On Trump’s Truth Social: Ads for Miracle Cures, Scams and Fake Merchandise

Amid posts about conspiracy theories and right-wing grievances is an unusual ad: a photo of former President Donald J. Trump holding a $1,000 gold bill, which he appears to be giving away for free to those supporter.

But there are a few downsides: The note isn’t free, it’s not made of gold, and it wasn’t provided by Mr. Trump.

The ad appeared on Truth Social, the right-wing social network started by Mr Trump in late 2021, one of many pitches by street vendors and fringe marketers that dominate advertising on the site.

Ads from major brands do not exist on the site. Instead, Truth Social ads for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and jewelry are Trump-themed, according to an analysis of hundreds of social media ads by The New York Times.

The ads reflect the difficulty some far-right platforms, including Rumble and Gab, have had in attracting big brands, preventing websites from tapping into some of the world’s biggest advertising budgets. It can be especially problematic for Truth Social. Although the site has gain influence on the right side, becoming a vibrant ecosystem overflowing with activity, its business in need of cash.

Social Truth raised about 37 million USDWilliam Wilkinson, former chief executive officer of Trump Media & Technology Group, the social network’s parent company, comes mainly from Republican political donors, but it’s costing about $1.7 million a year. month. And two federal investigations have put about $1.3 billion in much-needed funding at risk.

Devin Nunes, chief executive officer of Trump Media, said in a Notification last year that the company’s advertising strategy would help it “replace Big Tech platforms” as a primary way to reach Americans.

But advertising experts say wariness from popular brands on far-right social networks, which see themselves as free-speech alternatives to Silicon Valley giants like Meta and Google, fueled by the kinds of conspiracy theories and super-party politics commonly found on .

In addition, they say, Truth Social has a relatively small user base and many older users, who are less desirable by brands. Marketers have complained that Truth Social’s ad delivery technology, run by Rumble, a right-wing video streaming site, offers limited tools for tracking ad performance or for display. advertise to users based on their demographic profile. Those tools, now standard among the larger ad networks operated by Google and Meta, are critical to determining ad success.

Tom Denford, CEO of Communication IDan advertising consulting firm.

Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group did not respond to requests for comment.

Typically, companies can use tools provided by a digital advertising service to prevent their ads from appearing near words or phrases that could upset customers — like war, attack, or even attack. attack or commit suicide. In a reflection of brands’ wariness toward Mr. Trump and his political activism, the word “Trump” ranked as the 11th most popular term on the blacklist provided by advertisers in 2019. , according to the data from Integrated Advertising Sciencea company focused on brand safety.

Bob Hoffman, an advertising veteran and author of Contrary to advertising, an important industry newsletter. “Being stuck in that quagmire is not in their best interest.”

Twitter faces similar challenges after Elon Musk bought the company and said he would create a more permissive environment for free speech. Advertisers run away that platform or pause their campaigns in response, causing Significant decrease in revenue.

“They pulled out of Twitter because they were not sure Twitter could meet their brand safety guidelines and they will continue until they have peace of mind,” Mr. Denford said.

Mr. Musk also welcomed Mr. Trump back on Twitter, restore his account in November. Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, announced this week that it will restore the president’s accounts after he is banned from using social networking services in 2021, which has argued that Mr Trump’s posts risked inciting further violence in the wake of the attack. The Capitol on January 6.

Mr. Trump is obligated to make his posts on Truth Social exclusively available for six hours and he has not posted to other social networks since Truth launched. That deal expires in June but can be extended.

Rumble, the ad-managing video player for Truth Social, makes $15 million to $25 million annually, according to estimates from Similar to web, a company that specializes in web analytics. Rumble did not respond to a request for comment.

When advertising launched on Truth last year using Rumble’s platform, marketers complained it offered limited ways to target ads to people based on their demographics — like age. , gender or interests. It also offers no way to track whether ads lead to sales, a feature coveted by advertisers and offered by major ad networks like Google.

Maxwell Finn, an online marketer, said in a YouTube video that he is one of Truth Social’s top advertisers, spending more $150,000 for advertisingincluding those for new Trump-themed hats, shirts, coins and bills.

In the video, he calls the ad platform “disappointing” and “boney,” adding that the platform lacks even basic functionality, forcing his company to track performance. manual advertising — a method that advertisers with larger budgets won’t be able to do.

“Do I think this is a platform where you can spend tens of thousands of dollars a day, especially if you only have a few products?” he said in another video. “No, maybe so. The audience is too small.”

Over time, the low-quality ads on Truth Social have annoyed their own users, who have complained to Mr. Trump after repeatedly seeing the same disturbing images or after having misleading advertising gimmicks.

“Can you not check the advertisements on Truth?” one user asked in a post aimed at Mr. Trump. “I have been fooled more than once.”