X (Twitter) fails to send ad revenue sharing payouts on time

X, formerly known as Twitter, has been failing to pay content creators that signed up for its ad revenue sharing offer.

The Elon Musk-owned platform claims it underestimated how popular the program would be, and so needs more time to review things before processing payments.

An estimated payout date has not yet been confirmed, however, X originally said it would occur the week of July 31.

Why we care. X launched its ad revenue-sharing program to entice marketers back to the platform after advertising revenue plummeted 59% in the US when Musk took over last year. Failing to keep to its word is likely to negatively impact trust amongst advertisers and may also cause reputational damage. Given that the strict criteria to qualify for revenue sharing is so high, more clarification may needed to explain why X is struggling with the volume of sign-ups.

Who is eligible? To be considered for the ads revenue sharing program, your account must meet the following criteria:

• Subscribed to Blue or Verified Organizations.
• Have at least 15 million impressions on cumulative posts within the last three months.
• Have at least 500 followers.

If your account meets these conditions, you must have a Stripe account – X’s payment processor. You’ll also need to follow X’s Ads Revenue Share Terms (e.g., the Creator Monetization Standards and the X Rules). 

How it works. If your account is eligible, this is how to get started:

• Join and set up payments from within the Monetization section of the app, which can be found in the side menu on iOS and Android, and the overflow menu on web.
• Click on Join and setup payouts, which will redirect you to Stripe.
• Setup a Stripe account to receive your share – this is the account you will need to transfer funds to your external bank account. 
• Once you opt in, you will receive payouts at a regular cadence, so long as you have generated more than $50.

What if you don’t meet the criteria? Musk has said that X will keep ad revenue generated by content creator who don’t have premium subscriptions. He wrote in a post:

• “The ad money will otherwise be kept by X if you are not an X Premium (Blue) subscriber.”

What has X said? A message was posted on the X Help Center to inform content creators that their payout would be delayed. It read:

• “The volume of people signing up for revenue sharing has exceeded our expectations.”
• “We previously said that payments would occur the week of July 31st.”
• “We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and hope to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!”

Deep dive. Read X’s Ads Revenue Sharing guide for more information.

Update. Some smaller creators have started reporting that they have been paid – and the cheques are more generous than expected. Lawyer, Robert Freund, who has 7,584 followers on X, made $291.8136984 on his X content in July. Meanwhile, YouTube creator Roberto Blake, who has 87,000 subscribers, earned $307.891725 from his X content in July.