The app formerly known as Twitter is planning a big push on holiday ads, with an updated ad targeting system, powered by xAI’s Grok engine, and new ad presentation options that are designed to make X ads more visually appealing, in order to drive better response in the app.
In an X Spaces session on Wednesday, X owner Elon Musk and X’s ad team outlined their vision for the future of X ads, and made their pitch to potential ad partners, in regards to systematic improvements.
As explained by Musk:
“We’re geared toward making X the best platform for advertising in the world, and one of the key ways that we’re doing that is by applying the smartest AI in the world, the one that’s got the highest intelligence on every benchmark, which is the Grok AI. And what Grok AI allows us to do is to really understand how to match a product of service with the consumer, with some who would find that interesting.”
As you can see in this overview, X’s main pitch here is that its advancing Grok AI system is now significantly better at ad targeting, based on systematic understanding of each users’ interests.
Which Musk claims is a major improvement on the past, noting that Twitter’s ad targeting process was “somewhat random,” with virtually no targeting at times. Musk says that Grok has enabled dramatic advances on this front, which means that all users are now seeing more relevant ads in the app.
Grok has also enabled greater brand safety, which has been a major concern on X, with X’s ad team touting the latest brand safety figures based on Grok placement.
Brand safety was the key reason that advertisers moved away from X after Elon Musk took over at the app, with Musk’s change in approach leading to lower thresholds for ad placement, and seeing many ads shown alongside offensive content. And then, of course, Musk also told advertisers to “go f*** themselves” if they didn’t like it, and his brash, somewhat reckless approach was enough to prompt the majority of X’s ad partners to re-think their spend.
Some of them have reportedly now come back, with the 2024 election result seemingly prompting some to re-think their X strategy. But X’s ad revenue is still well down on what it had been under Twitter, though it is expected to improve somewhat this year.
Maybe, with improved AI targeting and placement, that’ll provide a notable boost for X’s ad business. And that’s not the only “improvement” that Musk and Co. are pitching.
The X team has also changed the way ads are displayed in the app, by banning hashtags and restricting emoji use in promotions, while it’s also added a new “aesthetic score” for ads, which sees better-looking promotions, based on X’s systematic assessment, cost less.
“Basically, ugly and strident ads are not okay. We’re not saying that an ad has to be a complete work of art, but it can’t be an eyesore. We believe in making the beauty of the overall system better.”
X says that Grok will assess all ad creatives, in order to judge the aesthetics of your ad.
“Additionally, we’ll be rewarding ads that have high-quality, engaging landing pages. So the longer an average user is spending on your website or your app after clicking on an ad, the more preference you’ll get in the auction.”
This measure makes sense, though the aesthetic score not so much, as X hasn’t provided any real measure of how this will improve ad response, based on user input. Measuring the effectiveness of an ad based on engagement tracks with the actual user experience, but the aesthetic score still seems to be largely driven by Elon Musk’s own preferences, not on response data.
We’ll have to wait and see if that drives improved ad engagement.
Additionally, X is developing new ad formats, like its updated Dynamic Product Ads, which will display relevant products to users based on AI targeting.
Musk also noted that he expects to one day integrate ads into its Grok chatbot’s responses, which would show relevant ads based on their Grok query.
And eventually, Musk hopes that Grok will be able to handle all of your advertising process, with advertisers simply uploading their info to the system, and letting Grok handle the rest.
“Grok is good enough that you should be able to upload an ad and do nothing else. Grok will figure out everything from there. You don’t need to do anything at all.”
Which sounds very similar to how Mark Zuckerberg has been touting Meta’s increasingly AI-driven ads process.
The final touch will come with “X finance,” which is part of Elon’s broader “everything app” vision for the platform. Musk says that this will enable X users to buy products on the platform with one click.”
It’s difficult to measure the potential value of X ads at this stage, because while X’s own data shows that it’s losing users, and relevance, X itself claims that it’s actually gaining audience.
But then again, overall audience numbers don’t mean much to individual brands, because if your target consumers are there, you should be too, and maybe, with improved targeting, powered by Grok, X’s system will now be better at driving results for your brand.
Musk also says that X is where CEOs, heads of state, and “influencers in real life” go for information:
“They don’t go to TikTok, TikTok’s a fine platform, Instagram’s fine, but people of substance go to X.”
That, Musk says, means that X “has buying power in the trillions.”
And he does make a valid point, noting that himself, Marc Benioff, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison are all among the active power players on X. And it’s true, these people are not active, or as active on other platforms.
Could that be worth your attention, and ad dollars? The truth will be in the results, but X claims that its system is better than ever at delivering relevant ads.
Some interesting notes on the development of X ads, and the vision for the evolution of the app.
