Cost of goods sold is very, very low. And we're able to work with them as it relates to cash flow. So I think right now, we've got a really good mix, and I think it's going to continue at its current pace.

銷售成本非常非常低。我們能夠與他們合作解決現金流問題。所以我認為現在我們有一個非常好的組合，而且我認為它會以目前的速度繼續下去。

Ryan MacDonald, Needham & Co.

麥克唐納（Ryan MacDonald），Needham & Co.

Congrats on a nice quarter. David, curious to know about how the generative AI adoption continues to trend throughout Q1, particularly with the launch of [agent Studio]. And as you think about within this environment, are you seeing maybe a tighter budgetary environment if that happens, being a catalyst for faster adoption of AI agents doing more with less? Or do you think this causes maybe more of a pausing on some AI initiatives? What's the sense you're getting from your customers?

恭喜本季取得良好業績。David 很想知道第一季生成式人工智慧的採用趨勢如何，尤其是在【特工工作室】當您考慮這種環境時，如果發生這種情況，您是否會看到預算環境更加緊張，從而成為更快地採用人工智能代理以更少的投入做更多事情的催化劑？或者您認為這可能會導致一些人工智慧計劃暫停？您從客戶那裡得到什麼感覺？

We are not seeing any pausing whatsoever, Ryan, on AI adoption. In fact, if anything, I think the uncertainty is accelerating it. We saw a meaningful step-up in adoption in Q1. I think that's one of the reasons you saw the numbers flow through. Our -- our AI adoption leads to a substantially higher revenue from customers who adopt it.

瑞安，我們沒有看到人工智慧的採用有任何暫停。事實上，如果有的話，我認為不確定性正在加速這一進程。我們在第一季看到了採用率的顯著提升。我想這就是你看到這些數字流動的原因之一。我們的人工智慧採用為採用它的客戶帶來了大幅更高的收入。

And we continue to invest in it. As Chris said, our percentage of capital investment lowered as a percentage of revenue. We expect that to continue, but that's because revenue is growing so fast. We're still spending more money on innovation almost exclusively in artificial intelligence than we've ever spent on innovation in our entire corporate life. So we continue to invest there.

我們將繼續對此進行投資。正如克里斯所說，我們的資本投資佔收入的比例降低了。我們預計這種情況會持續下去，但這是因為收入成長太快了。我們在人工智慧創新上投入的資金幾乎比我們整個企業歷史上在創新上投入的資金還要多。所以我們繼續在那裡投資。

We continue to see adoption there. And I believe that's one of the reasons we saw the numbers come in where they did and why we feel very comfortable raising the year.

我們繼續看到那裡的採用。我相信這就是我們看到這些數字如此之高的原因之一，也是我們非常放心提高年度表現的原因之一。

Super helpful color. Chris, maybe for you as a follow-up. I noticed that in the updated guidance that the expectation for LiveIntent didn't really change much. I know it's obviously a small portion of the business relative to the overall size, but is there any reason to believe that, that business acts differently or would be more or less resilient than the core business to the extent you have that visibility, given how new it is?

超有用的顏色。克里斯，也許對你來說這是一個後續問題。我注意到，在更新後的指南中，對 LiveIntent 的期望並沒有太大變化。我知道相對於整體規模而言，這顯然只是業務的一小部分，但考慮到它是新業務，是否有理由相信，該業務的行為方式會有所不同，或者在您所了解的範圍內，其彈性會比核心業務更大或更小？

Look, it performed right in line with what we expected it to do, to get to like $19.5 million compared to the $20 million guide that we had in place. So it's right on the trajectory for the year that we expect it to be on. What you're not necessarily seeing show up in LiveIntent because that's their stand-alone businesses performance are all of the synergies and the products that we're creating that, that is actually -- that's benefiting the organic side of the business to some degree.

看起來，它的表現完全符合我們的預期，達到了 1950 萬美元，而我們之前設定的指導價是 2000 萬美元。因此，它完全符合我們預期的今年的發展軌跡。您不一定會在 LiveIntent 中看到這些，因為這是他們獨立業務的表現，而這些都是我們正在創造的協同效應和產品，實際上，這在某種程度上有利於業務的有機方面。

But combined, the stand-alone capabilities in the business model of LiveIntent has added new channels for us to sell, which is additive to the business model. And then the products that we're jointly developing with them that are in market are actively being sold and contributing to the overall performance of the company. So very, very happy with how LiveIntent is performing out of the gate.

