Contextual Ads On Twitter: Promoted Tweets

Following the rumblings of a new ad platform at this year’s SXSW, Twitter has launched an ad system called “Promoted Tweets.” The system intends to allow businesses to insert themselves into the conversation stream on Twitter, as it’s happening – and to ensure branded messages aren’t buried in the historical flow of Tweets from those you follow.  The ad system will also present Twitter with a revenue stream by which to monetize its model.

The system will launch via a phased approach.  Initially, the ads will start with search, with advertisers being able to buy keywords.  A Promoted Tweet will appear at the top of the search results when a user searches for that keyword. The system will be tested by pre-determined advertisers initially, including Virgin America, Best Buy, Sony Pictures and Starbucks.

One very interesting aspect of Twitter’s ad platform is the performance metrics associated with an ad – or keyword buy’s – impact.  Rather than pure impressions, it will take resonance – and a user’s interest in sharing this message – into consideration:

• Twitter will measure resonance by accounting for 9 factors, including the number of people who saw the post, the number of people who replied to it or passed it on to their followers, and the number of people who clicked on links.
• If a post doesn’t reach a certain resonance score, Twitter will no longer show it as a promoted post. The advertiser will not have to pay for it, and users won’t be annoyed with ads they don’t find relevant.

The next phase of Twitter’s ad platform will allow promoted posts/ads to be piped into the Tweet streams of users. The post would appear within a user’s Tweet stream – even if they don’t follow the advertiser.  This second phase will take some time, as Twitter is still determining how to target promoted posts based on user demographics, or behavior.  Target profiling could be based on topic they are posting about, geographic location or shared interests of other users they follow.

This announcement bears multiple implications for stakeholders:

• Twitter will hopefully now be able able to add another revenue stream to monetize its model
• Brands will be able to insert themselves into the conversation, but will have to ensure their message is valuable and well-targeted in order to meet relevance hurdles
• The media and ad industry may see progress in establishing more useful and comprehensive performance metrics for targeted buys via social media – how users respond to the message, if they retweet it, reply to it, post it, blog about it, etc.
• Twitter users will either find the message valuable – or intrusive and not relevant to what they were searching for.

We’d love to hear what your thoughts are on this new ad platform – particularly if you’re one of the estimated 10% of Twitter users exposed to a Promoted Tweet today.

[via New York Times]