• by Colin Kirkland , January 8, 2024

After offending its biggest advertisers, X is in the process of rebuilding its advertising business.

Last week, the company slashed the price of its verification tier for businesses in an effort to court small businesses. Now, X is offering advertisers a new ad option that involves targeting premium subscribers on the app when setting up their campaigns.

Over the weekend, X's Technical Operations Manager of Ads Product Nate Esparza posted a screenshot showcasing a new tick box in the ad-creation process that offers marketers an enhanced ability to narrow their focus when targeting users on the app formerly known as Twitter.

Despite a downturn in user engagement, safety concerns and general controversy that has been ongoing since billionaire Elon Musk's takeover in 2022, there are still users paying to use X.

The option to target these premium subscribers is being presented as a way to help marketers appeal to consumers and active spenders choosing to engage most with X.

However, it is worth noting that less than 1% of X users are currently paying for X Premium.

According to Statista, that number was only around 640 thousand people as of April 2023. So, by choosing to target paying users, marketers may be narrowing their campaign reach too drastically.

In addition, it's true that premium subscribers only see ads in the comments sections of posts. With ad-free and half-ads perks included in the more expensive X Premium tiers, it's likely that a good portion of the users being targeted with the new ad tool will experience less or no ads on their news feed, further lessening the impact of the tick box.