但綜合起來，LiveIntent 商業模式中的獨立功能為我們增加了新的銷售管道，這對商業模式來說是一種補充。我們與他們共同開發的上市產品正在積極銷售，並為公司的整體表現做出貢獻。我對 LiveIntent 的初始表現非常滿意。

Richard Baldry, ROTH Capital Partners.

羅仕證券資本合夥公司的理查德‧鮑德里 (Richard Baldry)。

So you're seeing the agencies mix move overall from indirect to direct. I'm curious, is that because some of their brands are maturing moving along that or as they're onboarding new brands, are they bringing them on also more direct given they've the experiences they've had with initial clients?

因此，您會看到代理機構組合總體上從間接轉向直接。我很好奇，是不是因為他們的一些品牌正在逐漸成熟，或者因為他們正在引入新品牌，考慮到他們與初始客戶的經驗，他們是否會更直接地引入這些品牌？

Thanks, Rich. The answer is yes to both. Because we're able to evidence that the on-platform business delivers a higher return on investment than the integrated component of the business, we're just seeing the agency holdcos move clients over faster. Some are starting there. A big chunk of them are migrating from integrated to direct, but both of those are tailwinds right now for that part of the business.

謝謝，里奇。答案都是肯定的。因為我們能夠證明平台業務比業務的綜合部分帶來更高的投資回報，所以我們看到代理控股公司轉移客戶的速度更快。有些人就是從那裡開始的。他們中的很大一部分正在從綜合轉型為直接轉型，但這兩者都是目前該部分業務的順風。

Right. And given the strength strategically of the LiveIntent acquisition, curious your thoughts overall on M&A as you go forward. You've been using a lot of free cash flow to do buybacks. But are there other tuck-in technologies or channels that you'd still like to be adding to the suite of offerings?

正確的。鑑於 LiveIntent 收購的策略優勢，我很好奇您對未來併購的整體看法。您一直在使用大量自由現金流進行回購。但是，您是否還想將其他附加技術或管道添加到產品套件中？

Yes. I mean, Rich, as you know, we'll continue to look at our M&A pillars, and we have a very, very strong balance sheet, and we're currently spending free cash flow on share buybacks. But quite frankly, I've been spending a disproportionate percentage of my time taking calls from people trying to buy us over the last few weeks. And that's been keeping us busy.

是的。我的意思是，里奇，如你所知，我們將繼續關注我們的併購支柱，我們擁有非常非常強勁的資產負債表，目前我們正在將自由現金流用於股票回購。但坦白說，過去幾週我花了大量時間接聽那些試圖收購我們的人的電話。這讓我們一直很忙。

Matt Swanson, RBC Capital Markets.

加拿大皇家銀行資本市場 (RBC Capital Markets) 的 Matt Swanson。

Yes, my congrats on the quarter. It's not too much trouble, another macro one. I guess typically in a macro downturn, we see the expand motion come easier than land, right, because your existing customers already get the ROI joke and story. Throughout those 2020 and 2022 period, did you see any difference in mix where maybe it was easier to focus on ARPU than the new lands?

是的，我對本季表示祝賀。不算太麻煩，又一個宏。我想，通常在宏觀經濟低迷時期，我們會看到擴張行動比土地更容易，對吧，因為你現有的客戶已經了解了投資回報率的笑話和故事。在 2020 年和 2022 年期間，您是否發現產品組合有任何差異，也許關注 ARPU 比關注新土地更容易？

It's interesting, Matt. If you look at our net revenue retention range, it's been like $1.11 to $1.14 since -- from 2021 to 2024. And if you look at our growth rate, it's more or less half what the growth rate has been over that period as well.

這很有趣，馬特。如果你看一下我們的淨收入保留範圍，自 2021 年至 2024 年以來，它一直保持在 1.11 美元至 1.14 美元之間。如果你看一下我們的成長率，你會發現它大約是那個時期成長率的一半。

So half from existing, half from new, and it's been very consistent. And that's also what our expectation is going to be for 2025. It's about half the growth comes from the base, half from new. I think it's an interesting point.

因此，一半來自現有的，一半來自新的，而且非常一致。這也是我們對 2025 年的期望。大約一半的成長來自基礎，一半來自新的。我認為這是一個有趣的觀點。

David, you were going to add?

