Twitter Will Have Ads (Yay?)
More than three years after launch, Twitter has announced a business plan aimed at actually generating revenue. Big surprise – Twitter is going to have ads in a similar fashion to Google’s Sponsored Links, named “Promoted Tweets.”
The new system returns ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries. Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of the search results page, with small text indicating they were sponsored. One possible strategy for ad buyers is to combat negative tweets (they can place a positive tweet at the top of the page). This would make sense for high-profile corporate Tweeps like Best Buy (I have tweeted about bad service in-store on multiple occasions).
There is no guarantee that “Promoted Tweets” will be returned during searches for a long time, especially if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter calls “resonance”. In that event, the Promoted Tweet will be pulled and the advertiser won’t have to pay for it. Initial ad partners include Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo.
Fortunately, for users, only one ad will be shown at a time. On the downside, the second phase involves Twitter inserting ads into your Twitter stream automatically without any search being performed.
Twitter will eventually allow third party Twitter clients to integrate Promoted Tweets, with the app developer receiving a cut of the revenue (a good thing).
There has been a lot of corporate speak about how this plan will “allow companies to enter the conversation”. Where I’m from, entering a conversation that you are not a part of is called “butting in” and is frowned upon.
