The owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, has apologised for the frequency of advertisements featuring on people’s timelines on the social media app.

Musk tweeted this morning: “Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant and annoying ads on Twitter! We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords and topics in tweets, like Google does with search. This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.”

Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter!

We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search.

This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023

The news comes weeks after the Twitter CEO announced plans to introduce an advertising-free version of its subscription product, as the company looks to salvage its revenue and raise the demand for its premium offering. Advertising spending on Twitter plummeted by 71% in December, according to data from ad research firm Standard Media Index (SMI).Last month, The Information also revealed that over 500 advertisers have paused their spending on Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover, leading to a 40% decrease in revenue compared to last year.

The increased frequency of ads is a direct response to the dip in ad spend on the app, but Musk admits that the move has resulted in ads not being appropriately targeted.

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Twitter users have been reacting to the Tesla CEO’s tweet this morning. One person wrote: “Those spammy disposable ad accounts created in bulk to show us low quality product ads should also be eradicated.”

Another user tweeted: “Ideally you should have to have a verified account to use the ads platform.”

ideally you should have to have a verified account to use the ads platform

— dan nolan (@dannolan) February 17, 2023