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I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

teamblind.com

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Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#11

Post by randyrand »

hello_friendos wrote: post #8
randyrand wrote: post #7

He says its not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling.* The only point that really matters as far as ads are concerned is the first one, but without numbers it’s not much to go on. In other words, it’s not a very useful article for how non-virtue signaling companies will respond. * Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the user’s own subscr…

> Serious brand safety issues. Our organic social and CS teams got dozens of screenshots of our ads next to awful content. Replies to our posts with hardcore antisemitism and adult spam remained up for days even when flagged Not wanting your advertisements displayed right next to objectionable content is not 'virtue signalling' lol.

It is the definition of virtue signaling.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#12

Post by mlyle »

randyrand wrote: post #11
hello_friendos wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Serious brand safety issues. Our organic social and CS teams got dozens of screenshots of our ads next to awful content. Replies to our posts with hardcore antisemitism and adult spam remained up for days even when flagged Not wanting your advertisements displayed right next to objectionable content is not 'virtue signalling' lol.

It is the definition of virtue signaling.

The definition of virtue signaling is:

"the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue."

Thinking that it might be bad for brand reputation to have engagement with your posts to be filled with antisemitism and porn isn't exactly virtue signaling.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#13

Post by mlyle »

gorkish wrote: post #10

A "Financial Services Company" that can afford to spend a million bucks a month on Twitter ads is probably not selling anything I'd like to be buying. As a user, I'm not exactly clear about why I should feel outraged. I say, please, more of this. Addendum: HN downvotes are the sweetest tears because you can tell who is crying.

Oh, the ads going away may be fine for end-users, but it may not be so great for the income statement of Twitter or its ability to meet its (now very high) debt service obligations.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#14

Post by randyrand »

helen___keller wrote: post #9
randyrand wrote: post #7

He says its not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling.* The only point that really matters as far as ads are concerned is the first one, but without numbers it’s not much to go on. In other words, it’s not a very useful article for how non-virtue signaling companies will respond. * Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the user’s own subscr…

> He says it not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling. I think it means not for virtue signaling [about musk/twitter]. Avoiding brand damage and other “common” virtue signaling (like sticking American flags on things for July 4th, sticking rainbows on things for pride, etc) are just called “marketing”. It’s standard operating procedure for someone looking to make money.

As a business owner, I advertise what my product can do, never once my personal beliefs.

My political brand image is not important to my product, and could only hurt me.

That said, I am more fortunate in the space I am in (no competitors, clear utility).

(edit: I agree that he may have been referring to virtue signaling about Musk specifically, hard to say.)

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#15

Post by dragontamer »

randyrand wrote: post #7

He says its not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling.* The only point that really matters as far as ads are concerned is the first one, but without numbers it’s not much to go on. In other words, it’s not a very useful article for how non-virtue signaling companies will respond. * Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the user’s own subscr…

> * Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the users own subscribers and the users own content choices is a recent phenomenon, and is literally the definition of virtue signaling

"Adult" posts means __pornography__.

I don't think pornography is necessarily virtue signaling. We all understand that some brands don't want to associate with it though.

I don't think "Antiemetic" is necessarily political. But if it is to you, then... focus on the other word in that sentence. I've heard that more-and-more pornographic material has been appearing on Twitter recently (even before the Elon takeover), and people / advertisers were feeling more and more uncomfortable about it.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#16

Post by helen___keller »

randyrand wrote: post #14
helen___keller wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He says it not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling. I think it means not for virtue signaling [about musk/twitter]. Avoiding brand damage and other “common” virtue signaling (like sticking American flags on things for July 4th, sticking rainbows on things for pride, etc) are just called “marketing”. It’s standard operating procedure for someone looking to make money.

As a business owner, I advertise what my product can do, never once my personal beliefs. My political brand image is not important to my product, and could only hurt me. That said, I am more fortunate in the space I am in (no competitors, clear utility). (edit: I agree that he may have been referring to virtue signaling about Musk specifically, hard to say.)

Regardless I think the point of the original post on blind was “I don’t care about musk or twitters acquisition drama, but for other reasons we are cutting twitter ad spend”

I think this is supposed to be in contrast to the ubiquitous posts about “I can’t trust twitter because Elon is a bad man that’s why I’m cutting my ad spend”

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#17

Post by skyyler »

randyrand wrote: post #14
helen___keller wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He says it not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling. I think it means not for virtue signaling [about musk/twitter]. Avoiding brand damage and other “common” virtue signaling (like sticking American flags on things for July 4th, sticking rainbows on things for pride, etc) are just called “marketing”. It’s standard operating procedure for someone looking to make money.

As a business owner, I advertise what my product can do, never once my personal beliefs. My political brand image is not important to my product, and could only hurt me. That said, I am more fortunate in the space I am in (no competitors, clear utility). (edit: I agree that he may have been referring to virtue signaling about Musk specifically, hard to say.)

It's not virtue signaling to not want your brand displayed next to hateful content. Brand safety isn't just avoiding "things you personally don't like" it's avoiding "things your customers have negative associations with that could transfer to your brand"...

I don't care what political party death threats are directed at, I don't want my ad displayed next to a death threat. It's not a moral objection, it's a business decision.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#19

Post by rsynnott »

randyrand wrote: post #7

He says its not for virtue signaling but literally the 2nd point is virtue signaling.* The only point that really matters as far as ads are concerned is the first one, but without numbers it’s not much to go on. In other words, it’s not a very useful article for how non-virtue signaling companies will respond. * Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the user’s own subscr…

> Ad purchasers having little tolerance for being placed next to racists posts made by the user’s own subscribers and the user’s own content choices is a recent phenomenon

... Eh? Someone should go back in time and tell DoubleClick and Google that they didn't need all those content rules for their ad networks. Traditional web ad platforms have _never_ allowed their ads to be placed amongst "hardcore antisemitism and adult spam".

On the

> user’s own subscribers

point... Have you used Twitter in the last decade? What you see on Twitter isn't who you subscribe to, it is what the vaunted algorithm chooses to foist on you, with a little bit of who you actually subscribe to as a treat.

Re: I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

#20

Post by stalfosknight »

PakistaniDenzel wrote: post #18

It's always fun trying to translate sentences from corporate types to normal english: "running a team that deploys about $80M in ad spend/year." = "running a team that spends $80M on ads every year"

I'm always kind of bemused by people who can't seem to talk or write without every other word being corporatespeak.
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