X to Launch New Tools That Connect Advertisers and Creators

X, formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to launch new ways for advertisers to align with content creators to reach consumers.

With the social media platform’s new Creator Targeting tool that will be launched this month, advertisers “can run ads against a curated list of premium content creators,” X said in a Monday (Feb. 12) blog post.

“Now, with the diversity of perspectives on X expanding, we are enabling a new opportunity for advertisers to connect to their customers by aligning with some of the world’s best content creators,” the firm said in the post.

For example, advertisers will be able to use the self-serve X ads manager to run pre-roll video ads against the video content of the creators they choose, both in the home timeline and in the profile, according to the post.

In addition, the new Creator Targeting will work on top of X’s brand safety solutions, Adjacency Controls and Sensitivity Settings, the post said.

X will also soon add the ability to serve ads only on a creator’s profile, thereby taking another step to ensure that their ads have no unwanted adjacencies, per the post.

More than 80,000 creators have joined X’s ad revenue sharing program since the launch of that program in July, according to the post. In addition, X partners with more than 1,000 publishers.

The firm has also launched Vertical Video Ads and Promoted Video, the post said.

“X is now becoming a video-first experience, and Creator Targeting is the next step in X’s evolving video ecosystem,” the company said in the post.

It was reported in October that X aims to challenge YouTube, LinkedIn and PRNewswire as it expands its business lines into video, hiring and a news wire service.

Also in October, X announced that it was teaming up with Paris Hilton and her digital ad agency 11:11 Media on shopping and video projects, aiming to launch new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce and Spaces.

X also plans to launch peer-to-peer payments this year, saying this will add more user utility to the app, create new opportunities for commerce and help the platform become “the everything app.”