大衛，你還要補充嗎？

Yes. I was going to -- I'll answer the question a little more towards what I think you were asking. No, we didn't see an increase in retain or grow versus new customer acquisition from a use case perspective as it related to '22 or '20. But what I would say, and Chris is, of course, right, when you've got 111% to 114% of your revenue becomes your net retention rate, that often is how do we move from one use case to 2.

是的。我正要——我會更詳細地回答你所問的問題。不，從用例角度來看，與 22 年或 20 年相比，我們沒有看到保留或成長與新客戶獲取量增加。但我想說的是，克里斯當然是對的，當你的收入達到 111% 到 114% 時，你的淨留存率就會提高，這通常就是我們如何從一個用例轉向 2 個用例。

And I would say that customers that are traditionally doing new acquisition, which is what I think Chris was trying to get across, we'll often expand into retention and monetization in a downturn faster then they will when things are not uncertain.

我想說的是，對於那些傳統上進行新收購的客戶來說，我認為克里斯試圖表達的就是這一點，在經濟低迷時期，我們通常會比情況尚不明朗時更快地擴展到保留和貨幣化。

So listen, it's good to have all three use cases. It's good that they all grew really, really well in the first quarter. It's really good that they all grew really well through April. And we think that's a trend that's going to continue.

所以聽著，擁有這三種用例是件好事。很高興看到它們在第一季都實現了非常好的增長。到四月它們都長得很好，這真是太好了。我們認為這種趨勢將會持續下去。

That's really helpful. And then I know previously, when you've talked about guidance, you've mentioned the Zeta Economic Index is something that you guys look at as a barometer of health. Is that still a good way to think about for us to keep an eye on to think about the overall, I guess, macro environment as it relates to your business throughout the year?

這真的很有幫助。然後我知道之前，當您談到指導時，您提到 Zeta 經濟指數是您視為健康晴雨表的東西。對我們來說，這是否仍然是一種很好的思考方式，讓我們專注於與您全年業務相關的整體宏觀環境？

Yes. So we definitely look at the ZEI and I would tell you, even in the most recent ZEI, we're seeing more concern from customers than slowing spend. And I think that's a trend that continues, which is one of the reasons I think that enterprises that we work with at least have not cut back. I would not, if there were to be an unexpected downturn in the ZEI, look at that as an unexpected downturn in Zeta.

是的。因此，我們肯定會關注 ZEI，而且我會告訴你，即使在最近的 ZEI 中，我們看到客戶的擔憂也多於支出放緩。我認為這種趨勢將會持續下去，這也是我認為與我們合作的企業至少沒有削減開支的原因之一。如果 ZEI 出現意外下滑，我不會將其視為 Zeta 的意外下滑。

I would simply say it is a good indicator of what is happening behind the scenes with the economy. I will further say and I'll point out that what we often see is in times of uncertainty Zeta has grown faster than we expected it to because of our ability to drive return on investment that other enterprises we compete with do not do -- and that, to me, would be the better thing to look at.

我只是想說，它是經濟幕後發生的事情的一個很好的指標。我還要進一步指出的是，我們經常看到的是，在充滿不確定性的時期，Zeta 的成長速度超出了我們的預期，因為我們有能力推動投資回報，而我們的競爭對手卻做不到這一點——對我來說，這是更好的事情。

And listen, there's not a lot of companies that are raising annual guidance right now, raising the quarter. We wouldn't be doing that if we didn't feel we were in a position to do it after obviously beating guidance and raising guidance 15 consecutive quarters as a public company.

聽著，目前沒有太多公司提高年度業績指引或季度業績指引。作為一家上市公司，我們連續 15 個季度明顯超出預期並提高預期，如果我們不認為自己有能力做到這一點，我們就不會這樣做。

Jackson Ader, KeyBanc.

傑克遜·阿德（Jackson Ader），KeyBanc。

David, can I just confirm, did you say that you've been fielding calls from people interested in buying Zeta the company or buying Zeta's software?

大衛，我可以確認一下嗎，你有沒有說過你一直在接到有意購買 Zeta 公司或 Zeta 軟體的人的電話？

No. It was the prior, but I probably shouldn't have said it. It was -- yeah, but it's neither here nor there. The reality is, right now, we are executing the company. We -- as we continue to grow and take massive market share, we're just getting a lot of attention on that side that we hadn't gotten in the past.

