An extensive majority of the globe’s highest-spending advertisers have ceased advertising on X since Elon Musk acquired the platform, as indicated by exclusive data shared with Insider by marketing consultancy Ebiquity.
Ebiquity, a firm collaborating with 70 of the top 100 highest-spending advertisers, reported that only two of its clients ran ads on X in the previous month. This marks a sharp decline from the 31 brands advertising on X in September the previous year, predating Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October. The number of Ebiquity clients advertising on X has consistently dwindled since then, according to the data.
While Ebiquity did not disclose the names of these advertisers, its clientele encompasses major entities such as Google, Walmart, Vodafone, and General Motors. The data was extracted from Ebiquity’s digital media solutions unit, which aggregates digital media investment information from agencies and platforms.
Ruben Schreurs, Chief Strategy Officer at Ebiquity, noted, “This is a drop we have not seen before for any major advertising platform.”
The findings from Ebiquity seem to challenge statements made by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who, in a recent interview, asserted that “90% of the top 100 advertisers have returned to X in the last twelve weeks alone.” Yaccarino specifically mentioned Visa, Nissan, and AT&T as part of the “1,500” brands that had resumed spending on X.
An X spokesperson clarified that the 90% figure pertained to X’s 100 highest spenders from the preceding year and declined to publicly comment on Ebiquity’s revelations.
Historically, Twitter’s major clients have included some of the world’s most significant advertisers, such as Amazon, Unilever, Coca-Cola, and IBM, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, as reported by Bloomberg.