How much X is losing from Apple, Disney and other advertiser boycotts

The advertisers that paused ad spend on X (formerly known as Twitter) in the wake of platform owner Elon Musk endorsing an antisemitic post collectively represented 7% of the total U.S. ad spend year to date on the platform, a new report from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower found. Those advertisers include Apple, IBM, Sony, Disney, Comcast (NBCUniversal) and Paramount. “Given that all of these large brands have now paused advertising on X, the company will likely be pressured to both sell additional ad space to smaller advertisers and retain other large advertisers to bolster revenue,” the firm wrote in the report released today. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs As of last month, 50 out of the top 100 U.S. advertisers on X since October 2022 have completely ceased ad spending on the platform, per the report. Sensor Tower did not detail exactly how much each brand spent on advertising. Amazon was the only one of the top 10 X advertisers from October 2022 to actually increase its ad spend on X this October, boosting it by more than 84% year-over-year, per the report. “Amazon was the sole advertiser to actually increase U.S. ad spend in [October 2023],” the report said, “as the e-commerce giant tried to capitalize on heightened consumer interest around its Prime Big Deals Day sale early on in the month.” Amazon did not immediately return a request for comment. X also did not return a request for comment on this report. Also read: Reactions to X’s advertiser exodous The report found that even many of the advertisers that have remained on the platform still “significantly” lowered their spend in 2023 from 2022. X has been trying to woo brands back to the platform by giving out ad incentives. The latest string of advertisers pausing spend on the platform comes after Musk promoted an antisemitic post and nonprofit media watchdog Media Matters for America released a report last Thursday revealing certain brands had their ads run next to antisemitic content. In response, in an internal memo shared to the press today by X, CEO Linda Yaccarino told employees that “there’s a vocal minority trying to use deceptive attacks to undermine our work. But on the other side, there are vocal supporters and courageous partners who believe in X and the meaningful work you are all doing.” Yaccarino is also facing calls from marketers to resign, to protect her reputation. “While some advertisers may have temporarily paused investments because of a misleading and manipulated article, the data will tell the real story,” wrote Yaccarino, without specifying the data. “Because for all of us who work at X, we’ve been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination, as there's no place for it anywhere in the world.” Inside brand spending on X Per the report, Mondelēz International was the third largest U.S. X advertiser in October 2022 and rose up to the second largest last month, but it still spent 28% less on advertising on the platform this past October than it did in October 2022. The report found that IBM, one of the advertisers that paused its spend, was the fifth largest U.S. advertiser on X in October, and was the sixth largest through 2023, year-to-date. Comcast, which also paused ads, was the eighth largest advertiser on X in October and through 2023, year-to-date, according to the report. Apple, another advertiser that recently paused ads on X, was the platform’s 11th largest U.S. advertiser in October and its fourth largest through 2023, year-to-date, the report said. There is skepticism among media buyers that X will be able to rebound from the latest advertiser exodus. Two media buyers previously told Ad Age that they no longer have any clients actively advertising on X. “I don’t see any of our advertisers coming back onto X,” one media buyers said. The buyer had said any advertiser that spends on social media understands the risk of being served next to controversial content. The difference for X is that it fails advertisers’ expectation that “content is monitored and eliminated when it breaks rules of the platform, [and] also that the content is from users not condoned, endorsed or boosted by the platform." Becoming less reliant on ad revenue The Sensor Tower report found consumers have spent more than $60 million on subscriptions to X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue) since December 2022, but it will still be hard for the platform to move forward without relying on ad revenue. “To put this into perspective, in the companyʼs last public filing (2Q22), it generated nearly $2.2 billion in advertising revenue over the first six months of that year (2022),” the report said. “While premium subscriptions present a good opportunity to further monetize the most engaged users of the platform, this alternative revenue source is merely a drop in the bucket compared to what the company was previously generating from advertising, further reinforcing Xʼs reliance on advertiser dollars to keep the lights on.” User growth has also slowed on the platform. Monthly active users worldwide have declined an average of 8% year over year from January 2023 to October 2023, according to the report. X is also smaller than its rivals, adding more challenges. The report found that X had the least global mobile app monthly active users compared to its peers, sitting at less than 370 million in October 2023 compared to 2.8 billion for YouTube; 2.2 billion for Meta's Facebook; 1.5 billion for Meta's Instagram; 1.1 billion for TikTok; and 641 million for Snapchat. In terms of user engagement, the report found that X is only ahead of Snapchat. Mobile app users spent an average of 30 minutes a day on X in October 2023, compared to TikTok’s 96 minutes a day, Instagram’s 60 minutes a day, Facebook’s 55 minutes a day and Snapchat’s 20 minutes a day. Contributing: Garett Sloane and Parker Herren

How much X is losing from Apple, Disney and other advertiser boycotts

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