We Ran a Twitter/X Marketing Experiment, Here’s What We Found

Remember Twitter? At its peak, it was internet culture’s heartbeat — a genuinely interesting platform where news often broke and foundational memes emerged. 

In 2025, running an X marketing strategy is one headache after another. Despite its 600 million active users and resilient status as a top source for news and public opinion samples, the platform is grappling with declining trust and engagement. Only 4% of marketers consider X brand safe, largely due to unpredictable content moderation and concerns over association with controversial content under Elon Musk’s leadership.

Since its purchase by Elon Musk and rebranding, X has lost approximately $5.9 billion in ad revenue - and the losses are expected to continue. In spite of very competitive ad costs, spend is expected to drop by another 4.8% this year. 

When it comes to organic content, the news isn't good either. Overall engagement rates have been falling consistently, with brands posting less frequently and users showing reduced interaction. Very few niches are escaping this engagement famine. One of them is Sports. 

In this post, we’ll cover:

• The results of an experiment we ran comparing the engagement rates for different types of accounts (paid vs. free/private vs. public)
• Why sports brands are succeeding on Twitter - and what we can learn from them

Our Findings: X Isn’t Pay-to-Play

Background

One of the most controversial changes Elon Musk made after his acquisition of Twitter was the monetization of its verification program. Back in the day, Twitter provided a blue check to celebrities, journalists, and those whothat it deemed at risk of impersonation. Musk argued that the blue check program produced a “privileged class” of users, and decided to open up verification to anyone willing to pay for it. This also would help the company develop revenue streams beyond advertising. 

The initial pricing for verified plans was $8/month. Eventually, X developed a three-tier pricing structure, plus special pricing plans for business profiles. Additionally, verified users in the highest pricing tiers are able to monetize their tweets’ engagement, with payouts spanning from a few dollars to thousands. 

Although originally Musk and the new Twitter leadership hoped that the new verified users would be less likely to incur in harmful behavior, since the program launched:

• Verified users have been involved in memecoin scams, impersonation and other harmful behavior.
• Thousands of engagement-baiting and automated profiles have bloomed, decreasing X’s average content quality. 

However, some interesting content still lives on Twitter - you just have to find it. But as a content creator - how can you make it easier for users to find you? Especially at this point in internet history, optimizing your content for discoverability is a favor you do to your audience, helping them find entertaining/informative/original content in a sea of AI-generated sameness.

Our questions

We conducted this experiment looking for answers to the following questions:

• Does account age affect visualizations?
• Does paying for the highest premium plan affect visualizations (as promised by X itself)?
• What type of sentiment is currently producing the most engagement?

The experiment

For the past three months, we monitored the activities of three accounts we manage:

• Account A: A verified account started in 2013, with the highest-tier X plan, c.20k followers (including many renowned accounts that were verified before paid verification was rolled out). 
• Account B: A new, public account with no blue checkmark and 28 followers. 
• Account C: A private account with no blue checkmark, started in 2018, with 456 followers.

Followed-follower ratio (the amount of users someone follows per follower they have) has historically been an indicator of content quality, as well as a signal of authenticity. It’s very common for bots to have a very high volume of followed accounts and little to no followers of their own.

When it comes to followed-follower (f-F) ratio:

• Account A has a f-F ratio of 0.04-1
• Account B has a f-F ratio of 1.5-1
• Account C has a f-F ratio of 0.5-1

When it comes to activity levels:

• Account A published an average of 1 tweet every other day.
• Account B published with a frequency of under 1 tweet per week.
• Account C published approximately 10 times a day.

When it comes to topic coverage:

• Account A mostly replies to high-engagement news articles with short insights and memes. Account A focuses on finances, world events and politics - three of X’s most active niches.
• Account B mostly retweets or replies to lighter content, focused on relationships, personal anecdotes and dating. Original content is scarce.
• Account C is a mix between the two.

The three accounts published content in Spanish. None of the accounts feature the user’s legal name or other identifying information.

Findings

• As expected, Account C’s visualizations have been below its total number of followers. Considering that access to the account’s content is reserved for its followers, this is reasonable. Retweets were 0 across this account’s sample.
• Account B saw the highest volume of visualizations.
• In spite of the promised visibility boost and its medium-size follower base, Account A’s tweets were only shown to a small number of users. 

• Account B was a winner, with like counts in the third digits (vs. Account A & Account C).
• General engagement was consistent with the volume of visualizations. More visualizations = more volume.
• If we track engagement-follower ratio, Account C gets the lead, with 10 engagements per 100 followers.

So, what does this mean?

• A historied account with a large follower count, a healthy followed-follower ratio and a moderate publishing volume doesn’t have guaranteed distribution. What worries us isn’t engagement rates but low distribution. Without a high-enough visualization volume, high engagement rates are impossible.
• Publishing frequency doesn’t seem to be a factor.
• Non-specialized, relationships & pop culture-related content has a higher potential for distribution and engagement than political content. This may be an attempt by X to attract new users and distance itself from its reputation as a politically problematic platform.

Why Sports Brands Outperform Everyone on Twitter

Despite overall declining engagement on X, the sports niche remains a notable exception where marketers can still find relatively high user engagement. In the past year, sports teams have kept one of the highest interaction rates in the platform. In 2024 and 2025, sports content achieved an average engagement rate around 0.07%, more than double the platform average of about 0.029%. This contrasts with media brands, which experience much lower engagement rates (near 0.009%). Sports teams also post frequently—around 44 tweets per week—helping maintain strong audience interaction compared to other sectors. 

Let’s explore some potential reasons behind this anomaly.

• Frequent, real-time posting: Sports teams post very actively—around 44 tweets per week—keeping fans constantly updated with live scores, highlights, and news, which sustains ongoing conversations and engagement. Twitter was great for tracking real-time events and X still is. However, it’s worth considering that, as our experiment shows, content volume alone doesn’t bring results.
• Dedicated content portals and aggregation: Leagues like the NBA and NFL have launched dedicated portals on X that aggregate content from teams, players, and media, creating a centralized hub for fans to follow and interact with real-time updates and exclusive video highlights.
• Community and emotional investment: Sports fans are highly engaged and emotionally invested in their teams, making them more likely to interact with content through likes, retweets, and replies. The platform’s algorithm favors tweets with high engagement, amplifying visibility for sports-related posts.
• Preference for fresh, time-sensitive information: X users favor informative, relevant, and trending content. Sports content naturally fits this demand by providing timely, newsworthy updates and participation in trending conversations, which drives higher engagement.
• Multimedia content boost: Tweets with videos and images, common in sports posts, attract significantly more engagement. Video views and completion rates help keep fans engaged longer, enhancing interaction metrics.
• Year-round fan engagement strategies: Sports organizations are increasingly offering immersive, interactive experiences beyond game days, such as behind-the-scenes content, live draft coverage, and exclusive athlete streams, keeping fans connected throughout the year.

Is Twitter Marketing Still Worth It in 2025?

We leave that for you to decide! But, in spite of worrying metrics, high bot activity and a reputation for unhinged and radical political content, Twitter still has plenty to offer to both brands and users. Maybe, we’re on the eve of a new era for the platform, powered by real-time pop culture coverage and fan culture. Will Twitter be able to recover its former glory? Only time will tell.

Interested in deeper insights about X and how your organization could leverage it to meet your goals? Commission custom research: Get in touch today.

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