X Ads Manager is the dashboard at ads.x.com where you create, run and report on ads on X, formerly Twitter. Before you can advertise, X requires your account to be verified, through Verified Organizations for businesses or an X Premium plan for individuals, and to meet its ads quality rules. There's no minimum spend, and you set budgets at the ad group level.
That verification rule is the part most people don't expect. Plenty of small businesses open Ads Manager, build a campaign and only then find their account isn't eligible. Sort eligibility first and the rest is straightforward.
Who can advertise on X
X's eligibility page sets out three groups of rules for every advertiser:
| Requirement | What X asks for |
|---|---|
| Account status | Public posts (not protected), and an account that isn't deactivated or suspended |
| Verification | Verified Organizations for businesses and government entities, or an X Premium plan for individuals |
| Ads quality | Profile and header photos that aren't GIFs, and a working, live, ungated URL in your bio that represents your brand |
| Language | Ads aimed at certain countries must be in the local language |
Your bio, username, handle, profile image and header all have to follow X's ads policies too. If your account was set up years ago and never touched, give the profile a once-over before you start.
How Ads Manager is organised
Log in at ads.x.com and Ads Manager is your home screen. X structures every campaign in three levels:
- Campaign: one advertising objective, such as video views or app installs, plus a campaign name.
- Ad groups: where you set goals, bids, targeting, placements and spend. One campaign can hold many ad groups.
- Ads: as many as you like in each ad group. X automatically favours the best-performing creative.
Across the top you can filter by objective, status, campaign name, campaign ID, funding source type or whether a campaign delivered. The default columns show delivery status, objective, start, end, spend, impressions, CPM, clicks, CTR and CPC, and Customize metrics lets you build and save your own set.
Two features worth knowing: the history log inside each campaign or ad group shows what changed and which optimisations were made, and you can export data by total, week or day, with placement and audience breakdowns.
Campaign objectives on X
X's campaigns guide lists objectives and what you pay for:
| Objective | What it does | What you pay for |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Shows ads to as many unique people as possible | Impressions (CPM) |
| Video views | Serves video to people likely to watch it | Impressions or video views |
| Pre-roll views | Runs your video before publisher and creator videos | Pre-roll views |
| App installs | Links to your app store listing | App clicks |
| Website traffic | Sends people to your site | Impressions or link clicks |
| Engagements | Promotes posts for likes, reposts, replies and profile visits | Engagements |
Choose the objective that matches what you'll judge the campaign on. If you want website visits, pay for website visits, not engagements.
Budgets and dates
X says there's no minimum spend for ads, and you stay in control of how much a campaign can spend. All the scheduling choices happen at the ad group level:
- Each ad group has a daily budget and either runs indefinitely from a start date or between set start and end dates.
- You can add a spend cap at the campaign level so the campaign as a whole can't go over a total.
- If the campaign is switched off, none of its ad groups run, even if they're switched on.
- You can't choose the time of day your ads serve; X's delivery system decides.
What you pay per result isn't fixed. X runs an auction, and the price depends on how engaging your ad is, how big your audience is, how many other advertisers target it and how much you bid. I wrote about which X ad types work on small budgets if you're starting small.
The new-advertiser credit
X's advertising page, checked as of October 2026, offers new advertisers $500 in ad credit when they spend $500 (US dollars, as X states it), with terms applying. Read the terms on the offer before you plan a budget around it, and check you're eligible as a new advertiser.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
What your ads look like
Ads on X appear as Promoted Ads. The simplest is a text ad, which X describes as having all the parts of a normal post, including likes, replies and reposts, so it feels like the rest of the timeline while reaching people beyond your followers. You can also run image and carousel ads, vertical video and Amplify, which places your ads alongside premium video content. Because promoted posts can be liked and replied to, keep an eye on the replies: a busy comment thread is part of your ad.
Creative tips from X itself
X recommends keeping three to five creatives in rotation so you can see what your audience responds to. For video, it says clips of 6 to 15 seconds with captions and clear branding perform best. Short, captioned and branded early is the formula.
The ad types themselves are covered in my guide to promoted posts on X.
Finding invoices and checking results
To find an invoice, click your profile name in the bottom-left corner of Ads Manager and choose Billing. For results outside the ads dashboard, my guide to X analytics shows what your organic posts are doing alongside the paid ones.
My verdict
X Ads Manager is simple once you're in, but the door is narrower than on other platforms: you need verification, a public account and a tidy profile before you spend anything. If your customers are active on X, start with one campaign, a single clear objective, three to five creatives and a modest daily budget, and give the auction a week before judging it. Treat the credit as a bonus, not the plan.
Conversion tracking starts with my guide to the X Pixel.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be verified to advertise on X?
Yes. X says your account must be verified through Verified Organizations for businesses and government entities, or an X Premium plan for individuals, to be eligible for X Ads.
Is there a minimum spend for X ads?
No. X says there's no minimum spend required, and you choose a daily budget for each ad group.
Where do I log in to X Ads Manager?
Log in to your ads account at ads.x.com. Ads Manager opens as your home screen.
Can I choose what time of day my X ads run?
No. X says advertisers can't choose the time of day ads serve; its delivery system decides when to show them.
