Elon Musk’s X is facing a growing exodus of advertisers, with a quarter of them planning to cut spending on the platform by 2025. This trend highlights a deep-seated concern among marketers regarding the platform’s content moderation policies and its overall trustworthiness.
The issue of advertisers pulling out has been ongoing since Musk acquired Twitter, now rebranded as X, for $44 billion in October 2022. While Musk championed his vision for a platform dedicated to “free speech,” his own controversial behavior on the platform has sparked a backlash from advertisers, who are increasingly wary of the platform’s unpredictable nature.
Kantar, a global research group, surveyed 18,000 consumers and 1,000 senior marketers worldwide and found that 26% of marketers plan to reduce their ad spending on X in the coming years. Notably, 14% have already pulled back this year, demonstrating the rapid acceleration of this trend.
The platform’s revenue has taken a hit as well. eMarketer data shows that X’s global revenue peaked in 2021 at $4.46 billion. However, following Musk’s acquisition, revenue is projected to plummet to $1.9 billion by the end of 2023.
This decline in ad revenue is directly tied to advertisers’ concerns about brand safety. Kantar’s study revealed that only 4% of marketers believe ads on X provide adequate brand safety. This lack of confidence is driven by a multitude of factors, including the platform’s unpredictable content moderation, Musk’s own controversial posts, and a general erosion of trust in the platform’s information dissemination.
These concerns have materialized into tangible actions, with advertisers increasingly choosing to allocate their marketing budgets to other platforms that offer a more predictable and safe environment for their brands. This trend suggests a significant shift in the advertising landscape, with X facing a major uphill battle to regain the trust and confidence of its advertisers.
