Whereas Twitter isn’t sending an enormous delegation to fulfill with advert execs in Cannes this week, the corporate is on a mission to win again advertiser belief, amid ongoing modifications to the platform’s advert insurance policies and content material strategy underneath new proprietor Elon Musk.

Twitter’s resolution to rent long-time advert business chief Linda Yaccarino as CEO is a transparent signal that it’s transferring on this path, regardless of Musk’s personal aversion to adverts, whereas it’s additionally a sign that Musk’s preliminary effort to scale back Twitter’s reliance on advert {dollars} hasn’t labored out as he had initially hoped.

Certainly, whereas Twitter’s varied subscription applications at the moment are offering new income streams for the corporate, they solely characterize a fraction of the income that it brings in from adverts. And with fewer than 1% of Twitter customers paying to make use of the app, evidently Musk and Co. at the moment are re-focusing on their pitch to advert companions, by way of varied pledges and insights designed to reassure them that, regardless of Musk’s modifications, Twitter stays a secure promotional pathway.

First off, Twitter has famous that it’s meeting with more brand safety and suitability providers, with the intention to present extra impartial assurance.

Twitter says that it’s presently within the means of assessing new providers from Zefr, Integral Advert Science, DoubleVerify, and Unitary, that might give advertisers extra management over the position of their adverts inside the app.

Twitter already works with Integral Advert Science and DoubleVerify on advert measurement, and it says that, in accordance with their impartial evaluation, 99% of measured Twitter advert impressions now seem adjoining to content material ‘deemed secure in accordance with the GARM model security ground’.

In different phrases, regardless of business hypothesis, Twitter underneath Elon is definitely offering a brand-safe atmosphere, as measured by impartial evaluation, which might present some assurance for advertisers contemplating their Twitter efforts.

That, in accordance with Twitter, has additionally seen extra advertisers coming again to the app, with greater than 75% of the platform’s high 100 advertisers now operating Twitter campaigns once more. That’s an enchancment on earlier this 12 months, when studies recommended that fifty% of Twitter’s high 100 had halted all advert spend attributable to security considerations.

Although that also doesn’t equate to spending, with The New York Instances reporting that Twitter’s advert income in April was down 59% year-over-year, which, primarily based on present projections, doesn’t seem to have improved loads since.

So it’s a story of two stats – on one hand, extra advertisers are coming again to Twitter, however the spend knowledge means that they’re nonetheless being very cautious about their campaigns, as Musk continues to implement new advert guidelines on a whim, which is one other aspect that Twitter wants to deal with.

Certainly, over the weekend, Musk implied that Twitter would quickly implement new guidelines round manufacturers attempting to make use of feedback on in style tweets as ‘free promoting’. This got here in response to customers alerting Musk to seemingly scammy replies, however instituting guidelines to fight such may find yourself impacting some official tweet methods.

There’s been no replace on this entrance as but, however it’s one other instance of how Elon’s reactive rule modifications continues to trigger unease amongst some advert companions.

One other concern on this entrance is hate speech, which Twitter itself claims has decreased considerably since Musk took over on the app.

Numerous consultants have refuted these claims, and curiously, Musk has seemingly watered down his statements on this entrance, noting in an interview final week that hate speech visibility has declined 30% since the acquisition, not 50% as he shared in March.

At the least a few of the variability right here comes all the way down to how hate speech is measured, with Twitter seemingly using completely different measurement approaches that scale back the general figures. Possibly, this revised quantity from Elon exhibits that Twitter’s now up to date its strategy on this entrance once more, which could possibly be extra consistent with normal business requirements round such.

However actually, it’s tough to know what Twitter’s numbers really characterize, as a result of Elon himself has flip-flopped on varied key stats a number of occasions, relying on the way it serves him within the second.

As you’ll recall, in July final 12 months, when Elon tried to renege on his $44 billion supply for the app, he claimed that Twitter’s mDAU rely was really radically incorrect, as a result of there have been way more bot profiles within the app that Twitter was reporting.

Twitter had lengthy held that the variety of faux profiles within the app didn’t exceed 5% of its whole mDAU rely, primarily based by itself sampling, however Musk claimed that it was really far larger, with round 33% of its lively profiles being fakes, primarily based on his personal analysis and evaluation.

Musk ultimately settled on it being a extra modest 20% of Twitter profiles that he believed, primarily based on his group’s evaluation, have been faux, which, at the moment, would equate to 50.6 million customers, lowering Twitter’s precise human consumer rely to round 187m.

But, shortly after Musk took over on the app, he deserted these claims altogether, and as an alternative reported that Twitter had reached a brand new document excessive in mDAU numbers.

So what occurred to all of the bots? Was {that a} lie that Elon was telling simply to get out of the deal, or does it now higher serve Twitter to say all of those profiles as actual customers, because it might assist it lure extra advert spend?

With this in thoughts, it’s exhausting to know precisely what any of those numbers characterize, as Twitter has seemingly switched up its stance primarily based on what it prefers at any given time.

Which is why third-party verification is vital, and it’ll be value noting, over time, what these advert knowledge suppliers present, with reference to model security and attain, as a way to win again jittery advert companions.

Primarily, it’s unclear what Twitter’s communicated knowledge represents at any given time, primarily based on the numerous variances reported. That is one other aspect that Yaccarino must get extra aligned as she seems to be to reinforce Twitter’s pitch to model companions.