Tuesday Thought: Saving Twitter

Greetings! Hope you’re all having a great week.

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Vadim Ordovsky-Tanaevsky.

Most people who sponsor Let Me Think want me to talk about them.

But not Vadim.

No, selflessly, Vadim ponied up $5.34 not to plug his LinkedIn profile or future pursuits.

He did it to congratulate his girlfriend, Renata, on her promotion to Media Supervisor.

So congratulations Renata on both your promotion and for your catch of a boyfriend, Vadim.

Onto the newsletter!

Tuesday Thought

Twitter was acquired about a year ago by Elon Musk.

At the time, I was optimistic.

I predicted things that eventually became true, like Twitter discounts to spur ad dollars; decreasing ad prices caused by an outflow of advertisers abandoning the platform; and that, you know, Twitter wouldn’t just collapse overnight.

I also continue to think the narrative around Twitter is false.

Brands didn’t cut back on Twitter because of Elon.

He merely gave them a scapegoat to cut a platform that wasn’t a strong part of their mix to begin with.

Twitter is almost always part of an advertiser’s secondary budget, vs. the primary budget being gobbled up by places like Google and Meta.

But 2024 was supposed to be a challenging year, and forced most advertisers’ budget to be cut or spent on “past” or “top” performers.

That meant, by default, Twitter would struggle this year.

But clearly, something is up.

Twitter ad revenue is supposedly down ~60% this year.

And, other secondary platforms like Snap and Pinterest just posted strong year over year revenue gains in Q3.

Clearly, Twitter hasn’t been able to reap the same rebound happening in advertising.

So generally, although I called some things right a year ago, I was wrong.

First off, I was wrong about the name change.

I originally said it made sense. It doesn’t. I still refer to it as Twitter.

I probably will never stop referring to it as Twitter.

But mostly what I got wrong was about Elon’s impact on Twitter’s advertising products.

I thought Elon would bring a culture of speed and innovation to Twitter, especially to its advertising products.

He touted that as much early on his tenure - a deck circulated about how he would make advertising as engaging as the Twitter experience itself.

But so far, his tenure has been more about tiers that eliminate ads than reinvent them.

And it’s felt like a lot of running in place from Twitter’s team.

Because the platform has become less reliable not only for news, but also for advertising results.

Yes, that’s right - Twitter still sucks for advertisers.

I’ve run a few campaigns with them this year, and each time, the same result - lots of cheap reach and traffic, but poor quality, and certain little follow-through action for the brand.

But, there is one thing that Twitter is better for than ever.

Real, honest feedback about your ads, right to your ads face.

AKA, trolls who shit all over them.

I ran a campaign with Twitter earlier this year, and one of the ads got absolutely destroyed by the users.

It was relentless. Comments, retweets. Lots of WTFs and SMHs.

Each user, laying into the ad, one by one, right under the ad, all for the world to see.

And on Twitter’s one year anniversary, I had an epiphany.

These trolls who shit all over ads are the reason why brands have fled the platform, in the name of a lack of brand safety and moderation.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Instead of a weakness, it can be a strength.

This relentless roasting, this onslaught on ads Twitter users bring should be its salvation.

I thought a lot about how Twitter can save itself and win back those ad dollars.

Like going all in on creators, signing them exclusively to the platform.

Or getting fledgling publishers to ditch their websites and become Twitter-only outlets, sharing a cut of subscription and ad revenue.

Or being a sports subscription service that ESPN+ never could be, housing extra content from leagues like the NBA, including practices, draft night war rooms, and team meetings, to match Twitter’s keen and vibrant commentary around the sport.

But really, I think Twitter’s main offering to advertisers should be its users’ ability to give advertisers a true, honest read on if its ads are good or not.

It should transform itself into the realest, most honest focus group money can buy.

A home for trolls to give brands their honest feedback on what they think of their ads, before they roll them out to the world.

In essence, it can be every brand’s testing playground.

And the Twitter users can be the bullies giving brands wedgies.

How will it work?

For $x a month, you upload your new ad campaign to Twitter.

Your ads will be viewed by 50-100 Twitter power users.

Only they can see the ads, and only your brand can see the comments.

And then, the brand tell these people to do their worst.

Tell them to roast the ad’s thirsty attempts at brand love.

Tell them to roast the ad’s inauthentic influencers giving the product testimonials.

Tell them to roast the punchlines the creatives thought were funny, but you yourself knew weren’t but didn’t have the heart to admit.

Tell them to roast it all.

There is so much advertising that gets put out into the world, that either doesn’t get tested or doesn’t get tested honestly. 

If people were just honest in their feedback during testing, we would avoid the milquetoast ads we see so much of, or the ones that try too hard, like Kendall’s Pepsi ad gone wrong.

Twitter’s community offers that.

They might not buy your product after clicking on an ad, but it will surely shit all over it.

And that information is still valuable to advertisers, so they don’t make those mistakes on a more massive, visible, or costly scale.

So if I were Twitter, I’d scrap any attempt to woo back advertisers with their existing products.

The game is over, you lost.

Instead, woo them back with one of your strengths.

Your community.

And your community’s ability to keep things real.

Lean into the trolls, and let the trolls make advertising better, and you money.

After all, you’re not likely to get that ad money anyway.

You might as well get it before the other platforms take their cut.

Stay thinkin,

Danny