According to Forbes, Elon Musk has got a lump of coal in his stocking this holiday season. He and his lackeys and minions at Twitter have been trying to get advertisers back on the platform in any manner possible. And so far, their efforts have failed miserably:
It is clear that there are many challenges ahead for Musk at Twitter, but the one which must be addressed immediately is attracting his core base of advertisers back to the platform. The company is clearly in the midst of a chaotic mess, with employees being let go left and right, and advertisers—the bread and butter of Twitter’s business—abandoning ship in droves.
An alarming statistic from research firm Pathmatics was recently published in The Wall Stret Journal—roughly 70% of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers were not spending on Twitter for the week ending December 18. And although Musk and his team have held meetings with major advertisers in recent weeks, they have been unable to entice them to come back.
Given that almost 90% of Twitter’s $5.1 billion in revenue came from advertising last year, this should be Musk’s top priority, not figuring out whose accounts should be suspended or reinstated. Twitter has offered some advertisers to match dollar for dollar their ad spend up to $1 million if they did so by year-end. However, even this economic enticement was not enough to get many back on board.
Musk’s team has met with advertisers and told them they are making innovations to allow users to make purchases directly, add more video capabilities and develop tools to ensure objectionable content doesn’t pop up next to their ads.
Some ad buyers have said they will wait until these tools have already been developed before deciding whether to return to Twitter, particularly given that we are likely to enter a recession. Speaking Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk said, advertisers are asking for a high return on investment on their ad spend. “Their requests are not fuzzy or irrational or anything. They’re like, quite reasonable.”
However, some advertisers have complained about politicizing Twitter, in particular Musk tweeting just before the mid-term elections that independent-minded voters vote for a Republican Congress.
I am going to go out on a limb and say a number of things:
- Given the events that have happened at Twitter, it’s not a surprise that they want to steer clear of this dumpster fire.
- As for these “innovations” that Elon wants to roll out, I don’t blame advertisers taking a wait and see approach. After all, given Elon’s “ready, fire, aim” mentality, any or all of those could end up rolling out like Twitter Blue did. Which is badly.
- Making a platform political is not going to advertisers want to advertise on said platform.
This explains why Elon has made so many seemingly random decisions lately. He’s desperate to turn Twitter around. So he’s trying anything and everything hoping to find something that works to bring cash in. But it’s not happening for him. Thus you can fully expect that more random decisions, and more chaos at Twitter which won’t help to bring back the number one source of income the company has.
Happy holidays Elon.
Elon Musk Isn’t Having A Happy Holiday As He’s Failed Miserably To Get Advertisers Back On Twitter
Posted in Commentary with tags Twitter on December 25, 2022 by itnerdAccording to Forbes, Elon Musk has got a lump of coal in his stocking this holiday season. He and his lackeys and minions at Twitter have been trying to get advertisers back on the platform in any manner possible. And so far, their efforts have failed miserably:
It is clear that there are many challenges ahead for Musk at Twitter, but the one which must be addressed immediately is attracting his core base of advertisers back to the platform. The company is clearly in the midst of a chaotic mess, with employees being let go left and right, and advertisers—the bread and butter of Twitter’s business—abandoning ship in droves.
An alarming statistic from research firm Pathmatics was recently published in The Wall Stret Journal—roughly 70% of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers were not spending on Twitter for the week ending December 18. And although Musk and his team have held meetings with major advertisers in recent weeks, they have been unable to entice them to come back.
Given that almost 90% of Twitter’s $5.1 billion in revenue came from advertising last year, this should be Musk’s top priority, not figuring out whose accounts should be suspended or reinstated. Twitter has offered some advertisers to match dollar for dollar their ad spend up to $1 million if they did so by year-end. However, even this economic enticement was not enough to get many back on board.
Musk’s team has met with advertisers and told them they are making innovations to allow users to make purchases directly, add more video capabilities and develop tools to ensure objectionable content doesn’t pop up next to their ads.
Some ad buyers have said they will wait until these tools have already been developed before deciding whether to return to Twitter, particularly given that we are likely to enter a recession. Speaking Tuesday on Twitter Spaces, Musk said, advertisers are asking for a high return on investment on their ad spend. “Their requests are not fuzzy or irrational or anything. They’re like, quite reasonable.”
However, some advertisers have complained about politicizing Twitter, in particular Musk tweeting just before the mid-term elections that independent-minded voters vote for a Republican Congress.
I am going to go out on a limb and say a number of things:
This explains why Elon has made so many seemingly random decisions lately. He’s desperate to turn Twitter around. So he’s trying anything and everything hoping to find something that works to bring cash in. But it’s not happening for him. Thus you can fully expect that more random decisions, and more chaos at Twitter which won’t help to bring back the number one source of income the company has.
Happy holidays Elon.
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