Xitter Bans Hashtags in Promoted Posts

On the one hand, hashtags in promoted posts can be useful, on the other hand, Musk thinks they’re ugly and…I’m not entirely disagreeing with him on that very specific point. Regardless, it seems Elon has spoken and hashtags will now be banned from boosted posts, at least until he changes his mind. Again.

This seems like a slightly unnecessary move, but…

X owner Elon Musk has announced that the platform is banning hashtags from ads, in order to improve the look and responsiveness of X’s promoted posts.

As per Musk:

“Starting tomorrow, the esthetic nightmare that is hashtags will be banned from ads on X”

So it seems more driven by Musk’s personal preference than actual utility, though as some have pointed out, hashtags in promoted posts can also distract from the actual purpose of the ad, and drive viewers away from tapping on the promoted link or action.

Twitter’s previous ad team had actually been advising advertisers to dump hashtags for years, noting this exact point:

“″Hashtags link to all the other mentions of that phrase, and are useful if you’re focused on engagement. But, if your goal is have people go to your website or follow your account, you don’t want to risk someone clicking on a hashtag instead of your call-to-action.” 

So it’s not a new shift in perception, and it does make sense.

Now, you may say “but what about my campaign that ties into promoting our own very specific tag?” Well, it seems you’re just screwed.

Though banning them entirely seems unnecessary, especially when a brand could, say, promote its own hashtag, or a campaign tie-in, which would contribute to the promotion’s broader performance metrics.

But Elon clearly doesn’t like them, and as with some of X’s other past changes, once he decides it doesn’t look good, he has the power to change things up.

Oh well. Anyway, I think the instant some advertiser like, I don’t know, a big movie studio, or, you know, Gatorade or whatever says “we have a tag and we’ll spend where we can use it",” Elon might decide he likes money more than aesthetics.