How X ads work
An X ad is a promoted post. It is clearly labeled as Promoted, and people can repost it, reply to it and like it like any other post. X's documentation describes promoted videos appearing in the Home timeline, at the top of search results and elsewhere on X, and follower campaigns appearing in Home timelines, Who to Follow and search results.
You can also publish a promoted-only post. It is shown only to the people your campaign targets: unless you target them, it does not appear on your followers' timelines or in search results.
Opening an X Ads account
- Your ads account is connected to an X handle. You log in to X with the account you want to promote, then go to ads.x.com, and your ads show as Promoted from that handle.
- You pick a country, which sets the billing currency, and a time zone for your results. Neither can be changed after the account is created.
- To be eligible, the account must be verified through Verified Organizations for businesses, or X Premium for individuals. Posts must be public, and the bio needs a working link that represents your brand.
- Self-serve advertisers pay with a credit or debit card, and an active card is needed before you can start a campaign.
Campaign objectives
Each objective is built for one goal, and X says you are only charged when someone takes that action. The main objectives in X's campaign guide:
| Objective | What it does | What you pay for |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Shows your ad to as many unique people as possible within your budget | Impressions |
| Video Views | Serves your video to people most likely to watch it | Impressions or video views |
| Pre-Roll Views | Runs your video before videos from popular creators and publishers | Pre-roll views |
| App Installs | Links straight to your app store listing | App clicks |
| Website Traffic | Shows your ad to people likely to click through to your site | Impressions or link clicks |
| Engagements | Promotes content that drives likes, reposts, replies and profile visits | Engagements |
X's help center also has step-by-step guides for website conversions, dynamic product ads and app re-engagement campaigns.
Ad formats
- A promoted post can include text, images, GIFs, videos or cards, and cards can carry images or videos.
- A carousel is a card with 2 to 6 images or videos that can send people to a website or to an app install.
- Lead Gen Ads collect contact information in a native form on X.
Targeting
X separates targeting that widens your audience from targeting that narrows it. Interests, follower look-alikes and keywords add to each other, so every extra choice makes the possible audience larger. Location, age, gender, device model, platform and language must all match, so they make it smaller.
- Keywords: reach people based on keywords in their recent posts.
- Interests: choose from 82 interest categories that follow the topics on X.
- Follower look-alikes: reach people with interests similar to the followers of an account you name.
- Location: countries, regions, metros, cities or postal codes. Self-serve advertisers can only target countries where X Ads is available.
- Language: people who understand the language you pick, from a list of 46 that includes Turkish.
- Audiences: custom audiences from your lists or app activity, post engager targeting, optimized targeting and audience expansion.
Budget and billing
X ads compete in an auction. You set a daily budget during setup, and X says there is no minimum campaign spend and that it will never go over that amount. What you pay for depends on the objective, as the table above shows. This guide does not quote prices; check current amounts in your ads account.
Measurement: X Pixel and Conversion API
Conversion tracking measures what people do after viewing or engaging with your ads. X offers two options: the X Pixel, a tag on your website, and the Conversion API, a server-to-server connection that needs no website code. X says it is critical to set up at least one of them to use the full capabilities of web campaigns, and it recommends the X Pixel for most advertisers.
The pixel has two parts. The base code goes on every page of your site and tracks visits. The event code tracks single actions, such as adding to cart or buying.
Ad review and policies
When you promote content, your account and your posts become subject to X's approval process. A post in review cannot run in any campaign; once approved it starts running, and a disapproved post cannot be used in campaigns. An account review pauses your active campaigns until the account is approved.
- Ads that promote illegal, harmful or deceptive content are prohibited.
- Restricted categories are allowed with conditions: adult content, alcohol, drugs, financial products and services, gambling and games, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, political content, and tobacco.
- Some categories need a pre-authorization, which must be approved before the campaign launches.
- Ads that target certain countries must be in the local language of those countries.
Advertising from Türkiye
Turkey is on X's list of countries and territories available for self-serve advertisers, and Turkish is among the languages you can target. X's currency page lists Turkey among the countries charged in euros, so expect your account to bill in EUR. X's international advertising terms also include a section for advertisers located in Turkey.
Running X campaigns with Mecrio
- You connect your X ad account through X's own sign-in screen. Mecrio creates the campaign, the ad group and the ad there, with an image, a video or a carousel.
- The ad is a promoted-only post published as the X account you choose. The campaign and ad group are created paused, so nothing spends until you start them.
- Before publishing, Mecrio flags post text over 280 characters, stops image shapes X does not accept and lists the ones that work, and keeps event targeting to one event per ad group.
- Your image or video is uploaded to X first. If the upload fails, nothing is set up, and no text-only ad goes out instead.
- After launch you can change the budget, start or pause, and edit the text. Because a published post cannot be edited on X, Mecrio creates a new version of the ad and stops the old one.
- Ad spend is paid from your own ad account directly to X, and Mecrio takes no cut.