Advertiser exodus from X gathers pace with 26% ‘planning to cut spending’
More than a quarter of advertisers are planning to cut spending on Elon Musk’s X over concerns about the social media platform’s content and trust in the information disseminated, according to new global research.
Advertising revenue flowing to X has been in freefall since Musk bought the site, then known as Twitter, for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, claiming it had not lived up to its potential as a platform for “free speech”.
However, Musk’s erratic and controversial behaviour on X, where he has almost 200 million followers, has fuelled a backlash from advertisers who have cut back or stopped running promotions there.
Research by data firm Kantar, based on interviews with 18,000 consumers and 1,000 senior marketers around the world, has found that 26% of marketers are planning to cut back ad spend on X in 2025.
“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use,” said Gonca Bubani, a director at Kantar. “X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next. It is difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment.”
