Since Twitter rebranded as X, the social media platform is desperately trying to revive advertising spend.
According to a new report, Elon Musk’s X Corp is essentially tying business verification to ad spend in an effort to revive its bottom line.
Businesses are being warned that they will lose their gold checkmark if they haven’t forked out at least $1,000 (£775) on ads in the past 30 days or $6,000 (£4,648) in the previous 180 days, according to emails sent to advertisers obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
The policy will reportedly be implemented on August 7, with X reportedly offering up to 50% off certain types of ads, including those that run on videos atop the “explore” tab.
Musk’s latest move echoes the steps Twitter previously took with its subscription strategy, where it used ads and verification as the proverbial carrot and stick to convince users to pay a monthly fee.
High-profile users were told they’d lose their blue badge if they didn’t purchase Twitter Blue, while being promised fewer ads in their feeds. Chaos ensued as celebs and media types roundly criticised the tactic, and Twitter had to briefly pause the rollout of the verification subscription due to impersonations and scams.
When it relaunched, Twitter Blue offered three types of verification: Blue badges for individuals, grey for notable organisations and gold for businesses. The last of these cost $1,000 a month (plus tax) and $50 per month for each additional affiliate account.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk revealed that ad revenue on the platform had dropped by half. Twitter has historically struggled to make a profit, while rival Meta has become a digital advertising giant.
Musk installed TV veteran Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s new CEO in June, a decision that was viewed by many as a way to win back advertisers.
Verification is viewed as important to businesses as a way to communicate to users that the account they are interacting with is genuine.
