Meet the "Boost" button, X's latest monetization experiment that's currently rolling out to Premium subscribers on iOS.
Here's what your hard-earned cash can buy you in the attention economy:
- $50 gets you a modest 11k-27k impressions
- $100 bumps you up to 23k-54k impressions
- $500 delivers 116k-272k impressions
- $1,000 theoretically reaches 225k-543k eyeballs (congrats, you've just paid mortgage money for internet validation)
Let's put this in perspective. The only people who can currently access this feature are Premium subscribers, the exact group already paying for enhanced visibility. It's reach-ception and it costs actual money.
However, according to X's own data, 80% of users never post or engage on the platform. So, we're talking about extracting additional revenue from a sliver of the already-tiny slice of active users who also happen to be Premium subscribers.
The verdict - X's Boost button is a perfect encapsulation of where social media finds itself in 2025: increasingly expensive, decreasingly social, and desperately trying to monetize every possible interaction.
At least they're being transparent about it.
To know more, click here.