X Turns To Google To Sell Ads

0:00Alright, so we're going to talk about how X, formerly known as Twitter, has now turned to Google to sell programmatic ads as it struggles to regain ad dollars. So this piece came from Ad Age. And so it says, Twitter goes searching for ad revenue with Google Ads Manager access to online auctions. So what are your initial thoughts as I pull this up? Well, Twitter used to partner with Bing. And it was April 2023 where they got dropped from Bing. And now it is Google. So in essence... Are you sure about that? Yeah, I'm sure. It used to be on Bing. I'm like 99.9999 % sure. Let me actually Google it.

0:40Yeah, because I'm searching for Bing over here. There's no like history of it. As you search for it, let me just read this real quick. So Microsoft drops Twitter from its advertising platform. Okay. All right. Well, Google confirmed today that X would use Google Ad Manager, a programmatic ad platform for publishers to participate in online auctions to sell its inventory. And so the spokesperson said this, like a number of social apps and websites, X has signed up to monetize its home feed with Google Ad Manager. This is an opportunity for our advertisers to reach a broader audience. but as always, they can choose what sites and apps their ads run on.

1:09Any publisher who participates in this type of partnership must abide by our publisher policies. This is an easy way for them to crank up and just get hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in ad revenue over time because Google has the inventory and because they have the inventory, they have probably one of the largest advertising networks out there, if not the largest advertising network out there because they're bigger than Facebook from ad dollars. So if they plug in Twitter, more inventory, advertisers are happy, easier for them to just, you know, integrate campaigns that are pretty broad and just push it out on Twitter as well.

1:43Yeah. So there's a sub headline here saying how it's a risky move for Google. I'm going to stop the share, but basically it's saying, Hey, like one of the things is programmatic or display inventory is generally seen as less valuable. And I've seen that. I think same for you, probably Neil. It's also a risky move because Google has to hold X accountable for its publisher standards. There's a lot of crazy stuff that's published sometimes. I don't think it's a risky move from dude, check this out. Okay. Yes. Even if X, and I'm not saying they will, but let's hypothetically say X breaks some policies and Google gets some heat for it.

2:14You think companies are going to stop advertising on Google? No, it drives too much revenue. It drives such a massive ROI. Google's not going to be impacted. It's just like, dude, you remember everyone would be like, Like, oh, let's ban Facebook and not use social media. Well, Facebook's still making a killing on ad revenue. It doesn't matter what people think. At the end of the day, businesses can generate profit from it. They're going to keep spending in most cases. Well, I was saying before Neil interrupted me. Risky move. This is ad age for you to say that it's a risky move. I think it's, look, at the end of the day, we were talking before we did this show that I think this is a good segue for Linda Iaccarino, who was recently appointed as CEO of X, to figure out all the ad issues that they're facing right now.

2:56And then this is a nice bridge. And maybe they'll continue doing this long-term and maybe this is just like a long-term partnership. But at least this stops the bleeding because I think, Neil, correct me if I'm wrong. I mean, last time we saw what, there were 40, 50 % down on their ad revenue? Yes. Yeah. So I think it's long-term, it's probably a good move for both sides. And I think, you know, call a spade a spade here. I mean, with Elon reducing 85 % of staff and shipping a ton more features, I think X is, the ship hasn't been righted yet, but I think it's slowly getting there. And so I'm seeing if there's anything else here.

3:28Do you want to add any more thoughts as I read this? I think it's actually going to make X ads more expensive over time because there's going to be more people competing for the inventory. Okay, here. I got an advertising perspective. So here's a subheadline here. So it says X's updated ad sales team. So on Thursday, X announced a restructuring of its ad sales team and new hires. Monique Pintarelli was hired as head of the Americas on X's ad sales team, coming over from Teeds, which is an online programmatic and global media platform. X also hired Kerry Stimul as a new global agency leader. Stimul has been chief growth officer at NBCUniverse.

4:03Okay, so there's a lot of hiring. There's a lot of restructuring that's happening right now. Basically, it's just what I said, right? And so I think it's going to take some time to see the fruits of this labor. Anything else, Neil? Nope. go try advertising on X. It's still cheaper than it was a year ago and we're seeing still great ROI from it. Yeah, I mean, look, you know, Threads launched and, you know, nobody's talking about Threads anymore. We talked about it for like a week or two. And at the end of the day, X, it still has hundreds of millions of users and I'm fairly active on reading and some of the smartest people I know are actively using it.

4:34So go use it. I think the attention is underpriced there and let us know what type of results that you get. So please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe. It helps us grow and we'll see you tomorrow.