X (formerly Twitter) is adding new targeting features for video ads running on creator content, the social media company announced on Monday. The tools will be available later this month.
The ‘Creator Targeting’ functionality will allow advertisers to place ads against a “curated list of premium content creators”, the social firm said in a blog post. It added that X has amassed more than 80,000 creators since launching its ad revenue sharing program in July 2023.
“We are enabling a new opportunity for advertisers to connect to their customers by aligning with some of the world’s best content creators,” said the company.
Targeting advertisers
The tools will be available in X Ads Manager, the platform’s self-serve campaign management system. Using Creator Targeting, advertisers can choose specific creators whose content they want to run ads against.
X will also add the ability to serve ads only on the profile of an individual creator, rather than on the main timeline. The company noted that the ads are safeguarded by X’s brand safety solutions, namely its Adjacency Controls and Sensitivity Settings.
“When paired with new formats like Vertical Video Ads and action-driving Promoted Video, X is better equipped than ever before to help you seize cultural moments and drive efficiently on video to meet your full objectives,” the company said.
Wrestling with brand safety
The announcement comes amidst a push to make X a major video destination. The platform now hosts content from news anchors Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon – having been sacked by Fox News and CNN respectively – and last week announced a deal with WWE to bring a weekly wrestling show to X.
“X is now becoming a video-first experience and Creator Targeting is the next step in X’s evolving video ecosystem!”, exclaimed the blog post.
But advertisers may still need convincing of the reputational safety of running ads on the platform. Indeed, the announcement came with several mentions of the platform’s brand safety credentials, citing X’s “powerful and brand safe video offering.”
This also appears to be the rationale behind the feature whereby ads can be served an individual creator’s profile. X said this has the effect of “completely eliminating the unlikely event of unwanted adjacencies” that may occur when placing ads in the main feed.
And earlier this month, the business announced plans to form a “Trust and Safety center of excellence” comprising 100 full-time content moderators, with a focus on combating child exploitation material. The unit aims to restore content moderation on the platform after Elon Musk effectively dismantled the trust and safety team upon taking over the company.
Monetising free speech
X’s ad revenues fell by an estimated $2 billion last year, as advertisers fled the platform in the wake of Musk’s takeover. His push for “free speech” on the platform, combined with the new emphasis on video, saw X commission content from Tucker Carlson, whose recent interview with Vladimir Putin gained more than 150 million views within 24 hours. Whether advertisers will want to be aligned with that content is a different story.
But enabling advetisers to select creators they do wish to run ads against could help bring them back into the fold. Meanwhile the revenue sharing program seeks to entice more creators onto X, though the company reportedly declined to disclose the precise nature of the revenue split. And claims last month that YouTube creator MrBeast made $250,000 from posting a single video on X shed little light on the financial reality of the company’s revenue sharing program.
Musk has been vocal about wanting X to compete with YouTube, which gives creators up to 55 percent of ad revenue from their videos. Luring creators without MrBeast’s huge profile away from YouTube may remain a challenge for the nascent and controversial video business.
