When we first blogged about Twitter’s upcoming ad platform, some people were against the idea of sponsored tweets but most felt that it’s a logical step for Twitter to start making profits.
I guess we don’t have to worry so much about that anymore. Twitter’s answer to keeping ads unobtrusive, according to All Things Digital, is by adding them to its search stream. In other words, no ads will appear on our customized tweet stream.
For example; if a user searches for “iPhone”, various advertisements relating to it would appear – iPhone casing, apps, mobile charger etc.
Does this mean that clicking on a trending topic would expose us to ads? It seems so, since Twitter described it as “Real Time Search Results for…”
Other details on Twitter’s ad platform:
- Ads will follow Twitter’s 140 character tweet format
- 3rd party clients that use Twitter’s API will have an option to display the ad and enjoy revenue sharing with Twitter
- Twitter plans to follow Google Adwords’ self serve model in the long run
- The launch date is expected to fall within the first half of 2010
Ad Impressions
Twitter has more than a billion tweets per month, but that doesn’t really tell us how many ad impressions it receives. There might not be many people searching through Twitter’s search bar but trending topics; whether globally or locally is one good reason why users visit the site.
Smart move, Twitter!
