Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Is X/Twitter in Trouble? - X's (Twitter's) New Ad Format Has Us Scratching Our Heads

Transcript

Is X/Twitter in Trouble? - X's (Twitter's) New Ad Format Has Us Scratching Our Heads · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Elon
• 0:03
  Musk Podcast, where we explore the many facets of technology
• 0:07
  innovation in the future. It's all about Elon Musk.
• 0:09
  Today we're going to discuss something a bit peculiar
• 0:12
  happening at X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and
• 0:15
  now owned by Elon Musk. Users have noticed a strange new
• 0:19
  kind of ad in their feeds, an ad format that lacks transparency
• 0:23
  and doesn't allow user interaction like retweets or
• 0:26
  likes. Even more perplexing is that
• 0:28
  these ads don't disclose who's behind them, or even acknowledge
• 0:33
  that they're ads at all. Is this a desperate move on X's
• 0:37
  part, an indicator that the platform is having trouble
• 0:40
  attracting advertisers? We'll explore the five key
• 0:43
  angles to this development, from what these ads look like to why
• 0:47
  they might be signaling deeper issues within X.
• 0:51
  Now let's start with what these new ads actually look like.
• 0:55
  X users have reported seeing these ads popping up in their
• 0:57
  for you feeds. Unlike traditional posts, these
• 1:01
  ads do not allow for user engagement.
• 1:03
  You can't like, retweet, or even Click to see a full tweet view.
• 1:07
  They don't bear the advertiser's name or logo, nor do they
• 1:10
  indicate that they aren't ads at all.
• 1:13
  And Mashable has confirmed that various X users across different
• 1:16
  demographics have encountered this new ad format, which
• 1:20
  consists of nothing more than a chunk of text, an image in a
• 1:24
  fake avatar. Now the intention seems to be to
• 1:27
  make the ad blend in with organic content.
• 1:30
  The design and content of these ads seems to align with what's
• 1:33
  commonly known to the industry as Chum box ads, those low
• 1:38
  quality click bait type advertisements often found on
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  content farms. So what happens when you click
• 1:45
  on these mysterious ads? Reports indicate that clicking
• 1:48
  anywhere on the ad leads to a third party website laden with
• 1:52
  more ads, and users are directed to these external sites in a new
• 1:56
  window with no option to check out in ex post or user profile
• 2:01
  tied to the ad. Currently, these ads have been
• 2:04
  observed on X's mobile apps, but it remains unconfirmed if
• 2:08
  they're also present on the web version of the platform now.
• 2:11
  Interestingly, Mashable found that similar ads, sometimes
• 2:14
  using identical text, are running on other platforms and
• 2:17
  ad networks like Yahoo and Rev Content.
• 2:20
  It appears that these ads aren't even managed through X's own ad
• 2:24
  campaign manager, suggesting they're likely being served by a
• 2:27
  third party provider. Now, the introduction of this
• 2:31
  new ad format could point to bigger problems within X,
• 2:34
  particularly in its ability to attract advertisers.
• 2:38
  And since Elon Musk acquired the platform, a significant number
• 2:41
  of big advertisers have either reduced their ad spend or pulled
• 2:45
  out altogether. The report suggests that ad
• 2:48
  revenues have been on a consistent decline, prompting X
• 2:51
  to seek partnerships with third party ad tech companies like
• 2:55
  Google and in Mobi to sell advertising inventory.
• 2:59
  But why resort to such a controversial ad format?
• 3:02
  It's plausible that X's ad inventory is so depleted that
• 3:05
  the platform is resorting to 3rd party ad networks to fill this
• 3:08
  gap. This could mean that either
• 3:10
  brands have exhausted their ad budgets, or that users have
• 3:13
  blocked accounts they might have otherwise targeted with ads.
• 3:17
  And either way, it's not a good look for X.
• 3:21
  And up until now, the common practice on X and its
• 3:23
  predecessor Twitter, was to display ads as normal posts that
• 3:27
  advertisers paid to promote. These could be liked, retweeted,
• 3:31
  or replied to this new ad format.
• 3:33
  However, it departs dramatically from that model.
