After recently outlawing hashtags in promoted posts, X is now taking aim at another aesthetic element, with the platform implementing new restrictions on ads that contain more than one emoji.
Because, reasons.
As X explains in the above notification (highlighted by social media expert Matt Navarra):
“Effective shortly, ads with more than one emoji in the ad copy or creative will have a lower quality score and may experience higher pricing"
So X doesn’t want you to add emojis to ads, in addition to hashtags. Because Elon thinks that they look bad, and doesn’t like them cluttering up his X feed. Or something like that, anyway.
The exceptions, as X notes, are promotions in Japan and Korea, which will not see any penalties even if they exceed this new emoji limit. But any other ads that include more than one emoji will be restricted to some degree.
Which seems weird, right?
X’s U.S. ad sales have dipped almost 60% on pre-Elon levels, and it’s been struggling to win back more ad partners to get its core revenue stream back on track.
But now, it’s imposing more restrictions on what people can include in their ads, for seemingly no other reason than Elon just doesn’t like the look of them.
Like, more restrictions is probably bad for business in this respect. Right?
Whatever the reason, if you are looking to use X ads, you now have a new consideration to keep in mind, to ensure you’re maximizing your ad reach and resonance in the app.
No hashtags, no more than one emoji.
I mean, it could, theoretically at least, make for better-looking ads, sure, but I’m also sure that plenty of advertisers have seen success in the past with promotions that run counter to these rules.
Maybe X has data that shows these ads don’t perform as well, or maybe Elon just noticed an ad with too many emojis and made a call.
We’ll likely never know for sure.
