“In a few weeks, X/Twitter will start paying creators for ads served in their replies. First block payment totals $5M,” billionaire Elon Musk said in a tweet.

“Note, the creator must be verified and only ads served to verified users count,” he added.

Twitter has moved to subscription-based verification even as it restored the blue tick of users with over a million followers.

The social media giant’s latest move to promote subscriptions and retain advertisers comes days after the newly named chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino took office.

“It happened — first day in the books!” she tweeted earlier this week.

Since Tesla CEO Musk acquired Twitter, the platform has struggled to retain advertisers, who have been wary about the placement of their ads after the company laid off thousands of employees. Musk is looking to Yaccarino, an advertising veteran, to improve the company’s relationship with brands after losing business following his takeover, and rollback of the site’s content rules.

In March, Musk said that the messaging service makes about 5 or 6 cents per hour of attention from users and could raise that to 15 cents or more with advertisements that are more relevant and timely.

(With inputs from agencies)