• 3:36
  Not only is user engagement entirely disabled, but there's
• 3:39
  also No 3 menu icon that usually provides option and context to
• 3:44
  report or block the ad. This submission of user
• 3:48
  interactivity is a major pivot and makes these ads an entirely
• 3:52
  different beast. In typical advertising, both on
• 3:54
  social media and beyond, there's an implicit social contract.
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  The ad takes up a user's time and space, but also provides
• 4:01
  some level of agency to the user, be it through engagement
• 4:05
  or through feedback, and by removing the ability to interact
• 4:09
  with these ads, X is essentially violating this unspoken rule of
• 4:13
  digital advertising, leading to a more passive and less
• 4:16
  empowering user experience. And adding another layer to this
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  is the absence of inidentifiable markers to show who is behind
• 4:24
  the ad. In traditional digital
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  advertising, transparency has been a cornerstone.
• 4:29
  Users could see which company was advertising to them,
• 4:32
  allowing for a level of trust or skepticism to be applied.
• 4:35
  This new format not only denies users the ability to express
• 4:38
  their feelings about the ad through likes or dislikes, but
• 4:41
  also keeps them in the dark about who's communicating with
• 4:44
  them. And the consequences of these
• 4:46
  changes go beyond the immediate user experience.
• 4:50
  By stripping away the functionalities and disclosures
• 4:52
  that were once considered basic tenets of online advertising, X
• 4:57
  might be setting a concerning precedent.
• 4:59
  It's going to have ripple effects across the industry,
• 5:02
  influencing how other platforms approach user interaction and
• 5:05
  transparency in their own advertising models.
• 5:09
  The arrival of these particular ads isn't happening in
• 5:12
  isolation. It coincides with another
• 5:14
  significant change in X's user interface, the removal of
• 5:18
  headlines and context from links that are shared on the platform.
• 5:23
  The absence of context from shared links, combined within
• 5:26
  the opaque nature of the new ad format, indicates A trajectory
• 5:30
  towards less transparent user experience.
• 5:33
  This could be indicative of an intentional strategy, or perhaps
• 5:36
  even an experiment to see how users adapt to a less
• 5:39
  informative digital environment. Now, this lack of transparency
• 5:43
  and direct engagement doesn't just affect the way users
• 5:45
  interact with ads or shared content, it also has
• 5:48
  implications for the advertisers themselves.
• 5:51
  Brands usually glean valuable data from user interaction,
• 5:54
  which helps them improve future campaigns.
• 5:57
  And without this feedback loop, advertisers are somewhat flying
• 6:00
  blind, relying solely on clickthrough rates or other less
• 6:04
  direct metrics to judge the success of their ads.
• 6:07
  And the fact that these ads seem to be delivered via a third
• 6:09
  party provider adds another layer of complexity.
• 6:13
  It's unclear what level of data analysis is available to these
• 6:16
  third party systems and how it integrates with X's zone
• 6:19
  analytics. This could complicate the life
• 6:21
  of advertisers trying to coherently analyze their
• 6:24
  campaigns that run across multiple platforms, not just X.
• 6:29
  And in some, the emergence of these new ad formats on X is
• 6:32
  telling on multiple fronts. It speaks volumes about the
• 6:35
  state of the platform's advertising capabilities.
• 6:38
  It potentially foreshadows a shift in the entire online
• 6:41
  advertising industry. More importantly, it serves as a
• 6:44
  challenging case study for balancing revenue needs with
• 6:47
  user experience and ethical advertising practices.
• 6:51
  With the online world paying close attention, the success or
• 6:54
  failure of this new ad approach could have consequences that
• 6:57
  extend far beyond X. This new ad format is unsettling
• 7:02
  on multiple fronts though, not least because of the questions
• 7:05
  it raises about the future of advertising on X.
• 7:08
  From the format's opacity to its apparent lack of user centric
• 7:12
  design, the issue warrants scrutiny from both users and the
• 7:16
  industry. Observers like myself.
• 7:18
  Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to
• 7:21
  spend it here with me today on the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 7:24
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• 7:38
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• 7:41
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• 7:43
  And until next time, please take care of yourselves and each
• 7:47
  other and I'll see you in the next one.