91探花

Marketer confidence in X has really dropped, with 26% planning to cut their ad budgets from the platform. This decline has been more and more evident under Musk鈥檚 leadership at the company, due to the platform facing issues surrounding brand safety and losing trust among said advertisers.

Many well known brands have cut back on their investments in X, upset by Musk鈥檚 comments and the growing connection of the platform with harmful content.

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How Do Consumer Preferences Vary Across Different Media Channels?

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Kantar鈥檚 research shows that there is a difference in consumer ad preferences, with PoS (or point-of-sale) ads are leading, overtaking sponsored events. This is due to the growing preference for trustworthy and organic ads. We鈥檙e also seeing the rise in user generated content, for this reason.

Consumers want genuine reviews, opinions and referrals when it comes to making purchasing decisions. So, when 鈥榬eal鈥� consumers who aren鈥檛 influencers advertise, users are more likely to trust in its reliability.

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Industry Leaders Perspective On X鈥檚 Ad Spend Decline

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We鈥檝e asked experts what this decline in ad spend would do to the X platform, and social. media as a whole. When asked, this is what was shared:

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Jorim Maynard, Paid Media Consultant, Cadastra

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鈥淎s advertisers continue to pull back their budgets from Elon Musk鈥檚 platform X, further concerns are being raised about its suitability for advertisers (26% of marketers are planning to cut back ad spend on X in 2025).

鈥淭he shift away from ad spend stems largely from the platform鈥檚 increasingly divisive and politically charged content, along with rising distrust in the platform鈥檚 ability to maintain brand safety.

鈥淢arketers, historically using X for top-of-the-funnel brand awareness, due to its large-scale user base and community-building capabilities, now fear the negative associations with their brands through the platform鈥檚 inflammatory content and widespread 鈥渂ot鈥� activity, falsely inflating post engagement and diminishing returns in ad spend overall.

鈥淭he pullback in advertiser spend and subsequent decrease in ad revenue for the platform may force X to rely on subscription models or creator monetisation, which could further narrow its increasingly niched user base and overall appeal to advertisers.

鈥淭here is potential for the ripple effect of X鈥檚 challenges to be felt across the social media landscape as a whole, which could force other paid social platforms like Meta and TikTok to become more stringent in their own content moderation policies to attract disillusioned advertisers.

鈥淚f X continues to struggle with content moderation, rising levels of bot traffic, and fails in its bid to reassure advertiser trust, it risks losing its competitive edge, fundamentally altering the social media landscape.鈥�

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Maor Sadra, Co-founder and CEO, INCRMNTAL

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鈥淚t鈥檚 not looking good for X. The platform has gone through various baffling changes since Musk鈥檚 takeover. Most notably, the removal of brand safety mechanisms, and big brands have been exiting the platform in their droves.

鈥淭he thing about X is that even before these changes it didn鈥檛 offer the greatest advertising proposition. Unlike its main competitors Facebook and Instagram, its targeting capabilities are limited to trends, rather than demographics or individual preferences.

鈥淔rom INCRMNTAL鈥檚 recent monitoring of advertising spend on X, not only have we seen it fall dramatically across all industries, but those companies still advertising on X may not be seeing results aligned with their performance expectations.

鈥淥ne of our advertiser clients previously analysed its ad spend on X, decreasing its budget by $200,000. Yet despite the drop in spend, its overall sales and engagements remained largely the same, showing little to no incremental value lost as a result of the change.

鈥淯nless X can somehow rake in enough money from blue ticks and subscriptions 鈥� as are being trialled in certain countries 鈥� without advertising, the future for this platform looks very bleak indeed.鈥�

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Victoria Lee, Founder and CEO, 100 Pound Social

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As marketers begin to rein in their budgets, Twitter is clearly the first place they鈥檒l be tightening the pursestrings for 鈥� having become a safe haven for bots and right-wing grifters since Musk鈥檚 takeover, with Musk himself tweeting out some increasingly concerning things over the past few weeks.

This situation may force the platform to rely more on subscriptions, which could mean prioritising paying users over advertisers (remember the Twitter Blue fiasco?). Such a change risks further alienating the very audience that underpins the platform鈥檚 value.

A diminishing advertiser presence could lead to a drop in content quality and user engagement. If brands start to pull back, the discussions on Twitter could stagnate, resulting in echo chambers with limited diversity of thought 鈥� which, to be honest, it seems as if we鈥檙e already seeing!

Moreover, this shift may affect the broader social media environment. Brands might look to move their ad spending to the clearly better-run platforms like TikTok or Instagram, which promise better engagement and return on investment. Continuous innovation is essential for these platforms to capture the attention of marketers. As businesses rethink their strategies, they must prioritise authenticity in their communications; genuine content resonates far more effectively than polished advertisements.