X Revives Twitter-Era Lead Gen Ads — a Decade On
X has relaunched in-app Lead Gen Ads worldwide, reviving a native lead-capture format Twitter scrapped back in 2016 — a roughly ten-year round trip that puts one-tap, pre-filled forms back in advertisers' hands.
A format returns after a decade
X has announced the global launch of Lead Gen Ads, reviving a format Twitter discontinued in 2016 — roughly a ten-year gap. The ads carry a coloured call-to-action bar matched to the creative's dominant colour, and one tap opens a native in-app form.
For returning users, that form can pre-populate their details, cutting the friction that kills most mobile lead capture. The format is available now through X Ads Manager across image, video, carousel and Timeline Takeover placements.
Why the timing matters
Lead gen is where social platforms prove they can drive outcomes, not just awareness. By owning the whole journey inside the app — no laggy landing page, no bounce — X is chasing the same lower-funnel budgets that Meta and LinkedIn have monetised for years.
Use cases X is pushing include demo and appointment bookings, email and waitlist sign-ups, quote requests and competition entries. In other words: the everyday B2B and considered-purchase briefs that keep performance marketers up at night.
The catch marketers should plan for
Native forms are brilliant at volume and terrible at quality control if you are not careful. A one-tap, pre-filled form lowers the barrier for genuine prospects — and for idle scrollers who will never answer your call. The metric that matters is cost per qualified lead, not cost per lead.
The fix is to build friction back in deliberately: a qualifying question, a clear value exchange, and fast follow-up. Speed-to-lead is the single biggest lever; a form completed on X is worth far less if nobody calls for three days.
What to do next
Treat this as a cheap test, not a channel shift. Run a small Lead Gen campaign against your best-performing audience, wire the leads straight into your CRM, and measure downstream conversion — not the vanity form-fill count.
If X can deliver qualified leads at a lower cost than your incumbent channels, you have found a new source. If it delivers cheap junk, you have learned that for the price of a fortnight's spend.
Quick FAQ
What are X's new Lead Gen Ads?
They are in-app ad units with a call-to-action bar that opens a native lead form, which can pre-fill returning users' details — reviving a format Twitter discontinued in 2016. They are live now in X Ads Manager.
What can advertisers use them for?
Demo and appointment bookings, email and waitlist sign-ups, quote requests and competition entries, across image, video, carousel and Timeline Takeover placements.
How should marketers measure them?
By cost per qualified lead and downstream conversion, not raw form-fills — pipe leads into your CRM and follow up fast, because native forms drive volume that needs qualifying.
Native lead forms are a gift and a trap. They collapse the friction that stops real prospects, but they also collapse the friction that filters out the idle. The winners will not be whoever collects the most leads on X — it will be whoever qualifies and calls them fastest. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
X's Lead Gen revival is a low-risk test worth running — but judge it on qualified pipeline, not the flattering form-fill count on the dashboard.
If a new channel handed you 200 cheap leads tomorrow, is your follow-up fast enough to turn them into revenue?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Social Media Today, Campaign, Yahoo Tech.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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