Twitter’s top advertisers have been pulling back on their spending since Tesla CEO Elon Musk took over the social media platform.
According to new research, 50 of Twitter’s 100 biggest advertisers have stopped advertising on the site since Musk’s AU$66 billion takeover.
Media Matters for America, a non-profit media watchdog, published a report on Tuesday claiming that 50 advertisers have accounted for almost US$2 billion in Twitter’s ad spending since 2020.
The loss of these advertisers is a major blow to Twitter.
Major advertisers chose to remain quiet, while big-name companies have made their intentions to stop advertising known.
Chevrolet, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Ford, and pharmaceutical corporation Novartis have all announced they will cease spending.
Quiet quitters include Coca-Cola Company, CNN, Dell, and American Express.
As per the report, following direct outreach, controversies, and warnings from media buyers, these companies stopped advertising on Twitter for a significant period of time.
The researchers believed that Musk’s amplification of conspiracy theories, the decision to reinstate banned accounts, and the verification scheme which allowed users to purchase a blue tick and mimic brands and people were all linked to the scaling back of advertising.
Twitter’s ad revenue growth was already slowing before Musk’s takeover, but the pace of the slowdown has accelerated since then.
Musk’s takeover has only exacerbated these problems, with advertisers concerned about Twitter’s future under its new owner.
Twitter’s problems are not unique. Social media platforms like Meta and Snapchat have also been struggling to keep advertisers happy.
However, Twitter’s situation is made worse by the fact that it is heavily reliant on advertising revenue.
The mass exodus of top executives has led to concerns about Twitter’s ability to execute on its strategy and grow its business.
If the platform continues to lose advertisers, it could be forced to make more cuts to its workforce or reduce its investment in product development.
Twitter will need to find a way to address the concerns of its advertisers if it wants to stay afloat. Musk’s takeover has only made this task more difficult.
