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According to a recent survey conducted by Kantar, approximately 25% of advertisers intend to reduce their expenditure on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in the upcoming year. This anticipated reduction represents the largest withdrawal from any leading advertising platform recorded to date.
The survey results align with a broader trend of diminishing advertiser confidence in X, which has seen numerous prominent brands, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and Disney, significantly scale back or completely eliminate their advertising on the platform throughout 2023. This shift began after Elon Musk, the platform’s billionaire owner, publicly supported a post deemed antisemitic last year, prompting some companies to distance themselves from the platform.
Continuing into 2024, X’s advertising challenges have intensified. Earlier this month, the World Bank announced it would halt all paid ads on X after a CBS News investigation revealed that its advertisements were being displayed alongside a racist post from an account notorious for promoting neo-Nazi and white nationalist rhetoric.
In a similar move, Jerrad Christan, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 12th district, also withdrew campaign advertisements from X after they appeared adjacent to antisemitic content. Tim Cox, the communications director for Christian’s campaign, expressed surprise at the lack of control over where their ads were placed. “We were aware that our ads appeared in replies and on profiles but were unaware that they were being shown in association with these types of posts,” he stated to CBS News. He emphasized that X’s advertising platform does offer a mechanism to limit where ads can appear.
“Our ads’ brand safety setting is established to ‘limited,’ which X claims is optimal for organizations with stringent sensitivity requirements,” Cox noted. “Clearly, this brand safety tool is not effective.”
Kantar’s report is derived from interviews with 18,000 consumers across over 25 markets and insights from 1,000 senior marketing executives globally, highlighting substantial concerns surrounding advertising on the platform.
Trust and Brand Safety Challenges
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of X in 2022, marketers’ trust in advertising through the platform has plummeted, with only around 4% of marketers expressing confidence in X’s ability to provide a safe environment for brand messaging. In contrast, Google has been identified as offering the highest level of brand safety, with 39% of marketers viewing it favorably.
Brand safety encompasses strategies to shield a company’s image, ensuring that advertisements do not appear alongside inappropriate or contentious content. These findings suggest that X may face significant hurdles in its attempts to regain the trust of advertisers, a challenge highlighted under the leadership of CEO Linda Yaccarino.
“Advertisers have been progressively reallocating their marketing budgets away from X for several years. The marked acceleration of this trend over the last year makes a turnaround feel unlikely,” remarked Gonca Bubani, Kantar’s global thought leadership director. She added, “Marketers serve as guardians of their brands and must have trust in the platforms they engage with. X has undergone monumental changes recently and exhibits unpredictable behavior on a daily basis, making it challenging to maintain confidence in brand safety within this context.”
In terms of preferred advertising platforms, marketers identified YouTube as their top choice, whereas consumers favored Amazon and TikTok. According to the survey, consumers considered Amazon’s advertisements relevant and beneficial, with TikTok ads being perceived as more engaging and entertaining.
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