According to recent reports, one of the top advertising firms – IPG Media Brands – has informed their clients to temporarily suspend their Twitter Ads following the Elon Musk takeover. The reasoning provided by IPG was due to the possible instability of the platform with Elon Musk at the helm.
Of these brands, it has been confirmed that General Mills, Audi, Pfizer, Loreal, and GM have temporarily suspended running ads on Twitter’s platform as of today.
Additionally, Elon Musk has also touted on Twitter that verified (blue-check) users on Twitter’s platform will be required to pay $8/month to have or maintain a verified profile. This verification would not only apply to celebrities, but also to anyone wanting to have a blue check that verifies they are a real person. This ‘enhanced’ profile will come with a variety of new features that only the premium ($8/month) subscribers will have access to.
Of these newly enhanced features, it is claimed that there will be restrictions on the number of ads seen or shown to these premium Twitter profiles.
As much of the media believes, Elon Musk’s leadership within Twitter has caused these brands to back out of advertising on the platform, which should, in effect, lead to a drastic reduction in Twitter revenue. It is believed that the premium profiles based upon the 396 million Twitter users will offset any lost revenue due to brands deciding not spend their ad dollars on the platform.
However, contrary to the media’s revenue-orientated viewpoint of the platform, many Twitter’s users are actually loving the fact that these mega-corporations are suspending their Twitter ads.
Why Twitter Ads Have Historically Been Terrible
As advertisers, we analyze a variety of different ad channels and metrics in order to provide our clients with the best possible outcomes. Historically, Twitter has been a terrible place for many advertisers. Platforms like Google and Facebook/Instagram have been far superior to anything you’d expect to find on twitter, and for a variety of reasons. Once reason, is what the platform provides. The users on the platform are not vetted (there are an unbelievable amount of fake accounts), many users are anonymous, and many users go to Twitter to be negative, argue, troll, or to complain in an anonymous fashion. Because of this, Twitter’s content is anything but rich. The platform allows violent videos, pornography, racial slurs, bashing, and distasteful content. As an advertiser, you don’t want your ads to be showing up among pornography, or right before an anonymous users is about to write the meanest thing they’ve ever written in replay to someone’s tweet. Due to these circumstances, advertising on Twitter historically has been a nightmare.
Why Mega-Corporations Need to Stop With the Ad Blasting
As advertisers, we love ads. We live in the ad space. However, when we see repetitive, cheesy, and distasteful “ad blasting” by major companies, we get sick to our stomachs. Mega corporations like General Mills or Pfizer has no business ad blasting those types of products to Twitter users on repeat, driving people to the brink of insanity. Let’s be honest, no one has EVER gone on Twitter, saw a Captain Crunch cereal ad, and said “ya know what? I need to go get me some of that Captain Crunch right now”. Not one person. Ever. Where Facebook and Google have advertising right, is the validity of the users on the platform, and the targeting options. Targeted ads are sending ads to people who may actually WANT to see them. Makes sense, right? The ad blasting that mega corporations like General Mills is doing is just distasteful and more annoying than helpful. There are so many better things that General Mills could be doing with their ad spend, than to be on Twitter relentlessly ad blasting 396 million people with Cheerios ads until they go clinically insane.
What We Are Hoping The Platform Becomes
We are hoping that Elon Musk enhances the Twitter experience. Enhancing the Twitter experience, means to make everyone verify their identities, stop allowing the amounts of pornography and similar nonsense to be posted to the platform, create a premium option (with no ads), and to restrict mega corporations from “ad blasting” the platform into an oblivion. If users want to run ads, fine. But they need to run targeted ads with ad limitations. If a user is tired of the ads, then they can elect to pay $8/month for a premium ad-free subscription. By stopping the robots, fake profiles, and horrendous content on the platform, Twitter will be a better place to be, and more companies will want to advertise with Twitter.
We know…it sucks paying for Twitter. But remember this, kids…if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.
