Edit: 625 out of 1000 top companies advertising in sept weren't advertising in first weeks of Jan.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/tech/twitter-top-advertiser-d...
Threatening your customers[0] in the process is probably also not a winning formula.
[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-name-shame-adverti...
Twitter's debt management alone is a billion dollars per month.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/02/10/tech/twitter-top-advertis...
On the other hand, they are reporting a study that they may have even paid for and don’t actually share the details of the study. So I certainly see your point.
On the other other hand, I think the “soft” signals like Elon asking people to hit the like button for ads, or the various reports of orgs pulling their ad campaigns suggests that there is general distress. Which is what’s on my mind when I think it’s more than a “narrative,” which I tend to interpret as hand wavy “media bias” used to explain away anything that doesn’t support one’s own narrative.
> Overall, advertising spending by the top 30 companies fell by 42% to an estimated $53.8 million for November and December combined, according to Pathmatics, despite an increase in spending by six of them.
Is that inaccurate and if so, why?
> Pathmatics said the previously unreported figures on Twitter advertising are estimates. The firm bases its estimates on technologies that track ads on desktop browsers and the Twitter app as well as those that mimic user experience.
> But the company said those estimates do not account for deals advertisers may receive from Twitter, or promoted trends and accounts. “It is possible the spending data could be higher for some brands” if Twitter is offering incentives, Pathmatics said in an email.
It's all speculation across the board - people want musk to finally fail, and that possibility produces some delicious schadenfreude. I am in this industry, and don't trust for a second the estimates "Pathmatics" cites. Everytime I've seen these types estimates on properties where I know the real numbers, they are off significantly, in both directions.
The numbers come from comps, and some sampling of Desktop ad impressions and a twitter client. That's so far away from what the real numbers are that it's just a fuzzy guess.
1 - https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/01/19/twitter-musk-consum....