Twitter Assures ‘Brand-safety’ to Ad Partners Amidst Conflicting Data Claims

Twitter seems to be on a mission to win back advertisers’ trust amid conflicting data revelations and throwing light on ongoing changes to the platform’s ad policies and content approach under Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO and Elon Musk as the new CTO.

Although Twitter doesn’t seem to be sending some big delegates to have a meeting with advertising executives in Cannes this week, the platform sure has a plan to get the ad agencies’ confidence considering the new strategies under the new CEO who was an Ad industry expert.

Appreciative of all our partners, including the ones the teams are meeting with in #CannesLions2023. We're expanding our partnerships for Twitter 2.0 and I want to hear your #CannesFeedbackForTwitter. I’m here for ALL of it! @chrisriedy @ajos @tperzyk @SirJonesy pic.twitter.com/7JOM08pFzX

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) June 19, 2023

The platform’s decision to hire Linda Yaccarino as its new CEO is a clear signal that Twitter is moving in the right direction, hiring a long-time ad industry leader to help make new strategies and bring back the trust lost due to ad aversions in the past. It also implies that Musk’s initial efforts to reduce the platform’s reliance on ad income haven’t worked out as expected and so the diversion in strategy is justified.

Twitter takes measures to provide a Brand-safe environment

While the platform’s new revenue-sharing models and various subscription programs are sufficiently providing more revenue streams for the company, in reality, they are only representing a section of the revenue that comes from ads.

With less than 1% of users paying to use the platform (Blue subscribers), it’s natural that the company is now diverting its pitch to ad partners via various pledges and insights crafted to reassure them that despite the new changes and subscription models, Twitter remains to be a safe haven for promotional agencies.

The company is planning to enhance user and brand safety, and in line with this same, the company plans on meeting more suitability and safety providers, in order to give an independent assurance to advertisers to gain their trust and win them back.

To give advertisers more power and control over the placement of their ads within the app, the social media platform is currently in the process to assess new and advanced safety services from Zefr, Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, and Unitary. Looks like Twitter is taking advertiser concerns about brand safety more seriously.

What does Twitter’s new report on advertisers suggest?

The platform is currently working with Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify on ad measurement, and according to their independent analysis data, 99% of measured Twitter ad impressions now appear adjacent to content ‘deemed safe in accordance with the GARM brand safety floor’.

To be precise, despite industry speculation, Twitter under the new CEO and Elon Musk is missioned towards providing a brand-safe environment, which could provide some assurance for advertisers and a strong edge on the safety of content to the users and the brands.

According to Twitter, “The platform has also seen more advertisers coming back to the app, with more than 75% of the platform’s top 100 advertisers now running Twitter campaigns again. That’s an improvement on earlier this year when reports suggested that 50% of Twitter’s top 100 had halted all ad spending due to safety concerns. 

That’s a big win, and if the data is like what it suggests Twitter is on the right track.

There’s a catch!

Are these reports actually how they look like? Or it’s a tale of two stats.

On the one hand, Twitter claims that more advertisers are coming back to the platform, but their spending data suggests that they’re still being very cautious about their campaigns. Elon continues to implement new ad rules, subscription programs, and revenue-sharing models, but there are issues like brand safety that they need to address first.

Also, when talking about the number of users and their rise, the data claimed that they have the most users in the platform’s history. But what about the fake profile claims or bots that Elon announced before joining the company? Are they all gone now?

Keeping these contradictions in mind, it’s hard to conclude exactly what any of these numbers and data reported represent, as there is a constant switching in stance by the platform making it hard to follow the company’s vision. Is it the focus on making more revenue or making it brand-safe, bringing more engagement, or reducing hate speech on the platform?

That gives us a base that why third-party verification in the case of Twitter is important! Implying that these ad data and statistics will be worth noting, over time, to make sure that the platform is on the right track, and where are the changes needed in the future.

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