X, formerly known as Twitter, will be expanding advertising capabilities focused on brand safety, in an effort to win back the trust of advertisers.
The expansion claims to grant a “new level of control,” for advertisers on the platform, according to a blog post. The expanded advertising capabilities detailed in the blog post are “expanding pre-bid brand safety & suitability with industry leaders,” “introducing sensitivity settings” and “bolstering blocklists for advertisers.”
As of last month, the social media platform still had a negative cash flow, due to a 50 percent drop in ad revenue and outstanding debt, according to owner Elon Musk. This, however, conflicted with his earlier statements, claiming that most advertisers had returned to Twitter in April. Ad revenue has been a point of contention for Twitter, as advertisers fled the site once Musk took over operations. The top concern for advertisers is the questionable content moderation of the site.
Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal executive, assumed the role of CEO from Musk in June, a move that ideally would ease advertisers’ minds into returning to the platform.
“The launch of pre-bid Adjacency Controls is a great example of our commitment,” to brand safety across the platform, reads the post. X claims that advertisers can use this “solution” to avoid “adjacency to undesired keywords and handles with more than 99% efficacy rate.” According to the post, X intends to expand the capabilities of said controls in order to “unlock an extended level of adjacency protection for X advertisers.”
Last week, Musk-owned X Corp. sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a tracking nonprofit, in response to research showing a proliferation of hate speech on the platform. X Corp. alleges that the nonprofit published unfavorable research with the intention to hurt the social media platform’s advertising business.
For improvement in brand safety, the company has been conducting a review process to “select third-party partners that can provide pre-bid buying tools aligned with the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) Safety & Suitability Framework.” According to the post, X is also expanding their partnership with a digital ad analysis company, Integral Ad Science, in order for advertisers to “further optimize their campaigns” on the social media platform.
In the coming weeks, X will be introducing Sensitivity Settings for all customers. According to the post, this “will enable advertisers to align their brand’s messaging with content on X that meets their unique sensitivity needs.”
Sensitivity Settings will include machine learning in an effort to “ reduce adjacency to varying levels of content according to a brand’s sensitivity threshold.” Advertisers will then be able to “select their preferred environment that best meets their individual campaign objectives.”
The expanded options for brands will also include an “automated industry-standard blocklist,” that intends to prevent ads from showing up next to “unsafe keywords,” in both For You and Following timelines on X.
The blog post concluded by claiming commitment to the platform’s efforts to allow advertisers to have more control, transparency and accessibility.
Twitter officially rebranded to X, under Musk’s ownership in July, which received backlash across the platform.
