Elon Musk's influencer monetisation push on X: Twitter’s solution to advertiser woes?

Twitter's rebranding to X aligns with owner Elon Musk's broader vision of transforming it from a text-based microblogging platform into an ‘everything app’ identity. Twitter now has a slew of new features for the platform ‘X’ including audio/video calls, the ability to post long audio, video, and text articles, and the option for companies to post job listings.

It can be construed that the new moves could be a bid to attract users back to the platform. According to research by Statista, Twitter had over 368 million monthly active users in 2022. The number dropped to 353.9 million in 2023. 

Any social media platform’s success often hinges on the presence of influential content creators who are attracted to the platform due to the revenue they can generate from their content. This revenue is their share of the ad revenue that the platform generates.

Musk has been bullish about monetising content on X for a while. In April, the company launched 'Subscriptions'. The feature allows users to subscribe to their creators for a monthly paid subscription fee. Further, creators will get paid a share of the revenue Twitter earns from the Subscriptions offering.

Then, in June, he also announced that creators on X would soon be getting 'Ads Revenue Sharing' from the platform, provided they meet certain eligibility criteria. This would include being an X Premium subscriber, receiving at least 15 million total impressions on their posts in the last three months, having a minimum of 500 followers, and being at least 18 years old.

The decision to introduce monetisation for creators comes at a time when competition for Twitter in the micro-blogging space has increased. Meta recently introduced Threads, which was poised to be the next Twitter, as many of Musk’s decisions, like limiting the number of tweets one can view in a day, had created a feeling of discontent within the community.

At its peak, Threads was averaging 44 million users per day. The user engagement, however, plummeted by 82% to an average of eight million users on the app per day, in August.

At the same time, Musk shared that X had reached a new high in users in 2023, with 544 million users active on July 28. A pertinent question that arises with this rumble in the digital sphere: Will influencers become X’s trump card to reassert its dominance in the text-based microblogging space?  

Viraj Sheth, CEO and co-founder, Monk Entertainment (Monk-E), believes creators make and break a platform. Hence, incentivising them to make content will make Twitter a favorable platform in the eyes of creators.

“Although Twitter monetisation is comparatively weaker from a purely CPV basis when compared with a platform like YouTube. Creators are still increasing their frequency of posting on X to increase their monthly impressions on X. This is leading to more activity on the platform, it's a win-win for creators and the platform both,” he says.

This pay distribution program officially commenced on July 28. The first pay, however, came in on July 13, when Ads Revenue Sharing program was rolled out to an "initial group" of creators. Now, the cycle will see creators getting paid on the 2nd each month.

According to creators who received their first paycheck from Twitter, the pay was for the past five months at a CPM (cost per million) of $0.01. Further, Twitter also gave creators the ability to be able to set up Creator Subscriptions independently to the revenue they receive from Ads Revenue Sharing.

The revenue sums were pretty handsome, considering that earnings from Twitter were nonexistent till then. 

Karan Pherwani, vice president, Chtrbox, observes that, in comparison to other influencer monetisation, X maintains competitive earning rates. However, he believes it has an edge.

“The distinguishing factor lies in the platform's user-friendly content posting mechanism, which streamlines the process when aligned with the creation of elaborate long-form videos. This intrinsic efficiency makes X an especially appealing avenue, affording content creators the ability to earn with convenience and effectiveness.”

Digital content creator duo 'Abhi & Niyu' share, "We've seen people interested because of the payouts. I've seen both minuscule payouts and some payouts comparable to other platforms. Since most people never thought they'd earn from Twitter/X, there is enough interest."

Tech Content Creator "Dhananjay Tech", Dhananjay Bhosale feels creators are now trying to reach the impressions target in order to be able to monetise their X accounts. "After the monetisation announcement, many previously inactive creators have become more engaged on the platform."

Pherwani also shares that, as creators’ interest in the platform has increased, they are now experimenting with a range of new strategic approaches. They are focusing on niche relevance to engage their audience authentically, and are looking to incorporate visual elements for impact.

Can X attract brand advertisers back?

Although creator interest has increased in the platform, no immediate noticeable impact on declining advertiser interest in X has been seen. Twitter has lost almost half of its advertising revenue since it was bought by Musk, according to media reports.

Despite numerous tries by the company, which included halving ad rates, brand interest in the platform continues to be on a downward spiral. Can the influencer bid rope these advertisers back to the platform over time? 

Manesh Swamy, CCO & SVP- creative, social media and design, LS Digital, believes that the platform continues to be more volatile. With this move, the platform will be more creator-friendly. But, the agency still awaits validation from creators. However, many of the issues brands have with Twitter continue to be unaddressed.

“People still call it Twitter, Tweet, or Re-tweet and not X, X’D or re-X’d yet. This platform previously had shaped pop culture to a large extent, initially for brands, trending on Twitter used to be a benchmark. X has a long way to go before it comes back as one of the primary platforms for brand activation. It’s a wait-and-watch for brands till then,” he says. 

Another cause of concern is the new diktat of minimum spending on the platform, failing which, brands will lose the golden tick, Swamy asserts.

“It has become a stricter platform. I think no brands will want to be restricted like this. It should be open to how they should operate on the platform. Plus, Twitter/X has always been conversational because of the no filter that the platform offers. Brands would always want to steer away from this.”

A similar wait-and-watch approach is shared by Venugopal Ganganna, CEO, Langoor Digital. He says that there seems to be caution in how brands view Twitter off late. Brands are still mostly ignoring Twitter’s new name X in everyday discussions, he adds. 

With the new feature additions, X's ambition to become an everything platform has only seemed to heighten brand suspicions.

“Brand interest continues to remain mildly circumspect and tempered as we are still unsure how the new trinity of payments, banking, and commerce will play out in the new Twitter. It remains to be seen what strategies can be implemented by brands on X - as it morphs into an everything app.”

Brands have also been wary of Twitter's content moderation regulations. Hence, X will have to ensure brand safety if it has to move away from historical hindrances of content moderation, he opines.