Marketing confidence in X plummets, finds Kantar

Kantar’s Media Reaction 2024 report found that brand safety concerns and poor perceptions around innovation and trust were the primary reasons for the decline in X’s standing among marketers.

The findings include a net 26% of marketers who reported plans to reduce advertising spend on X in 2025, which Kantar said was the biggest recorded pullback from any major global advertising platform.

The study, based on interviews with around 18,000 consumers in 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, also said that YouTube remains the advertising platform of preference for marketers, while for consumers, Amazon and TikTok shared the top spot. 

Marketers’ trust in adverts on X have decreased further under Elon Musk’s leadership, Kantar said, from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024.

Only 4% of marketers think adverts on X provide brand safety – in contrast to Google, which comes top for brand safety at 39%.

X also scores outside the global top ten for trust and for perception in how innovative advertising is on the platform.

TikTok was deemed the most innovative advertising publisher for the fifth consecutive year and, alongside YouTube, the most trusted. 

This year Amazon and TikTok are a first-place tie for consumer preference, with Kantar’s research finding that Amazon adverts are perceived as being more relevant and useful, whereas TikTok adverts are perceived as more fun, but neither brand featured in the top five ranking advertising platforms among marketers.

Netflix, measured by Kantar as an advertising platform for the first time this year, achieved a top five position among both consumers and marketers.

Gonca Bubani, global thought leadership director – media at Kantar, said: “Advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years. The stark acceleration of this trend in the past 12 months means a turnaround currently seems unlikely.

“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use. X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next – it’s difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment.

“Ironically, decreasing spend by marketers on X will make consumers happier with the platform as they come face to face with fewer ads.”