Advertising is coming to Twitter feeds

For the moment, users were relatively spared. Advertising was still limited on Twitter, which made it a platform often cited by users as pleasant to use. Well, that should change. Ads are coming, on our feeds and in public conversations. Explanations.

Hey you,

Most platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc…) base their business model on advertising. For a long time, Twitter was relatively spared. Unfortunately, this is going to change quickly. Executives of the company have thus hinted that advertising should arrive from the beginning of 2022, not only in news feeds but also in public conversations on the platform. Here’s a look at this announcement, which is far from being unanimously approved by users and content creators.  

Advertising is coming to Twitter

The subject was mentioned in the sulphurous Facebook report “Behind our smoke screens”, published on Netflix in 2021. One of the shocking sentences was: “If it’s free, it means you’re the product”. Unfortunately, this is a very good representation of how most platforms work. And Twitter has a front row seat. Today, users don’t pay any fee to use the platform on a daily basis. This means that in order to get paid, the platform has to look for its economic model elsewhere. So, what is the solution? Through the sale of data and therefore advertising. Up until now, Twitter had only been very discreet about this. That’s about to change. Company officials have announced that this should happen very quickly, in early 2022.

Announcements in Tweet conversations  

The Twitter platform is seriously considering the launch of the advertising format. We should find it not only in our news feed (the classic format) but also in a place that is more debated … in Tweet conversations. The brand managers said that there will soon be the possibility to buy advertising inserts that will appear in public conversations. The reason? To propose to brands and advertisers to be present where the conversation takes place.

What will be the limit of the ads?

As we have seen with other platforms, advertising can quickly become so pervasive and intrusive that it destroys the user experience. This is for example the case with Youtube, with ever more ads, Facebook and Instagram too. So will Twitter follow this trend? Logically, many people, including content creators, hope that the platform will be able to find the right balance and not harm the use of the social network. Some advocate for example the implementation of other measures, allowing users to keep a comfortable use while allowing the platform to get paid (paid subscription, etc. …). This is a format already developed by some players (Mym, Patreon, etc…) and which seems to be largely successful. 

How to avoid ads on Twitter?

You don’t want to see these ads? Continue to browse freely on Twitter? Good news! For the moment, it’s still possible. The method is a bit tedious but effective: when you see a promotion, simply click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner, then on “Why this ad?” and finally on “I’m not interested in this ad”. The effect is immediate. The ad will no longer appear in your News Feed. The limit? It is only effective for one ad. This means that you will have to repeat the operation for each ad seen in your news feed.