TikTok (+58.6%) and Snapchat (54.3%) saw even bigger gains; Reddit ad traffic was up 10.9%.
Until recently, Twitter’s transformation into X under Elon Musk seemed to diminish advertiser interest in the platform, but the first quarter of 2024 could be the beginning of a turnaround. Traffic to the social network’s ad portal (ads.twitter.com) was up 29.2% year-over-year (YoY), according to Similarweb traffic estimates.
Traffic does not equal revenue, let alone profit, but we track visits to the ad portals of the social networks as a leading indicator of the health of their businesses. TikTok and Snapchat saw even stronger ad traffic growth, but at least X is no longer showing a shrinking audience for its ads.
Key takeaways
- In addition to increasing this quarter, X’s ad portal traffic was up 42.3% YoY in March, according to preliminary estimates.
- While X’s ad portal traffic is recovering, worldwide traffic to twitter.com was down about 7% YoY on both a quarterly and monthly basis. As of February, the most recent month for which monthly active user estimates are available for the X app, usage was down 12.5% YoY (US estimates for iOS and Android combined).
- Traffic to the business.facebook.com website, used for ad buying and other business purposes across Facebook and Instagram, was down 14.2% YoY in Q1. But Meta’s business performance has generally been better than that metric would suggest.
- The ads portal for TikTok (ads.tiktok.com) had the biggest traffic increase of these competitors, rising 58.6%, while Snapchat’s (ads.snapchat.com) was up 54.3%.
- Reddit, which has been in the news because of its recent IPO, received 10.9% more traffic YoY for ads.reddit.com. Truth Social, which also made news for the IPO of its parent company, has yet to establish a similar ads portal.
X’s ad traffic recovery is just the beginning
From a broader perspective, X’s recovery is only beginning. Based on the past 12 months, compared with the previous year, traffic to X’s ads.twitter.com is still down 1.8%.
Twitter faced steep challenges building a successful advertising business under its old management, and Musk has yet to prove that he can do better.
The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.
Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.
Report By: David F. Carr, Senior Insights Manager
Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials and shall have no liability for any decision by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials.
David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".
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