Marketer confidence in X (formerly known as Twitter) fell significantly in the past year, driven by brand safety concerns and poor perceptions around innovation and trust, according to marketing insights and analytics company Kantar.
The findings are included in Kantar’s Media Reactions 2024 report, an annual study exploring the evolving media landscape.
The study, based on interviews with 18,000 consumers in 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, also reports that YouTube remains the ad platform marketers most prefer.
For consumers, Amazon and TikTok share the top spot.
Advertisers started to jump from the social media platform when Billionaire Elon Musk took what was then Twitter private in 2022 and said he would champion free speech by easing content restrictions.
Musk has since taken a group of advertisers to court alleging they unlawfully boycotted X.
“Advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years,” said Gonca Bubani, global thought leadership director – media at Kantar.
“The stark acceleration of this trend in the past 12 months means a turnaround currently seems unlikely.
“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use. X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next – it’s difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment. Ironically, decreasing spend by marketers on X will make consumers happier with the platform as they come face to face with fewer ads.”
Kantar’s findings reveal that a net 26% of marketers have reported plans to reduce ad spend on X in 2025, the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform.
Tust in adverts on X has fallen further under Elon Musk’s leadership, to 12% in 2024 from 22% in 2022.
Only 4% of marketers think adverts on X provide brand safety. At Google brand safety is at 39%.
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