Twitter’s ad revenue will fall drastically this year, according to estimates

Twitter’s ad business doesn’t seem to be recovering from Elon Musk’s acquisition last fall.

$$$: The platform’s 2023 ad revenue is now projected to be $2.98 billion, nearly $2 million less than was projected in October, according to estimates from Insider Intelligence.

Ad sales had previously made up 92% of Twitter’s revenue, according to its Q2 2022 earnings report.

“The biggest problem with Twitter’s ad business is that advertisers don’t trust Musk,” Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, wrote in the report. “Twitter needs to unravel Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image to regain advertiser trust and bring back ad dollars.”

Despite its early efforts to woo the industry, like a Twitter Space with IAB CEO David Cohen, or partnerships with brand-safety vendors DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science, many blue-chip advertisers have continued to raise doubts about Twitter. Several said they paused advertising on the platform when Musk initially took over. However, both Nike and McDonald’s have run ads on the platform recently, with Mondelēz expected to soon return, according to Ad Age.

Coming up: Musk is set to attend a conference next week hosted by the digital marketing industry trade group MMA Global, where he’ll be interviewed by NBCU’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships Linda Yaccarino. Already, MMA members including McDonald’s and Colgate-Palmolive have privately raised concerns about Musk’s appearance, per Semafor.

Correction 4/21/23: This article has been updated to correct the characterization of Twitter’s projected revenue numbers.