X (Twitter) partners with Google Display Network

X (formerly known as Twitter) has joined forces with the Google Display Network.

Following a steep decline in advertising revenue earlier this year, the social platform has decided to start outsourcing the sale of some of its ad space.

Moving forward, advertisers will be able to tap into the X home feed inventory through Google Ads Display campaigns – however, exact details of the deal terms remain undisclosed.

Why we care. This is an opportunity to reach X’s vast audience of over 200 million actively engaged daily users using Google Ads’ familiar campaign set-up and targeting tools. It’s worth noting that X doesn’t have the same strict advertising guidelines and practices in place around ad placement, and there is a risk your campaign could appear alongside unrestricted and even offensive content.

Why now? Following Elon Musk’s takeover last year, X’s ad revenue has plummeted 59% in the US alone. In 2022, 90% of X revenue was generated through advertising – so this decline had a big impact on profit.

With those statistics in mind, Musk has been trying to solve the ad revenue issue, firstly by bringing in new CEO Linda Yaccarino in May, and now by outsourcing some ad sales to one of the biggest players in the advertising industry, Google.

Powerful marketing. Tom Ruff, Head of Social at digital marketing agency Journey Further, said the new partnership has huge potential – but it will depend on how the companies share their data. He explained:

• “Google combining data with X potentially makes it the most powerful marketing database out there, so I will be interested to see how that evolves.”
• “If you’re able to use the X audiences across search and display campaigns, it could link up the user journey in ways we haven’t seen before, but, if the campaigns and data aren’t joined up then it will just be another placement and overall performance will suffer.”

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What has Google said? A Google spokesperson told Ad Age:

• “Like a number of social apps and websites, X has signed up to monetize its home feed with Google Ad Manager.”
• “This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience, but as always they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on. Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies.”

Deep dive. Read Google’s Display Network guidelines for more information about display ads.