SocialAds Archive

Last month, Jeff Cormier from Next Web reported that promoted tweets (aka ads) would be coming soon to third-party Twitter clients including Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. AdAge reporter Michael Learmonth noted, “Twitter’s ads will travel wherever tweets go — particularly third-party apps and search. This will bring a source of ad revenue into the ecosystem of Twitter-based apps, and increase the audience for the ads themselves.”

A source has shared with me that the promoted Twitter in-stream ads will begin a beta launch on Monday. These new ads will appear in-stream and are NOT the same as what I noted above regarding promoted tweets in search results.

We’ve heard that at least one third-party Twitter client will be part of the initial launch — when we can confirm who the initial launch partners are, we will update the post. Cormier spoke with Hootsuite last month who confirmed that the promoted in-stream ads will be coming to their third-party Twitter client. I’ve been digging but as of yet have been unable to find out the revenue-share between Twitter and Hootsuite (and the other client tools). Hootsuite discussed their promoted integration earlier this month – but the source tells us that Monday’s launch is for in-stream ads not for the search results promotion.

I have to assume that the promoted in-stream ads will also be pushed to twitter.com. These in-stream ads should help with visability and clickthru rates as they don’t require a stop at the search results for a promoted trend- you would go direct to the advertisers website.

It’s also interesting to note that in-stream ads will be very difficult (if not impossible) to block  similar to ad blocking tools. Over time, I believe we will see more and more content providers offering in-stream ads to make sure they can’t be blocked.

Here’s a twist on typical pre-roll and overlay online video advertising. Twitter video hosting service TwitVid has launched a new advertising platform today called SocialAds. The goal with SocialAds is simple: to get you (or your brand) more Twitter followers and/or retweets of your advertisements.

Here’s how SocialAds works…after creating an account, you setup an ad campaign. TwitVid says they host videos for major music groups including Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5 and The Jonas Brothers. They also work with the NBA and the PGA. The ad campaign focuses either on obtaining new followers or retweeting an ad. The ads are displayed within the videos hosted on TwitVid and you only pay when the desired action is completed.

Bidding will begin at one dollar per follower and seventy-five cents per retweet, with higher bids receiving better placement on the advertising units.

TwitVid notes, “during a private beta test of SocialAds, participating brands received more that 400 new followers in less than an hour. Two percent of those viewers who were shown the advertisement followed a brand.” I have no idea if this would be considered good or not. I think the more important stats would be how many remain connected to the brand after 30 and 90 days. It’s also important to note that most won’t unfollow others on Twitter – similar to how most won’t remove a RSS feed.

Currently SocialAds is running on TwitVid’s main site but the company plans to integrate with partners in the future.

This new launch is yet another reason I continue to suggest that Twitter is just one big advertisement. The idea of buying Twitter followers appears to be a concept Twitter itself is also considering in the near future.