Twitter loses more than half of top advertisers, data shows

Since Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, Twitter has lost over half of its top 1,000 advertisers.

According to a new report from digital marketing analysis firm Pathmatics, 625 of the top 1,000 advertisers stopped running ads on Twitter in January, including major companies like Coca-Cola, Jeep and Wells Fargo.

The study, which tracked advertising data from October 2022 to January, showed a massive drop in revenue for the company. From when Mr. Musk took over in October through January 25th, monthly advertising revenue dropped 60%, from $127 million to $48 million.

Larger companies significantly reduced how much they spent on Twitter advertising over the past few months as well. HBO, which was Twitter’s largest advertiser in September spending $12 million, dropped their spending to just over $50,000 in January.

The data comes after months of companies distancing themselves from Twitter after Mr. Musk’s takeover. After Twitter rolled back bans on controversial users, including former President Donald Trump, many advertisers were afraid their ads would appear next to politically charged content or disinformation and pulled their ads from the site.

Enforcement of the company’s COVID-19 misinformation moderation policies was also rolled back, which further alienated some advertisers.  

Mr. Musk also made significant cuts to staff that dealt with advertisers, which confused and irritated advertisers who didn’t know who they were working with.

While total ad revenue for Twitter was always smaller than other social media companies like Facebook, it still accounted for most of its revenue, meaning Mr. Musk has had to create new revenue streams.

Twitter reportedly offered advertisers a “fire sale” deal during the Super Bowl to woo some revenue back for one of the site’s busiest days.

On top of significantly cutting staff, Mr. Musk has created a paid subscription service, auctioned off office furniture, made moves to shutter some Twitter offices and closed off free access to Twitter’s API.

Despite negative backlash to most of his large policy proposals and reports that Twitter Blue is not attracting enough users, Mr. Musk remains adamant that the company is on the pathway to success.