Advertisers on X’s hashtag ban and vertical ad pricing: Inward focus could trigger lower ad spends
Elon Musk’s X has scrapped hashtags in ads and shifted to vertical screen pricing, aiming for cleaner user experiences but sparking advertiser concerns over rising costs and reduced cultural agility.
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Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has upended advertiser strategies again — this time by eliminating hashtags in ads and introducing pricing based on vertical screen space. While the move aims to create a premium ad experience, and designed to curb disruptive, oversized ads and refocus attention on cleaner, user-first content, Indian advertisers say it risks turning the platform from a walled garden into a concrete jungle: enclosed, expensive, and less culturally nimble.
A Closed Loop That Blocks Discovery
Gowthaman Ragothaman, media, advertising and marketing professional and CEO of Aqilliz, calls the removal of hashtags a direct hit on cross-platform targeting. “First, the removal and banning of hashtags essentially means that — see, you tag an ad even on X (or Twitter) only to find the same customer on other platforms. The hashtag ensures that their activities are synced up across platforms. By removing it, Musk has ensured that it’s not just a walled garden anymore — it’s a concrete jungle, right within their own ecosystem. Nothing moves outside the X ecosystem.”
That inward focus, he says, could trigger lower ad spending — a drop the company is trying to offset by charging for large-screen ad formats.
“That will automatically lead to a reduction in ad spends, and to compensate for that, he’s offering large-screen advertising so they can charge a premium and refill the revenue drop.”
While the rest of the ad world pushes for interoperability and cross-platform attribution, X seems to be going the other way, he adds.
“Technically speaking, platforms should become more interoperable. I’m surprised that he’s gone in the opposite direction — maybe because other platforms are trying to do something else in their own way. For example, Meta is going more toward commerce. X, currently, is not very friendly with e-commerce. The hashtag would lead the customer journey to another attribution — maybe a sale on another platform — which I think they are trying to avoid.”
As a result, advertisers will have to treat X as its own isolated strategy.
“What I think will happen is this: X — and reaching audiences on X — will now become a separate strategy altogether. If it works for some brands, they’ll spend more money. For brands it doesn’t work for, they won’t spend any money. So essentially, it will polarize brand choices.”
And while Musk’s attribution model may be tighter within his platform, it comes at the cost of transparency.
“He will use it for his own attribution, and he’ll give you very solid attribution. He’ll say, ‘You delivered ads on my platform? I can give you a pinpoint of the sales pack’ — but only on my own platform. So essentially, every walled garden is now becoming a concrete jungle.”
Making Every Pixel Count
Prashant Puri, Co-founder and CEO of AdLift, believes the move will reset how Indian brands think about creative. “Vertical-size-based ad pricing is going to change how Indian brands think about creative. It’s not just about making ads, it’s about making them work harder. Formats like carousels and full-screen videos will move from ‘nice to have’ to performance essentials.”
He says smaller, high-impact formats will likely become the norm in performance-driven campaigns. “This model will drive agencies to rethink the mix. Smaller, high-impact formats are going to get more airtime, especially in performance-driven campaigns. That doesn’t mean large formats disappear; they still deliver for brand-building. But when cost-efficiency is key, smaller units will be the default.”
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Vivek Kumar, Chief Strategy Officer at DViO Digital, frames this as a return to intentionality in advertising — a call to rethink what deserves visibility.
“This isn’t just a pricing model shift. It’s a provocation. A creative provocation… Vertical real estate is no longer free real estate. And that’s a good thing.”
“When every extra pixel costs more, brands are forced to pause. To question. To ask: What truly deserves to be here? The best Indian advertising has always come from constraint. This one just reintroduces a forgotten discipline — intentionality.”
Creative Budgets, Rewritten
Gopa Menon, Chief Growth Officer for APAC at Successive Digital, sees a broader shift in how Indian brands will reallocate their budgets, adopting a 70-20-10 model.
“I'm predicting most advertisers will shift toward a 70-20-10 strategy – putting the bulk of their budget into smaller, modular formats for everyday presence, reserving about 20% for strategic full-screen moments during big events like IPL finals or Diwali, and keeping 10% for testing what actually works.”
He adds that the hashtag ban will hit India harder than other markets.
“The hashtag ban is particularly disruptive for Indian brands who've relied heavily on trending tags for festival campaigns and regional marketing. Without #Diwali2025 or cricket hashtags, brands will need to get much better at creating naturally shareable content and building genuine communities around their products.”
The Battle for Culture
Sindhu Biswal, CEO and Founder of Buzzlab, calls the pricing model a double-edged sword — both a revenue move and a creative challenge.
“On one side, the step taken of charging for vertical screen space feels like a cash grab, but on the other, it forces brands to rethink lazy creative… Bottom line is creativity will matter more than ever. If you’re paying extra for impact, your work better earn every pixel.”
He believes X could lose its cultural relevance in India unless it rolls out new tools to match competitors.
“It risks pushing X further down the list for brands chasing cultural lightning in India. Platforms like Instagram and YouTube Shorts are working on increasing the features that help brands ride culture in real time… Unless X pairs these changes with killer new ad tools or creative formats, it risks becoming a stiffer, more expensive space for the very brands that once thrived on its chaotic, trend-driven energy.”
That cultural shift also threatens how virality has traditionally worked on X — especially for influencer-led campaigns built on hashtag traction.
“It might not kill demand. What it will do is change the playbook… The days of leveraging a catchy hashtag into virality on X are gone,” says Sahil Chopra, Founder and CEO, iCubesWire.
In short: brands that once counted on X’s open, messy and reactive environment will now have to pay for clarity. And in doing so, they will need to decide whether the new rules are worth the price of relevance.
