Recently, we have started to see some green shoots from our recent sales reorganization and portfolio-wide go-to-market strategy. Audience momentum around AI power content has started to open up new monetization opportunities with clients. For example, in Q3, Reno Tahoe Tourism selected BuzzFeed to develop a multi-faceted campaign that leveraged the true power of BuzzFeed’s scale, AI technology and reach to inspire seasonal travel to the region. Tasty has also made strides in introducing new content for its app-based audience, launching an in-app meal planner sponsored by Bush’s Beans. Clients excitement around ComplexCon is also building. In September, Complex announced it would welcome returning title sponsors eBay, Espolon Tequila and Toyota back to ComplexCon 2023.
Although it is early, we are encouraged by this development, but we have much more work to do in order to combat the monetization pressures we are facing in the current environment. With the changes we made earlier this year to realign the sales team, we are better positioned now to drive speed and efficiency and improve sales execution. And as we continue to ramp up these new products and initiatives with clients, we are committed to building a content creation model that makes our creative teams more efficient and sustainably expand our output without increasing fixed costs. Before I wrap up, I want to briefly address our liquidity position. We ended the quarter with $42 million in cash and cash equivalents, $1 million higher quarter-over-quarter despite one-time restructuring payments made in the quarter.
Further, these fully executed restructuring actions have driven a significant reduction in our go-forward cash cost structure. And with the restructuring payment behind us and in line of sight of a seasonal lift in Q4 revenues relatively to Q3, we are continuing to protect our cash position. As always, we continue to explore additional opportunities to reduce cash-based expenses and improve our overall liquidity position. I also want to thank Felicia for the hard work and efforts during her tenure at BuzzFeed and for creating succession with Matt Omer. Matt has been a key member of the finance team for years now, and I’m excited about working closely with him. You will hear more about Matt in upcoming earnings call. Thank you, everyone. I will now hand the call to Felicia to discuss our financial results and outlook.
Felicia DellaFortuna : Thank you, Marcela. Although we delivered third quarter results in line with our August outlook for both revenue and adjusted EBITDA, the significant year-over-year declines in revenue reflect the ongoing monetization and traffic challenges we are facing. Overall revenues for Q3 2023 declined 29% year-over-year to $73.3 million with performance by revenue line as follows. Advertising revenues declined 35% year-over-year to $32.6 million as ongoing competition for both ad dollars and audience time continue to pressure both advertiser demand and pricing. Content revenues declined 32% year-over-year to $26.2 million, driven primarily by a decline in the number of branded content advertisers as well as the timing of feature film delivery and release relative to the year ago quarter.
Q3 branded content net revenue retention was lower as compared to Q2. Commerce and other revenues of $14.5 million declined $0.5 million or 3% year-over-year. In terms of adjusted EBITDA, we were able to mitigate all of the lower revenues year-on-year with successful execution against the cost actions we announced in April, delivering Q3 adjusted EBITDA profit of $3 million, a $5 million improvement versus the year ago period. We also incurred charges that did not impact adjusted EBITDA. A full reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in today’s press release available on our Investor Relations website. We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of approximately $42 million, $1 million higher quarter-over-quarter.
Further, on a year-to-date basis, we used $2.4 million in operating cash, inclusive of approximately $10 million in one-time restructuring payments. Turning to audience engagement and time spent. In terms of audience time spent, we continue to report U.S. time spent across our owned and operated properties and third-party platforms according to Comscore. This metric is intended to be viewed in conjunction with our advertising revenue performance. In Q3, U.S. time spent as reported by Comscore remained relatively consistent with Q2 in terms of total hours, but declined 19% year-over-year to 92 million hours as we continue to face increased competition for audience time. However, we once again outpaced peer digital media companies in our competitive set by a significant margin.
