David Bridges
Key Insights
- Reach Increase: X Premium accounts experience an average of 10x more reach on their posts.
- Data Analysis: A study analyzed over 18.8 million X posts to understand reach benefits for subscribers.
- Tier Impact: Higher-tier X Premium accounts see significantly more impressions per post compared to basic tiers.
- User Engagement: Despite reach benefits, 80% of X users do not actively post or engage on the platform.
As part of X’s broader push to get more people to pay for the app via its X Premium offering, it’s added various reach benefits into the package, including prioritized display within post replies, and the opportunity to amplify your posts via its new “Boost” option.
And as was revealed in recent analysis of the X algorithm, X Premium subscribers also get a more general reach boost for their posts, as a result of paying their monthly fee.
But how significant is that boost, and does it make paying for X Premium worth it for brands looking to reach X users?
The answer, according to a new study from Buffer, is yes, with X Premium accounts seeing 10x more reach, on average, in the app.
The team from Buffer conducted an analysis of more than 18.8 million X posts from 71,000 accounts over the past year, in order to ascertain what kind of reach boost X gives to paying users (for context, Buffer says that around 27% of the profiles analyzed were subscribed to X Premium during the analysis).
And it’s a lot:
As you can see in this chart, X Premium accounts get way more reach for their posts.
Though it is interesting to note that the reach benefit has declined over time. That could be related to specific accounts, and how they’re impacted by algorithm changes at the app.
But basically, if you want to maximize your X reach, it likely is worth paying up for the Premium offering.
Though at the same time, this isn’t a major selling point for regular users. That’s because the vast majority (80%) of X users never post, or even engage in the app, which is why this has always been a somewhat strange benefit for X to focus on. But from a brand and marketing perspective, the data shows that it is a relevant consideration to reach a broader audience.
In terms of the different X Premium account tiers, Buffer’s data shows that paying more has a much bigger impact on reach.
According to Buffer’s data, people paying for the most basic X Premium tier (Basic) generally get fewer than 100 impressions per post, while Premium accounts get 600 impressions, on average.
Premium+ accounts, however, get over 1,550 impressions per post.
Which is another consideration, though the costs here are also relative.
X’s paid packages start at $3 per month for “Basic”, and go up to $40 per month for “Premium+”.
So while you will get a reach increase of over 100%, on average, if you shift up to the top Premium tier, you’re also paying 5x more for that opportunity (versus regular Premium). Maybe you could consider that as part of your ad costs, but it’s another element to factor into your planning.
There’s more information in Buffer’s full report, including data on post type performance for paying accounts, which could give you more context for your planning.
You can read Buffer’s full report here.
Mason Thompson
