• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 9, 2023

Following its controversial move to remove headlines and text ledes from news article links, X has now begun to introduce an ad format that is essentially clickbait: ads that are not labeled as ads, don’t disclose who's behind them, and can’t be blocked, reported, retweeted or liked.

The appearance of the ad format was first reported by Mashable, which was contacted last week by multiple X users who said they were receiving ads in their “For You” feeds that consist only of short copy text, a photo and a bogus avatar that seems designed to make the ad resemble an organically posted tweet.

The ads resemble the “chumbox” ads found at the bottom of posts on content farm sites popularized by native ad networks like Taboola, notes the report, which adds that identical ads were found on Yahoo and Taboola competitors like RevContent.

Sample headlines on the ads include “This Seems Unbelievable, But Happens in Dubai Everyday” (above), "These Incredibly Cool Gadgets That Are Going To Sell Out This Year. Action Now!," and "If you suffer from ringing ears (Tinnitus) you're going to love this recent breakthrough."

Users who click on the ads reported being taken to third-party websites with no user profiles.

So far, users have reported seeing the ads only in X’s mobile apps. It’s not known if they are also being served in the platform’s web version.

Since Mashable could not find the ad format in X’s ad campaign manager, it appears likely that the ads are being served by third-party providers.

“What even is this @X?,” one user, Andrew Markowiak, posted on X about the ads. “On my Following feed, we now just have random posts with no username, not a specified ad, no mechanism to report or engage with… This platform has been broken for a while but it feels utterly in shambles these days.”

The appearance of the ads underscores X’s continuing struggle to recover from the massive advertising losses it has sustained since Elon Musk acquired the platform last November.

Users “are likely seeing these ads because X no longer has [enough] direct ad inventory to serve them… and that means that X hasn’t been able to sell enough ad space directly to brands and needs to instead serve advertisements from ad networks,” theorizes Mashable.

Direct ad sales generally produce much more revenue than ads sold through third parties.

No public comment as yet from X or Musk.