Twitter has launched its API ad platform, as the micro-blogging service looks to boost revenue.
The service, called Twitter Ads API (application-programming interface), helps advertisers in automating, streamlining and managing their process by providing them more tools to deliver the right message, to the right audience, on desktop computers and mobile devices.
Previously, Advertisers had to manage their Twitter campaigns manually.
In addition, the platform enables advertisement buyers to integrate Twitter campaigns with those on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as search and display.
Twitter already provides paid tweets in a user’s timeline, but new new tool could bring on more competition and ad formats as pricing may rise for advertisers as its auctions to buy ads become more competitive.
Speaking to the Financial Times, April Underwood, product manager for revenue at Twitter, saidthere was “no direct impact on the user experience in the short term, although Twitter users should see more relevant and better ads” as a result of the new system, because it would be simpler for advertisers to use the targeting capabilities which it introduced in 2012.
Underwood said the company took users’ experience really seriously. “We take a slow and thoughtful approach. Our motto is to get it right rather than right now,” she added.
Twitter launched the platform with five partners that manage social media advertising purchases for large multinational firms including Adobe, Hootsuite, Salesforce, SHIFT and TBG Digital.
Jonathan Beeston, director, new product innovation at Adobe, said: “Twitter’s new Twitter Ads API Programme means that large advertisers and agencies will now have the ability to launch scaled-up campaigns across Twitter, as well as having access to more sophisticated targeting and analytics tools. The move is something that we are well prepared for – being an early Ads API partner we have already been working with a few of our customers as well as our own Adobe account to help bring Twitter’s Promoted Products to market.
“As a result we have integrated Twitter’s Promoted Product Ads APIs into Adobe Media Optimizer so our customers are able to benefit from Twitter’s reach of more than 340 million tweets each day, by targeting Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to add further weight to campaigns. Another benefit our customers can take advantage of starting today is Twitter’s new ad management features. This includes the ability to quickly set budgets and schedules as well as preferences for targeting ads and other demographic information. All this now means that advertisers can manage their entire hub of paid social advertising, paid search and display campaigns across their social channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) all from one common interface, which also has optimisation capabilities.
“This is an exciting and long awaited move by Twitter and the results we’ve seen so far are impressive. Through our testing of the Promoted Accounts API for our own Adobe Marketing Cloud (@AdobeMktgCloud) community we’ve increased our follower base by 63% just through using granular targeting, testing different bid levels and segmenting campaigns by regions. And, at the same time the total Cost Per Follow (CPF) decreased by close to 60%.”
Facebook launched similar platform in 2010 that helped it to reach more than $3bn in revenues in 2011.
