Twitter Introduces Advertising to Tweets

**Adamvv** · 13 April 2010, 10:06 am

It was only a matter of time until Twitter woke up and realized their business formula could not last without a steady inflow of revenue.

Alas, that time is now.

Twitter has unveiled a new scheme to utilize "Promoted Tweets" in order to sustain their model and provide some profitability to the social-media sensation.

Working similarly to Google's search-advertising system, users will see promoted tweets when they search for specific keywords.

We all knew this was necessary in order for Twitter to remain afloat, but that's not to say I'll embrace it with open arms.

It is still unclear whether or not this will be successful. Twitter is great because it allows brands to interact with consumers on a less salesly manner. Will Promoted Tweets damage that appealing factor?

**Anthony** · 13 April 2010, 11:27 am

Very interesting. I hope it is not to intrusive.

**Adamvv** · 13 April 2010, 11:35 am

Originally Posted by Anthony

Very interesting. I hope it is not to intrusive.

they are marketing it similarly to Google's Adsense feature which isn't too bad in regards to intrusiveness.

My bet is that they roll it out cautiously as to not disturb too many users. I honestly don't mind the odd advertisement if it relates to my search anyways.

Granted, if in a few months I type in "sports" and get an ad for "...enlargement..." I'll begin to question the strategy. I doubt it will come to that...I hope not at least.

**Simmo!** · 13 April 2010, 1:53 pm

Bottom line IMO is that if you have something that people want, and no-one else has, then advertising will work - as long as it doesn't change the way people interact with it.

Can't say I really care for Twitter myself but it's clearly very popular and I reckon the majority will learn to accept the ads.

**Renee** · 13 April 2010, 10:40 pm

As long as it doesn't become like the new youtube ads that you can't skip, I will be happy with it..
I fkn hate those things.

I'm interested to see what kind of businesses will use it.

**Adamvv** · 15 April 2010, 2:55 pm

Originally Posted by Renee

As long as it doesn't become like the new youtube ads that you can't skip, I will be happy with it..
I fkn hate those things.

I'm interested to see what kind of businesses will use it.

According to the article...

"At launch, these advertising partners include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America."

**LiveCasinoPartners** · 15 April 2010, 5:18 pm

Originally Posted by Renee

As long as it doesn't become like the new youtube ads that you can't skip, I will be happy with it..
I fkn hate those things.

I'm interested to see what kind of businesses will use it.

Me too. CNN does the same thing. It's visual SPAM. Oh yea, Yahoo music videos do the same thing. I can't stand it.

**Adamvv** · 23 April 2010, 10:00 am

Interesting Update on this issue - Twitter will use a "Resonance Model" to gauge the life of a promoted tweet.

This essentially means that if a promotional tweet doesn't garner much attention, it'll disappear faster than Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show.

Check out the Advertising Age article for more info.

Seems like good ideas will be rewarded, while mundane ads will die quickly.

**my3sons** · 23 April 2010, 11:56 pm

I think this is going to be huge when tweets are able to be targeted and ads placed.

Can you imagine someone tweeting "just won $300 at online poker" and when their tweet is displayed or submitted, they see your ad? Pretty solid, now you have someone that you know is a iGamer looking right at your advertisement.

I'm excited to see it take off.

**LiveCasinoPartners** · 24 April 2010, 11:21 am

It could be big, but I see more people making tweets and less people reading them. I know that I hardly ever read anyone's tweets. I just make them hoping there's a SEO value somewhere. So far the only benefit I see from twitter is that my profile page is PR4, which means the link from twitter is giving some link juice. I still do not know if it's worth it.

**intrading** · 30 April 2010, 7:20 am

Twitter is like any other business need to make revenue and it's just about time they come up with some sort of revenue ideas.
I know some people will not like it but there's no such thing as a free lunch.

**Adamvv** · 10 May 2010, 9:49 am

*Update*

The proof seems to be in the #pudding

(that's a little Twitter humour for those who didn't get it...

)

According to Adweek, promoted tweets have already begun showing some form of ROI.

From Adweek "The day Virgin America's Promoted Tweets went live it recorded its fifth-highest sales day in its history, said Gale. Retweeting obviously helped, she added, but so did association with the latest thing on Twitter. That is, part of that consumer response reflected the amount of free press Virgin America received -- worth $10 million, she estimated -- from media coverage of the new ad program, which often mentioned its initial advertisers."

The brands that made the leap of faith have reaped the rewards so far.

It remains to be seen how Twitter will incorporate other advertisers into the mix without bombarding their users with a constant flow of advertisements.

What do you think the next step will be?

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