\n
In the nearly two years since Elon Musk bought the social media platform X, many major brands have opted to avoid showing their ads on the site altogether. Other advertisers are ending up on the platform without realizing it.<\/p>\n
Two advertisers said they were surprised to learn that ads for their businesses were running on X after Marketing Brew saw the ads and reached out to them. The ads ended up on the platform thanks to a partnership between X and Google, announced last fall, that places some Google ads on X\u2019s main feed.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re easy to spot\u2014the ads don\u2019t contain the typical Like and Repost options that appear below other posts and advertisements on the platform.<\/p>\n
In the span of about 10 days, Marketing Brew saw these types of ads for several companies running within X\u2019s For You feed. Users have said the ads on the platform formerly known as Twitter stick out like a sore thumb\u2014and their placement has caused some confusion from advertisers who aren\u2019t big on the platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t logged into Twitter in years,\u201d said Derek-Jon Flagge, the son of the owners of Old World Pizza Truck, a catering company based in Connecticut, which had ads show up on X in July. \u201cI totally forgot we even had a Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opting out<\/h2>\n
Google\u2019s ad tools bid and serve ads based on certain advertiser criteria across platforms, including on X. If advertisers don\u2019t<\/em> want to run on certain publishers, they have to opt out, according to Google spokesperson Michael Aciman.<\/p>\n\u201cWe share where ads appear in an advertiser\u2019s campaign placement reports and we offer a number of ways for advertisers to adjust their preferences, including excluding websites or apps entirely,\u201d Aciman said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
That may come as news to some advertisers. Old World Pizza Truck uses Google ads, but Flagge told Marketing Brew that the company didn\u2019t intend to advertise on X. Flagge, who is a photojournalist, said he was especially frustrated by the cropping of the photo in the ad.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is super cropped wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cAt least make the picture right.\u201d<\/p>\n
In July, Marketing Brew saw an ad for Mercury Jets, a subsidiary of Florida-based air charter company Monarch Air Group, running on X. David Gitman, CEO of Monarch Air Group, told Marketing Brew that the company was running ads for Mercury Jets through Google, and that he, like Old World Pizza Truck, didn\u2019t intend to advertise on the platform.<\/p>\n
Many major advertisers have steered clear of the platform since Musk purchased the company on October 28, 2022, with some citing concerns over brand safety. Ad spend on the platform was down 73% in June compared to October 2022 levels, and 73 of the 100 top-spending US advertisers in October 2022 were not advertising on the platform as of June, according to SensorTower estimates.<\/p>\n
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Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Reports of challenges for advertisers on the site have continued. Earlier this summer, an NBC News investigation found ads on the platform running alongside controversial content like search results for the hashtag #whitepower. In early July, Musk said in a post on X that the company would take legal action \u201cagainst the perpetrators and collaborators in the advertising boycott racket,\u201d echoing a right-wing talking point claiming that brand safety standards tend to demonetize right-wing media.<\/p>\n
For some advertisers, Musk\u2019s penchant for controversy\u2014as well as the heated discussions that often occur on X itself\u2014are reasons enough to stay away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want us affiliated with anything related to politics or religion\u2026and I don\u2019t want us related to anything extremist,\u201d Flagge said. \u201cI find that [Musk] has pretty extremist views.\u201d Beyond that, though, he says he doesn\u2019t believe many of the truck\u2019s customers are on X, anyway.<\/p>\n
Gitman, of Monarch Air Group, concurred. \u201cWe probably don\u2019t want to advertise too much with them, because it\u2019s mostly a platform for political discussions,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re there to discuss politics, and our business is not affiliated with politics\u2026It\u2019s not the best thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u201clittle out of place\u201d<\/h2>\n
Though it\u2019s hard to get a sense of X\u2019s current advertising policies, it appears that the ads for both Old World Pizza Truck and Mercury Jets weren\u2019t connected to specific profiles, though both ads feature the blue check required to advertise on X. While Old World Pizza does have an X account, it isn\u2019t verified, and it hasn\u2019t posted in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
An email to X\u2019s press inbox was met with the reply, \u201cBusy now, please check back later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Johnston, senior social innovation director at performance marketing firm Tinuiti, told Marketing Brew that a few of his clients had bought X ads through Google but at such a small scale that it was hard to gauge performance. Aesthetically, he described the ads as being a \u201clittle out of place\u201d on the platform.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the conversation about advertising on X has shifted. Musk\u2019s personal brand, he said, is turning some advertisers away even more than the content of the platform itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation is not necessarily about brand safety or anything that advertisers have control over. It\u2019s more political: Certain leadership on the client side feel like they don\u2019t want to invest because it aligns with Elon,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s most of the conversation that we\u2019re having when we bring it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the nearly two years since Elon Musk bought the social media platform X, many major brands have opted to avoid showing their ads on the site altogether. Other advertisers are ending up on the platform without realizing it. Two advertisers said they were surprised to learn that ads for their businesses were running on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\n
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