There is a certain rhythm to the return of the prodigal, and on Madison Avenue it usually involves a quiet phone call, a revised rate card, and a mutual agreement not to discuss the intervening years too closely.
So it is with X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, which appears to be reassembling something resembling its pre-Elon Musk advertiser base — though at spending levels that suggest the reconciliation remains, shall we say, tentative.
The largest advertising categories on X by United States spending so far in 2026 are media and entertainment, shopping, software, financial services, and gaming, according to data from Sensor Tower. Each vertical is spending in the eight-figure range, the research firm said, though it declined to provide specific figures. The top individual advertisers include Comcast, Amazon, the N.F.L., Google, Dell, AT&T, the N.B.A., and American Express — names that would not have looked out of place on such a list in 2021.
This represents a notable shift from the immediate post-acquisition period, when the advertiser profile tilted heavily toward cryptocurrency, gambling, and political brands (a coalition that might charitably be described as niche).
The catch, as there always is, involves the fine print. A recent S-1 filing by SpaceX noted that X's advertising revenue declined "materially" in 2024, citing a loss of $595 million due to departed advertising partners. For context, Alphabet reported $77.3 billion in advertising revenue in a single quarter this year, meaning the parent company of Google would have needed roughly 17 hours to generate what X lost over 12 months.
"X has been trending toward becoming a platform that brands spend on during certain tentpole moments," said Max Willens, a principal analyst at eMarketer, "but no longer treat as an essential, always-on investment."
Shamsul Chowdhury, senior vice president of paid media at Zeno Group, said his team has seen advertisers return to X for specific purposes — particularly business-to-business clients seeking to engage live conversations during conferences. "It's where their key decision makers are going to hear about the latest and greatest," Mr. Chowdhury said.
The platform recently announced an advertising overhaul, though whether that will change minds remains unclear. As Mr. Willens noted, that announcement is barely a month old.
The advertisers, it seems, have come back to the table. They just haven't ordered as much as they used to.
Original story published in Digiday: "X’s advertiser base resembles its pre-Musk era profile", by Krystal Scanlon