不。這是先前的事，但我可能不該這麼說。是的——是的，但這無關緊要。事實是，現在我們正在執行公司業務。隨著我們繼續發展並佔據大量市場份額，我們獲得了過去從未獲得的關注。

Understood. Second question, a little bit maybe capital allocation was, right? So the idea that you're looking to buy back more shares, $25 million a quarter, you have $30 million --or $30 million, $40 million left. And coupled with the comment that you continue to spend money on innovation, but why spend the $25 million, $30 million, $40 million buying back a relatively small number of your shares each quarter? If you are seeing a direct correlation to the amount of money you were spending on innovation, driving revenue growth.

明白了。第二個問題，也許資本配置有點對，對嗎？因此，如果您希望回購更多股票，每季 2500 萬美元，那麼您還剩下 3000 萬美元——或者 3000 萬美元、4000 萬美元。並且有評論說，你們繼續在創新上投入資金，但為什麼每個季度要花費 2500 萬美元、3000 萬美元、4000 萬美元回購相對較少數量的股票？如果您發現創新支出與收入成長之間存在直接關聯，那麼就需要收入成長。

Listen, first of all, that's a great question, Jackson. If we could spend more money on innovation faster, we would. The challenge is we are very, very selective about the engineers we bring into this company, the architects we bring into this company.

聽著，首先，傑克遜，這是一個很好的問題。如果我們能夠更快地在創新上投入更多資金，我們就會這麼做。我們面臨的挑戰是，我們對聘請的工程師和建築師非常挑剔。

And we have a large number of open job racks currently. So we are, quite frankly, in a position right now that we're able to deliver on the innovation and quite frankly, sales rep goals that we are looking to deliver on while simultaneously retiring shares.

目前我們有大量空缺職位。因此，坦白說，我們現在能夠實現創新，坦白說，實現我們希望實現的銷售代表目標，同時退出股票市場。

I think the buyback goes back to our M&A thesis around our five pillars of M&A. And as I look out on the landscape at the multiples that we've been trading at with the profitability we have I don't think I could buy any company at that rate. So by retiring our own stock, it benefits all of our existing shareholders who we want to reward as a part of sticking with us.

我認為回購回歸到了我們圍繞併購五大支柱的併購理論。當我看到我們的本益比和獲利能力時，我認為我無法以這樣的價格收購任何公司。因此，透過退出我們自己的股票，這將使我們所有的現有股東受益，我們希望回報他們，作為他們繼續支持我們的一部分。

Koji Ikeda, Bank of America.

美國銀行的 Koji Ikeda。

I wanted to go back to the commentary on the demand environment and the guidance and the conservatism in the guidance. And so loud and clear, you guys aren't seeing any change in the demand environment. And it sounds like the conversations you're having with customers are really good. And I totally get the conservatism. I really do appreciate all the color that you gave on the call in the prepared remarks about the guidance.

我想回到對需求環境、指導以及指導中的保守主義的評論。很顯然，你們沒有看到需求環境有任何改變。聽起來您與客戶的對話非常愉快。我完全理解這種保守主義。我真的很感謝您在電話中就指導意見所做的準備好的說明。

But I'm just curious, it feels like something outside of just the high-level macro uncertainty is informing the more conservative second half. And so if you could if you could share what are you seeing? Or maybe the better question is, what are you not seeing out there that is tilting you more conservative in the second half?

但我只是好奇，感覺除了高層宏觀不確定性之外的一些東西正在影響更保守的下半年。那麼，如果您可以分享您看到了什麼嗎？或者更好的問題是，你沒有看到什麼，導致你在下半年採取更保守的立場？

Koji, thank you for your question. Let me be 100% clear. This is conservatism. That's it. We are not seeing any change to our business.

Koji，謝謝你的提問。讓我百分之百講清楚。這就是保守主義。就是這樣。我們沒有看到我們的業務發生任何變化。

I'll remind you, 90%-plus of our customers have been with us for greater than one year. We have seen no pullbacks. We've seen no pauses in this environment. We thought that it spoke volumes to the quality of our business to raise the second quarter and, quite frankly, to raise the year at all in an environment where most companies are lucky to be reaffirming.

