Musk & Chaos - What role does Twitter still play in marketing?

Even if one may reasonably question some of the approaches or communication, the rumour of Twitter’s death is likely just that - a rumour. A few weeks after the major outcry, active user numbers have barely changed and the briefly flourishing competition is already losing users again.

On the product side, after some initial difficulties, the speed and quality with which new features are being rolled out have significantly increased. Nevertheless, many brands and companies have still decided not to include Twitter in their media planning again.

Brand Safety

A good reason for this is brand safety, which was undoubtedly always a significant risk on Twitter. While machine learning algorithms largely prevent your advertising from appearing next to controversial topics, it cannot be ruled out entirely, of course.

Refraining from Twitter advertising if you absolutely do not want to appear next to political topics or heated discussions, for example, is certainly still justified.

Contrary to expectations, the feared increase in hate speech has not occurred. In fact, data tends to show the opposite, although this can, of course, never be conclusively assessed from the outside. From our perspective, the brand safety risk is similar again to what it was before the takeover.

Performance

Whenever a channel with many users is used little for advertising, we prick up our ears, and rightly so. Some companies - particularly in the e-commerce and software sectors - have immediately started to take advantage of the falling CPM on Twitter due to fewer advertisers, and the results speak for themselves.

Many advertisers are seeing better results than on Facebook and other platforms, which traditionally provide significantly better advertising formats and algorithms for performance marketing.

So, if your company is heavily active in performance marketing, brand safety is only a secondary priority, and the right target audience is on Twitter, then it is advisable to run a test campaign.

The Future

You can say a lot about Elon Musk, but there is no doubt that his companies are fast in development. It is to be expected that this will also have an impact in the area of advertising – especially in direct response advertising and performance marketing in general. Because that is where those advertisers are particularly active who are primarily data-driven and less influenced by media headlines.

Conclusion

There is no right or wrong in the question of whether one should be active on Twitter. That is why we advise our clients on this individually. Among other things, we look at the following factors:

• How do company values align with Twitter's objectives since the takeover
• What role does brand safety play and how high can the risk be
• Is there a chance for above-average results on Twitter
• Is the target audience active on Twitter and easily reachable

What is an opportunity for some companies is a no-go for others. In any case, it makes sense to keep an eye on developments. And we are very happy to do that for our clients.