Elon Musk's X will let brands run ads next to certain creators

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Elon Musk’s X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, will start allowing advertisers on the platform to target their ads, so they appear next to a curated list of premium content creators.

X’s creator targeting tool will begin allowing advertisers to target their promotional campaigns this month. The company said in a post that the change will enable them to use the X ads manager to "run pre-roll video ads against the video content of their creator(s) in both the home timeline and profile."

The company added that the creator targeting tool works on top of X’s primary brand safety solutions, adjacency controls and sensitivity settings. X said the new tool is also an extension of its brand-safe video tool and new video formats for advertisers on the platform, including vertical video ads and action-driving promoted video.

X’s push to assuage the concerns of advertisers comes after some departed the platform over changes made by Musk to content moderation policies. Those concerns escalated into an advertiser exodus after some brands saw their ads appear next to objectionable content.

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X's creator targeting tool is set to roll out to advertisers on the platform this month, the company said. (Photo by Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

In the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, left-wing group Media Matters released a report showing major corporations’ ads being displayed next to antisemitic content and, in some cases, pro-Nazi posts on X.

X pushed back on the Media Matters report and accused the group of manipulating its feed to get such content to appear next to major brands’ ads. The social media company then filed a defamation lawsuit against the group.

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Elon Musk's X is rolling out a new creator targeting tool to let brands have better control over where ads appear. (Emin Sansar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Apple, IBM and Lionsgate Entertainment were among the brands that paused advertising on the X platform amid the controversy. A report by the New York Times indicated that X could lose up to $75 million in advertising revenue through the end of 2023 due to the advertiser flight.

X added that it will later expand the creator targeting tool to add the ability to run promotional campaigns only on a creator’s profile rather than appearing in a user’s broader content feed.

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The company believes that change would help advertisers by "completely eliminating the unlikely event of unwanted adjacencies while aligning your brand to creators you love most."

Reuters contributed to this report.