我要提醒您，我們 90% 以上的客戶與我們合作的時間已超過一年。我們沒有看到任何回調。我們沒有看到這種環境出現任何停頓。我們認為，在大多數公司都很幸運能夠再次確認業績的環境下，第二季業績的成長，坦白說，全年業績的成長，充分說明了我們業務的品質。

So we want to very clearly send a message, the business is executing as we would hope it would, and we are seeing nothing in the back half, but at the same time, we want to show we're being conservative and thoughtful as it relates to the uncertain to the environment.

因此，我們想非常清楚地傳達一個訊息，即業務正在按照我們所希望的方式執行，而且我們在後半部分沒有看到任何進展，但與此同時，我們想表明，在涉及環境不確定性時，我們是保守和深思熟慮的。

Yes. Koji, just this week, we signed two very, very large contracts. So -- and I was very specific in my comments to say every metric we're looking at right now, just as consistent with what David said, would say that we would do our normal much bigger race. We just, as David noted, what is happening by other public companies right now is we wanted to follow suit.

是的。Koji，就在本週，我們簽署了兩份非常大的合約。所以——我在評論中非常明確地指出，我們現在所關注的每一個指標，就像大衛所說的那樣，都表明我們會進行正常的、更大規模的比賽。正如大衛所說，我們只是想效法其他上市公司現在的做法。

Yes. Listen, we listened to or read the transcripts of, call it, 100 different earnings calls before getting to ours. And we wanted to make sure that we were showing shareholders and potential shareholders, not just that the business is executing incredibly well. But that we were meaningfully de-risking our back half in a situation where we could then show that we would be able to continue to beat and raise as a company and continue to execute.

是的。聽著，在聽取我們的財報電話會議之前，我們已經聽取或閱讀了 100 個不同的財報電話會議記錄。我們希望確保向股東和潛在股東展示的不僅僅是業務執行得非常好。但我們正在有意義地降低後半部分的風險，這樣我們就可以證明我們作為一家公司能夠繼續擊敗和提高，並繼續執行。

Got it. And maybe just a quick follow-up here. On the ARPU front, we did notice that sequential decline. I heard you on the prepared remarks, LiveIntent is playing a factor there. Presumably, there's some political -- postpolitical cycle deflation in ARPU happening there, but I just wanted to be sure there isn't anything else to call out in that ARPU number for the first quarter.

知道了。這裡也許只是快速跟進。在 ARPU 方面，我們確實注意到了連續的下降。我聽到了您準備好的發言，LiveIntent 在其中發揮了重要作用。據推測，那裡的 ARPU 出現了一些政治——後政治週期通貨緊縮，但我只是想確保第一季的 ARPU 數字中沒有其他值得關注的因素。

No. And that ARPU sequential decline is pretty typical from the fourth quarter to a first quarter, Koji, if you look at it on a year-over-year basis, whether it's in total, up 12% or even the superscale ARPU, which is up almost 25% year over year. Yes, we're -- and by the way, we added 11 super-scaled customers sequentially quarter-to-quarter. It's one of our bigger jumps we've had. So now ARPU looked great to us.

不。Koji，如果以年比來看，從第四季度到第一季度，ARPU 的連續下降是相當典型的，無論是整體成長 12%，或是超大規模 ARPU 年比成長近 25%。是的，順便說一下，我們每季都連續增加了 11 個超大規模客戶。這是我們取得的較大飛躍之一。所以現在我們的 ARPU 看起來很棒。

And I mentioned the fastest-growing cohort are those scale customers using now three or more channels is up 42% year over year.

我提到，成長最快的群體是那些使用三個或更多管道的規模客戶，其數量年增了 42%。

We were particularly proud Koji to get to 159 super-scaled customers, and that doesn't include a number of superscale clients we've signed in the last 30 days.

我們特別為 Koji 能擁有 159 個超大規模客戶而感到自豪，這還不包括我們在過去 30 天內簽約的超大規模客戶數量。

Brian Schwartz, Oppenheimer.

布萊恩·施瓦茨，奧本海默。

David, I wanted to circle back on the AI Agent Studio product. Just wanted to ask you what you're seeing in terms of consumption trends. Are the early customer adopters? Are they fully scaled in production with Agentic AI and they're coming back to buy more from you? Or is it still early in most arts and piloting the deployments?

