Given the assorted misleading data points that X’s group has communicated since Elon Musk took possession of the app, that are seemingly designed to offer the impression that the platform is performing higher than it truly is, it’s laborious to belief the numbers that they do share, as a result of we don’t have any method of verifying if what’s appropriate and what’s not.
However right now, we now have some new information from X, as a part of a broader announcement of a new partnership with Integral Ad Science (IAS) on model security for vertical video advert placements.
As per X:
“A growing number of users are actively watching and posting videos on X, fueling the platform’s rapid expansion. X is now a video-first platform, with video being part of more than 8 in 10 user sessions, and we’ve seen views increase almost 30% year over year.”
See, even this assertion is unclear, as a result of it doesn’t present sufficient context as to what that really means. Is that general video views or video views on common? Up to now, you possibly can ask Twitter’s comms division for readability, however now, X doesn’t actually have a communications group, so there’s no method of figuring out what these figures truly symbolize.
However based mostly on these numbers, video content material is getting extra consideration within the app, whereas X additionally claims that greater than 100 million folks watch vertical video on the platform every single day.
“Vertical video is the fastest growing surface on X. Over 100M people around the world are consuming vertical video daily at an average of over 13 minutes per day. On many days, vertical video accounts for around 20% of all time spent on the platform.”
When considered in broader context, this is smart, because the behavioral shift in direction of vertical video, led by TikTok and Instagram, would lend itself to related tendencies in different apps. However X’s video participant doesn’t open to the vertical participant natively, with most customers viewing video in-stream. And given X sees 244 million daily actives in complete, that’s lots of people that it claims are particularly tapping into video clips to view them, then scrolling by way of its video-specific feed.
So is that true? I don’t know, and we now have no method to make clear.
Regardless, X is now seeking to present extra assurance for manufacturers seeking to show their adverts inside this vertical video feed.
“Effective February 1, 2024, X will expand access to our successful vetted inventory pilot with Integral Ad Science, a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, to all US advertisers. In this partnership, IAS classifies all Vertical Video Ad adjacencies for brand safety and suitability aligned to the GARM framework.”
X says that this may give vertical video advertisers “maximum control over where their ads appear”. Which is vital, given {that a} rising variety of manufacturers are pulling back on X ad spend, ostensibly on account of model security issues.
Although these issues are arguably extra centered on Musk’s personal feedback than advert placement.
As well as, X says that it’s employed extra employees in its model security group to bolster this aspect.
Once more, it’s laborious to gauge what precisely is happening at X, due to the assorted contradicting and deceptive information factors being shared and/or amplified by Yaccarino and Musk at totally different instances.
For instance, again in October, Yaccarino claimed that X customers had been spending an average of 32 minutes per day in the app, however based mostly on current information shared by Musk, it’s more like 23 minutes per day instead. Which can not look like a large discrepancy on the floor, however that’s a variance in engagement of round 30%.
Musk has additionally continued to amplify deceptive information factors, like website traffic numbers, as a way to recommend that X is outperforming Instagram and Fb in visitors. Which it’s not, however X does generate a major quantity extra visits through internet browers, versus IG and FB, which see some 90% of their exercise in-app.
The framing of those stats looks as if a deliberate try to mislead, and because of this, it makes it tougher to belief all of X’s reported figures.
Because of this, you just about must low cost the broader numbers, and focus as a substitute on the particular engagement that you simply’re seeing, or not, within the app.
Is your target market lively on X? Are manufacturers and influencers in your area of interest posting vertical video within the app?
If they’re, then possibly you need to experiment with the identical, and see whether or not it really works on your strategic targets.
