X Announces Creator Targeting to Allow Advertisers to Run Ads with Select Creators

X

X has announced Creator Targeting, an advertising solution that enables advertisers to strategically place their ads alongside a curated list of creators. Through X Manager's self-serve platform, advertisers gain the ability to select specific creators and run pre-roll ads on their video content. Soon, advertisers will also have the opportunity to display ads on a creator's profile.

Why It Matters: This serves dual purposes. Firstly, Creator Targeting addresses the concerns of advertisers who have distanced themselves from X due to brand safety issues, such as ads adjacent to harmful content. By granting advertisers the power to select creators for their ads, X empowers them with greater control over the content their ads will be associated with while aligning them with relevant creators and their respective audiences. It’s a similiar initiative as TikTok’s Pulse program.

Secondly, Creator Targeting presents a new monetization opportunity for creators. Following a successful pilot program with MrBeast, where he earned over $250K in ad revenue from pre-roll ads on a single video, X announced plans to extend the program to a broader pool of creators, with Creator Targeting as the vehicle for this expansion.

As it tries to achieve its video-first platform ambition, creators will play a key role in generating video content. However, to appeal to them, X needs to build out its monetization for video content, akin to YouTube's Partner Program, which has distributed $70 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the past three years.