It would seem that Twitter CEO Elon Musk isn’t messing around when it comes to pushing people to subscribe to Twitter Blue – with the only accounts now allowed to advertise on the platform having to cough up.
Twitter announced this on Friday – just a day after it removed legacy tick marks from accounts like Beyonce and Sesame Street’s Elmo. It was announced via email to all those who advertise on Twitter, with one user taking to the platform to share the news:
WOW… Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads! pic.twitter.com/4DrDu82Zi0
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 21, 2023
This now means that, for the privilege of advertising on the platform – which was previously free to do, aside from the ad spend itself, of course, as is standard across all social media platforms – advertisers will now need to either subscribe to Twitter Blue at $8 per month, or cough up the hefty sum of $1,000 a month for the Verification for Organizations option.
Twitter did caveat this by revealing any business account spending more than $1,000 a month currently will receive a gold checkmark ‘soon’, if they haven’t already, and so will benefit from uninterrupted advertising.
Any business that doesn’t spend over $1,000 a month or hasn’t subscribed to Twitter Blue or Verification for Organizations will have had their ads stopped.
Reactions to the news were certainly mixed. Some praised the move, saying that it makes sense and could help to stop people seeing ads from fraudsters or low-quality advertisers. Others weren’t so positive, highlighting how this could seriously impact advertisers with smaller budgets, like indie music artists, in connecting with their target audiences. One user even went so far as to say anyone without a subscription to Twitter Blue is like a second-class citizen:
Basically, anyone without Twitter Blue is almost a second class citizen.
— Parikshit Shah (@imparixit) April 21, 2023
In the grand scheme of things, $8 a month isn’t likely to break an advertisers’ bank, but the move could result in businesses taking their advertising budgets elsewhere – especially as they’re going to have to pay for the privilege of advertising, and deal with the fact that Twitter Blue subscribers are shown fewer ads.
Time will tell as to whether this is a smart business move from Musk, or just another nail in the coffin as he forces users to pay up. If you need help in advertising your business on the web, why not reach out to our team at Engage Web today and see how we can help?
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