Advertisers will soon be able to run ads next to posts by content creators on Elon Musk’s microblogging site.
X has taken steps to provide advertisers with greater control over where their ads are placed on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
This month, advertisers on X will be able place ads against a “curated list of premium content creators” through a new Creator Targeting tool.
“This means giving advertisers more control to be able to use the self-serve X Ads Manager to run ads against the content of their chosen creators,” X said in a blog post.
“Soon we’ll add the ability to serve ads only on an individual creator’s profile – completely eliminating the unlikely event of unwanted adjacencies while aligning your brand to creators you love most.”
X has been attempting to lure more content creators to the platform through an ad revenue sharing program it rolled out last July.
The effort to improve brand safety on X follows a mass exodus of advertisers since the Tesla owner bought Twitter in 2022. Dozens of major brands, including Apple, Ford, Audi, General Motors, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Coca-Cola and Amazon, had either paused advertising or substantially cut the amount they spend with the social media company.
In Australia, advertisers had begun returning to X throughout last year but with spend levels down between 20-50 per cent. Musk has previously claimed that advertisers who left the platform had begun returning.
In an effort to woo back brands globally, X hired former NBCUniversal sales boss Linda Yacarino as its CEO in June, taking over from Musk, who had a polarising effect on marketers and media buyers with his erratic and, at times, offensive posts.
Last month, Musk, who is chief technology officer of X, announced plans to hire 100 content moderators before the end of the year following the spread of X-rated AI generated images of Taylor Swift on the platform.
The staff will sit in the company’s “Trust and Safety centre of excellence” in Austin, Texas. Musk fired most of Twitter’s safety team when he took over the company.
