Twitter ad revenue up 21% in Q2, ad engagement growth continues to slow

Twitter generated $727 million in ad revenue during the second quarter of 2019, a 21% increase year-over-year. The company reports total ad engagements were up 20% year-over-year. The platform’s ad engagement growth rate has been in decline since this time last year when it saw an 81% lift in ad engagement growth.

Twitter’s U.S. ad revenue up 24%. Twitter CFO Ned Segal said the lift in Twitter’s advertising revenue was driven by strength in U.S. revenues, which rose 24% year-over-year to $455 million.

“Focusing on our most important ad products and delivering high performing ads will help advertisers launch something new and connect with what’s happening on Twitter,” said Segal. Twitter didn’t specify which products it was referring to, but in April 2018, Twitter reported video ads accounted for more than half of its quarterly revenue.

Ad engagement growth versus cost per engagement. Twitter’s total ad engagements for the quarter were up 20% year-over-year, but cost per engagement (CPE) remained flat.

Tracking the two data points over the past ten quarters shows that ad engagement growth rates have declined, while the “drops” in CPE are shrinking. Last quarter, Twitter reported CPEs fell 4% year-over-year and were flat this quarter compared to the previous year. This time last year, Twitter reported a 32% drop in CPE.

Twitter’s “monetized” DAU count. Twitter’s mDAUs reached 139 million during the second quarter of 2019 — an increase of five million from the first quarter of this year, and 17 million more than the second quarter of 2018.

In the U.S., mDAUs reached 29 million during the second quarter, which means U.S. users make up just over a fifth of Twitter’s total user base. This number grew by only a million since the first quarter of the year — and 3 million year over year.

Last quarter, Twitter announced it would no longer report monthly active users (MAUs) stats, sharing only on the new monetized daily active user (mDAU) metric it introduced in February. The move was in part to compensate for the slide in MAU numbers, which Twitter said resulted from its efforts to improve the health of the platform. Twitter defines its mDAUs as authenticated users it is able to show ads to who have accessed Twitter via the app or desktop application.

Why we should care. Twitter has put much of its focus during the past year cleaning up the platform and ridding timelines of malicious activity and spam in an effort to provide a safer environment for brands and advertisers. Many argue those efforts have gone far enough, but it appears to be making an impact on the adveritsing front.

CEO Jack Dorsey said the health of the platform remains the top priority for the company. “Our focus was on ensuring that our rules, and how we enforce them, are easy to understand. We also continued our work to proactively identify and address malicious behavior, resulting in an 18% drop in reports of spammy or suspicious behavior,” said Dorsey.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.