Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

Twitter, one of the leading social media platforms globally, faced a significant setback in its U.S. ad sales with a staggering 59% plunge.

This dramatic decline raises questions about the company’s revenue model and its ability to compete with other digital advertising giants.

Mr. Soros and Magneto are Holocaust survivors, and “the lie Jews want to destroy civilization has led to the persecution of Jewish people for centuries.”
“Musk should know better,” he said.

Last week, Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, the division that oversees content moderation, and AJ Brown, the head of brand safety and ad quality, resigned, three current and former employees said. Ms. Irwin and Mr. Brown did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Musk has promoted new tools, known as adjacency controls, so advertisers can keep their ads away from tweets containing specific keywords or posts by certain users. Some advertisers are using the tools to keep their content away from Mr. Musk’s tweets, four people familiar with the situation said.

Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

Still, some marketers are returning to the platform; GroupM, a media-buying organization that is part of the ad giant WPP, informed employees in May that it was removing its “high risk” flag on Twitter and guiding clients to return, at their discretion, to business as usual, two people familiar with the decision said.

IPG, another large advertising company, has recommended that clients proceed with caution when dealing with Twitter, after suggesting last fall that they temporarily pause their spending.

Last month, Elon Musk posted several tweets attacking the billionaire financier George Soros, a frequent target for conspiracy theorists.

Twitter is exploring ways to make it easier for advertisers to buy space on the platform, testing an automated system outside the United States to make deals, two people familiar with the arrangement said. Insider earlier reported the move.

The company is experiencing ad growth in areas that it once shied away from or prohibited, including online gambling and marijuana products. In one week last month, four of Twitter’s top 10 U.S. advertisers were online gambling and fantasy sports betting companies, according to one presentation.

Twitter has also started allowing ads for cannabis accessories, including “bongs, vapes, rolling paper,” as well as erectile dysfunction products and services, according to internal emails.

Adult content, which is permitted on Twitter, has become a concern among the company’s sales staff. When some employees tried to drum up interest from advertisers for Mother’s Day, they found that potential sponsored search terms, like “MomLife,” surfaced pornographic videos, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
These are issues that some advertisers hope Ms. Yaccarino will solve.

Dave Campanelli, the chief investment officer of Horizon Media, said he was hoping for change after Ms. Yaccarino started because media agencies like his struggled to maintain contact with Twitter last fall after Mr. Musk arrived.

Twitter’s U.S. Ad Sales Plunge 59% as Woes Continue

“For a period, we weren’t even sure who to get on the phone with to talk to,” he said. “With Linda coming in, that could change that in a big way.”

He acknowledged that Twitter’s mercurial boss and volatile environment might pose a challenge for Ms. Yaccarino.
“It’s a tall order,” Mr. Campanelli said.