大衛，我想回顧一下 AI Agent Studio 產品。只是想問一下您看到了什麼消費趨勢。早期客戶是採用者嗎？他們是否已透過 Agentic AI 全面擴大生產規模，並會回來向您購買更多產品？或者說，在大多數技術和試點部署方面還處於早期階段？

No, Brian. We have a meaningful percentage of our customers who have adopted the Agentic AI. And I believe the number is customers who have adopted it are growing at greater than 40% from a consumption revenue perspective year over year. So you're seeing meaningfully faster growth from organizations that adopt the Agentic AI. The big leap, which is in beta is stringing them together, which is an Agentic Workflow.

不，布萊恩。我們有相當一部分客戶採用了 Agentic AI。我相信，從消費收入的角度來看，採用該服務的客戶數量年增超過 40%。因此，您會看到採用 Agentic AI 的組織實現了顯著更快的成長。目前處於測試階段的重大飛躍是將它們串聯在一起，這就是 Agentic Workflow。

And I want to be clear, when you have four agents strong together, each agent that you add to the equation is a step function better than having just one. So one agent would be regular two would be a step function better three would be two step functions better and four would be three step functions better. So we're seeing massive opportunities around that beta that I think will really bear fruit in the back half of the year.

我想明確一點，當你有四個強大的代理一起時，你添加到等式中的每個代理都會比只有一個代理具有更好的階躍函數。因此，一個代理將是常規的，兩個代理將是更好的階躍函數，三個代理將是更好的兩個階躍函數，而四個代理將是更好的三個階躍函數。因此，我們看到了圍繞該測試版的巨大機遇，我認為這些機會將在今年下半年真正結出碩果。

David. And then the follow-up I have for Chris, what can you share with us from what you're seeing in the chips in terms of the leading indicators? Just thinking about your pipeline, maybe the rate of RFPs, the cadence of conversions, the size of your lands, how have they been trending in Q1 and year-to-date?

大衛。然後我要問克里斯的後續問題是，就領先指標而言，您可以與我們分享您在晶片中看到的情況嗎？只要考慮一下您的管道，也許是 RFP 的速度、轉換的節奏、土地的面積，它們在第一季和年初至今的趨勢如何？

Thanks, Brian. Trending similar to how they ended last year, sales pipeline growing faster than the overall revenue of the company, which has always been our model, and that continues to be the case. Very healthy RFP backdrop. And then sales productivity where at all really the rubber hits the road, we're seeing very strong sales productivity from all of our cohorts. Those sellers that are in their first year, that 12- to 24-month period and then our most experienced sellers continue to be our most productive.

謝謝，布萊恩。與去年年底的趨勢類似，銷售通路的成長速度超過了公司的整體收入，這一直是我們的模式，而且這種情況仍然持續。非常健康的 RFP 背景。然後是銷售生產力，這是真正發揮作用的地方，我們看到所有團隊的銷售生產力都非常強勁。那些處於第一年、12 到 24 個月期間的賣家以及我們最有經驗的賣家仍然是我們最有效率的。

Yes. I mean, Brian, I'll just make an off-the-cuff comment that I've never seen our pipeline RFPs or conversions at a better place than they are right now. We've signed three of the biggest deals we've ever done in the last 90 days.

是的。我的意思是，布萊恩，我只是即興地評論一下，我從未見過我們的管道 RFP 或轉換情況比現在更好。在過去的 90 天裡，我們簽署了三項有史以來最大的交易。

Zack Cummins, B. Riley Securities.

扎克·康明斯 (Zack Cummins)，B. Riley 證券。

David and Chris. Chris, I wanted to start off. I don't think I saw it in your script or within the presentation, but in terms of all the new scaled customers added here in Q1, is it fair to assume essentially all of those are from the organic business rather than from any live intent customers?

大衛和克里斯。克里斯，我想開始一下。我認為我沒有在您的腳本或簡報中看到它，但就第一季增加的所有新規模客戶而言，是否可以公平地假設所有這些都來自有機業務而不是來自任何實時意向客戶？

It's all fully integrated now. There are some LiveIntent customers that are contributing to it, but it's all fully blended now. That obviously has the -- if it's helping skilled customer count, it's a drag on scaled customer ARPU because they tend to have smaller ARPUs to begin with. But really, I mean, could not be happier with how skilled customer count in total start of the year.

