Elon Musk again has come up with an innovative way to get money from brands. After telling businesses to pay $1,000 monthly to keep their verification badge, X is now telling them to spend at least $1,000 monthly on ads. Brands that don’t comply will lose their verification checkmark.
Twitter, now rebranded as X, heavily depends on advertising revenues- just like most social platforms. Back in May, Twitter’s biggest ad buyer GroupM said the platform is no longer recognized as “high risk,” and advertisers can safely place orders for ads.
However, the latest reports indicate that the platform’s revenue from advertising plummeted by 50%. Controversies following Musk’s takeover and drastic changes he made to the platform are advertisers’ main sources of concern. X has notified brands that they might lose their verification badge if they haven’t spent at least $1,000 on ads in the previous 30 days or $6,000 on ads in the previous 180 days.
X wants brands to spend at least $1,000 per month on buying ads
In response, Musk said the reason for this is to raise the bar for verification organizations and make it expensive for scammers to create millions of accounts. Of course, the billionaire added organizations can choose to pay only $1,000 for their badge.
“Or they can just pay $1000/month for a verified organization subscription with the ability to convey that organizational authority to affiliates. This more than pays for itself in organic reach.” Musk noted.
Spending $12,000 annually on a verification badge is quite over budget for most small and midsize businesses. Now, asking them to pay another $12,000 for ads seems to be an extravagant request. Many small businesses and nonprofit organizations are asking for a cheaper tier to get a verified badge.
Elon Musk is going to great lengths to make his now-called X profitable. This includes even giving a 50% discount on all new ad bookings until July 31.