Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) faces significant challenges as it has only reached $15 million of its $100 million annual target for political advertising revenue for 2024. This notable underperformance is primarily due to a strong reliance on Republican campaigns and the Trump campaign.
Data from X's transparency library for political ads, analyzed by the Financial Times, show that as of October 23, the platform has achieved only a fraction of the projected revenue. Among the top 100 advertisers, 42 Republican candidates and political action committees dominate, accounting for nearly half of the expenditures. In comparison, only 13 Democratic candidates have placed ads.
The largest advertiser is Donald Trump's campaign account, for which X has recorded $948,000 for 162 ads to date, generating 410 million views. Many of these ads promote campaign merchandise like "MAGA" hats, while others target fundraising or attacks against Kamala Harris. Musk himself has significantly contributed to the revenue through his support of the Trump campaign. The pro-Trump group account America Pac has spent $225,000 on 73 ads, often featuring images of Musk and promoting his appearances at events in Pennsylvania.
Other prominent Republican advertisers include Lara Trump, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz, who each spent between $500,000 and $600,000 on their campaigns. In contrast, the Harris campaign has not placed ads on X and instead focuses on larger platforms like Google and Meta, where it has invested over $280 million this year. This amount far exceeds the total political ad revenue of X.
Many of the democratic political groups have developed a deep distrust of the platform after Elon Musk's takeover of X," explains Jenna Golden, head of a sales consulting firm and former head of political sales at X. "While many republican groups are willing to try new advertising opportunities, the democratic groups remain skeptical and prefer established platforms.
These low revenues represent another setback for Yaccarino's efforts to stabilize the financial health of X. The relationships between Musk and the advertisers, who constituted the majority of the revenues before the takeover, remain strained. Major brands like Disney, IBM, and Apple have frozen their advertising spending on X over the past year, due to concerns about Musk's lax approach to content moderation. In response to this rejection, Musk suggested they "go to hell.
In addition to internal challenges, market researchers such as Sensor Tower have estimated that the total spending of the top 100 advertisers in the US fell by 68 percent to X in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2022. Experts expect that some brands might further reduce their spending around the election to minimize the risk of their ads being placed next to controversial content.