現在一切都已完全整合。有一些 LiveIntent 客戶正在為其做出貢獻，但現在一切都已完全融合。顯然，如果它有助於增加熟練客戶的數量，那麼它就會拖累規模化客戶的 ARPU，因為他們一開始的 ARPU 就比較小。但實際上，我的意思是，對於今年年初熟練客戶總數的增加，我感到非常高興。

And by the way, they didn't have many large customers. So even in the case where somebody might have been attributed to them, we would have had to grow them in many cases to that rate to get them to there.

順便說一句，他們沒有很多大客戶。因此，即使在某人可能被歸因於他們的情況下，我們也必須在許多情況下將其增長到那個速度才能達到那個水平。

Yes. Incidentally, we talked about earlier, but it just came to mind, one of the verticals that contributed the most scaled customers quarter-over-quarter was actually consumer retail.

是的。順便說一句，我們之前談過，但我剛剛想到，每個季度貢獻最多規模客戶的垂直行業之一實際上是消費者零售。

Got it. That's great to hear. And my one follow-up question, maybe geared towards David. I know most of the major holding companies, at least on their commentary in mid-April, with the macro uncertainty, we're talking about leaning into their more durable businesses, which tend to be the data-driven marketing initiatives. So just curious if that's potentially accelerating any opportunity that you see with these agencies?

知道了。聽到這個消息真是太好了。我的一個後續問題可能是針對大衛的。我知道大多數大型控股公司，至少在 4 月中旬的評論中，由於宏觀不確定性，我們正在談論傾向於更持久的業務，這往往是數據驅動的行銷計劃。所以我好奇這是否有可能加速您在這些機構中看到的任何機會？

Or just any update around transits conversations with major holding companies?

或只是有關與主要控股公司的過境對話的任何更新？

Yes. No, it's meaningfully accelerate there. We've had -- we opened -- we talked about the fact that we've had one agency holdco that we've worked for a long time that continues to grow nicely. We had one agency holdco that continues to scale at rates that we've not seen before. We now have a third one scaling at the same rates as the second.

是的。不，那裡的加速是有意義的。我們已經——我們開業了——我們談到這樣一個事實：我們已經與一家代理控股公司合作了很長時間，並且一直在良好地發展。我們有一家代理控股公司，其規模持續以我們從未見過的速度擴大。我們現在有了第三個，其縮放比例與第二個相同。

And I think a lot of that goes back to our ability to provide them with data-driven marketing. I think it's also really important to note that even the three of the -- we've got five of the eight large agency holdcos, you're starting to see number two, three, and eight scale meaningfully right now.

我認為這很大程度上歸功於我們為他們提供數據驅動行銷的能力。我認為同樣值得注意的是，即使是這三家——我們擁有八家大型代理控股公司中的五家，你現在也開始看到第二家、第三家和第八家的規模顯著擴大。

And I think part of that goes back to two things. One, we are often their most profitable partner. So as they're looking at uncertainty, they're looking to drive greater margin opportunity for themselves by using the Zeta marketing platform and our data cloud; and two, back to your point, the ability to show true return on investment to their clients.

我認為這部分可以歸結為兩件事。第一，我們往往是他們最賺錢的合作夥伴。因此，當他們面臨不確定性時，他們希望透過使用 Zeta 行銷平台和我們的數據雲為自己帶來更大的利潤機會；第二，回到你的觀點，向客戶展示真正的投資回報的能力。

Gabriela Borges, Goldman Sachs.

加布里埃拉·博爾赫斯，高盛。

David, I wanted to ask you a little bit about what you're seeing with replacement cycles for some of the marketing cloud competitors that have talked about having their RNA strategies. Just curious if you're seeing a continuation in the acceleration trend that you've talked about previously and if there's any other color you had out here.

大衛，我想問您一些關於一些行銷雲競爭對手的更換週期的問題，他們已經談到了他們的 RNA 策略。我只是好奇您是否看到了之前談到的加速趨勢的延續，以及這裡是否有其他顏色。

Yes. Thank you, Gabriel. That is a great question, and the answer is yes. We continue to see the replacement cycle, which we believe is still in early innings accelerating. And it's interesting because when you think about our platform, because we rearchitected and relaunched in 2021 by putting AI agents and data as native to the application layer, there's no latency in the processing inside of our Marketing Cloud, whereas all of our competitors currently are operating with AI outside of the core cloud.

