X turns to Google to sell programmatic ads as it struggles to regain ad dollars

X, formerly known as Twitter, will start receiving programmatic ads from Google as it continues to look for advertising supply sources to fill its coffers, which have been drained following Elon Musk's acquisition of the company last year. Google confirmed today that X would use Google Ad Manager, the programmatic ad platform for publishers, to participate in online auctions to sell its inventory. Also read: Inside Twitter’s marketing challenge post-X rebrand “Like a number of social apps and websites, X has signed up to monetize its home feed with Google Ad Manager,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience, but as always they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on. Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies.” Ad Age Media Summit Hear from industry leaders during October event in NYC Register here Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The announcement makes it clear that the only X ad inventory available for brands through Google is within X’s main timeline. That distinction could be because, since Musk bought the company, X created more ad inventory outside the main timeline—with ads in comment sections under popular posts, in search results and within account pages of highly followed X users. The timeline inventory is the area inside X that has the most brand safety reporting from third-party measurement providers, including Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, which give advertisers details about the types of posts that surround their ads. More: programmatic buying questions marketers should be asking Brand safety has become a bigger issue on X as Musk’s policies have allowed greater leeway to post material that some brands could find offensive. In fact, since Musk took over, some brands have run away from the site over concerns about moderation policies. X’s ad revenue has plummeted under Musk, and the company took an unprecedented step earlier this year to start trading in programmatic ads rather than selling all its inventory directly through its proprietary online ad manager. Risky move for Google In May, InMobi, the mobile programmatic marketing platform, became the first partner to offer advertisers the ability to buy inventory on X, Insider reported. The move into programmatic advertising was seen as a sign that X couldn’t lift ad sales on its own. Open web inventory is widely considered less valuable than ads sold through direct relationships that publishers and apps build with committed ad partners. The inclusion of Google’s ad supply is a significant development in X’s programmatic shift. Google is the largest seller of online ads and has millions of publishers plugged into its ad manager, and other tools such as Adsense and AdMob, accepting programmatic ads and monetizing their sites, and Google serves millions of advertisers. Still, it is a risky move for Google because it has to hold X accountable to its publisher standards, which are the policies it has in place to ensure advertisers aren’t exposed to dangerous websites. Google frequently reminds publishers of their obligations under its ad policies, a Google spokesperson said. The spokesperson also said that any ads that show up on X through Google will be labeled as “promoted,” following its transparency in reporting guidelines. Google’s ad platform also allows marketers to turn off sites they don’t want in their campaigns, so X can also be avoided. Recent news: Google ad leader on the YouTube kids ads debate Twitter and marketing Tracking updates during Elon Musk's ownership Get the latest news here X’s updated ad sales team On Thursday, X also announced a restructuring of its ad sales team, and new hires. Monique Pintarelli was hired as head of the Americas on X’s ads sales team, coming over from Teads, which is an online programmatic and global media platform. X also hired Carrie Stimmel as the new global agency leader. Stimmel had been chief growth officer at NBCUniversal, where X CEO Linda Yaccarino previously worked as chairman of global advertising and partnerships. Yaccarino joined Musk on his quest to reinvent X this summer, and came with advertising relationships that could serve X’s business needs. In a memo to staff on Thursday, Yaccarino outlined the new ad organization, and noted that X was “consolidating sales assignments.” The assignments are broken down by industry verticals with one team for retail, travel and dining; another for alcohol, sports, news and cannabis; a leader for political, education and energy ads; a leader for financial services, consumer products, pharmaceuticals and health ads; technology, telecom and auto falling under one sales leader; as do streaming, movies and broadcast, according to the memo seen by Ad Age. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “X has been innovating at an unprecedented rate,” X said in a statement to Ad Age on Thursday, referring to its move into programmatic advertising. The partnership with Google was just another example of the work the company has been doing on its ad platform over the past 10 months, X said in the statement. X also stated that it is growing ad revenue and bringing back advertisers weekly. Yaccarino publicly stated as much in August, telling CNBC she was making progress selling advertisers on X, and making strides on issues related to brand safety, too. Yaccarino said that she was reconstituting the client council, which is a group of brand and ad leaders that had a direct line of communication with the old Twitter that Musk had disbanded. Yaccarino and X have also released stats that claim to show 99.9% of posts on X adhere to the platform’s community guidelines.

X turns to Google to sell programmatic ads as it struggles to regain ad dollars

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