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Last week, Elon Musk tweeted that Twitter has suffered “a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers” to leave the platform. But new data from corporate spending platform Ramp, which analyzes $10 billion a year in transaction volume, shows that some companies have increased their spend on Twitter since Musk took over.
According to transaction data from Ramp’s corporate credit card customers, in the seven days after Oct. 27, when Musk officially bought the company, spend on Twitter increased by 17.9% from the seven days prior to Oct. 27. That was greater than the increases of 3.4% on Google and nearly 8% on Facebook.
Twitter also increased its percentage of total ad spend since Musk’s ownership, increasing its share of the media mix by 6% week over week. Meanwhile, Google dropped by 7% and Facebook declined by 17%, Ramp found. Ramp notes that Twitter transaction volume has been actually relatively stable over the last 12 months.
The data is only a small sliver of the advertising market. Other estimates, such as those from advertising analytics firm Pathmatics, show ad spend as relatively constant in the first week of Musk’s ownership compared to the week before. But it’s evidence that, despite the billionaire’s blustering claims, and big advertisers like General Mills announcing a pause in spend on the platform, many advertisers are still conducting business as usual in a climate of uncertainty.
The data also shows that advertisers are turning to alternate channels in choppy economic waters. Ramp’s data on Twitter follows a larger report from the company on third-quarter transactions, which found that the average company spent 14.9% less on digital ads. The data draws from approximately only 12,000 customers, a majority of whom are small businesses, though spend stats are weighted toward mid-market and enterprise clients, said Alex Song, Ramp’s head of finance and capital markets.
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TikTok holds on to its upwards trajectory
TikTok continues to weather the economic storm. Transaction volume for TikTok rose 6.5% quarter over quarter, Ramp found. That’s been a steady upward trajectory; in the second quarter, spend on TikTok nearly doubled, per Ramp.