是的。謝謝你，加布里埃爾。這是一個很好的問題，答案是肯定的。我們繼續看到替換週期，我們認為該週期仍處於早期階段並正在加速。這很有趣，因為當你考慮我們的平台時，因為我們在 2021 年重新架構並重新啟動，將 AI 代理和數據作為原生應用層，所以我們的營銷雲內部的處理沒有延遲，而我們所有的競爭對手目前都在核心雲之外使用 AI。

So you leave the cloud to the algorithm to acquire algorithm then has to do a data dip to go back to the algorithm to make an answer and then go back and tell the marketing cloud what to do. That tech debt is destroying return on investment for enterprises. And we are seeing, as a part of that marketing cloud replacement cycles are continuing to grow, and we expect that trend to continue.

因此，您將雲端留給演算法來獲取演算法，然後必須進行資料探勘才能回到演算法來得出答案，然後返回並告訴行銷雲該做什麼。技術債正在摧毀企業的投資報酬率。我們看到，作為行銷的一部分，雲端替換週期正在持續成長，我們預計這種趨勢將會持續下去。

Clark Wright, D.A. Davidson.

克拉克·賴特（Clark Wright），地方檢察官戴維森。

Awesome. There's been some recent events within the walled garden. I was wondering if you could talk about maybe the opportunity that a fragmented ecosystem might have for Zeta, especially with global agencies since they typically start with social media at their first use case.

驚人的。圍牆花園內最近發生了一些事件。我想知道您是否可以談談分散的生態系統可能為 Zeta 帶來的機會，尤其是對於全球機構而言，因為他們通常從社交媒體開始作為他們的第一個用例。

Yes. I mean I wouldn't -- I mean, I think people are still talking about how Microsoft was supposed to be getting broken up. What I will caveat Clark, is that if there is a meaningful breakup in the ecosystem of the large walled gardens, that would be a massive opportunity for Zeta to work with those new assets by some interesting assets or partner with interesting assets. And we're already looking at what that could look like. But once again, I don't want to put the cart before the horse here.

是的。我的意思是我不會——我的意思是，我認為人們仍在談論微軟應該如何被拆分。我要向克拉克提出警告的是，如果大型圍牆花園的生態系統出現重大分裂，那麼對於 Zeta 來說，這將是一個巨大的機會，可以透過一些有趣的資產來利用這些新資產，或者與有趣的資產合作。我們已經在觀察它將會是什麼樣子。但再次強調，我不想在這裡本末倒置。

I'm not sure we'll see anything happen anytime soon. Although if it does, that would be a meaningful accelerator to our business.

我不確定我們是否會很快看到任何事情發生。但如果它確實如此，那將對我們的業務產生重大的加速作用。

Got it. And then as a follow-up here, you talked about multiple multiyear deals. Can you talk about maybe the change in duration of contracts that you've seen over the last few years? And what do you expect and which is implied by the guide I said you first?

知道了。然後作為後續問題，您談到了多項多年期交易。您能談談過去幾年合約期限的變化嗎？而您期望什麼以及我首先告訴您的指南暗示了什麼？

So interestingly enough, I would say most of our early agency holdco deals had no contract. It was a monthly agreement that we would just agree to operate together and go from there. And we now have multiyear deals on the three largest and scaling the fastest and at least one-year deals with everybody else. So it's really giving us a lot of long-term visibility. Our largest agency holdco client, where, quite frankly, we're working across dozens of brands, and we're working across mobile agencies that are a subset of it.

有趣的是，我想說我們早期的大多數代理控股公司交易都沒有合約。這是一份每月協議，我們只是同意一起運作並從那裡開始。現在，我們與三家最大的公司簽訂了多年的協議，並與擴張最快的公司簽訂了至少一年的協議。因此它確實為我們提供了許多長期的可視性。我們最大的代理商控股客戶，坦白說，我們與數十個品牌合作，並與其中的行動代理商合作。

It rolls up to one enterprise. But in that case, they just signed a meaningful multiyear deal, which we were very pleased about.

它累計到一個企業。但在這種情況下，他們剛剛簽署了一份有意義的多年協議，我們對此感到非常高興。

Awesome. Thank you.

驚人的。謝謝。

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session, which concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

我們的問答環節已經結束，今天的電話會議也結束了。現在您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。