Twitter, one of the world’s largest social media sites, has announced that it is to introduce video ads. These are similar to promoted tweets that Twitter already offers but obviously contain video. This follows on from the introduction of video cards that Twitter introduced earlier in the year. The video cards allow a user to see that there is a video rather than just a link and the user can then tap the video to play it.
Twitter claims that from the research they have conducted into video cards that video displayed in this format gain more views and more engagement than when users had to click on a link. This makes sense as we are very visual creatures, as the old saying goes “A picture paints a thousand words”. So by being able to see that there is a video present then we are more likely to watch it.
The announcement from Twitter states that promoted videos are now being beta tested and that they will build on the Amplify platform that Twitter has already created. The Amplify platform is designed to allow brands to create promotional campaigns around major TV events. If the beta test proves to be a success for both advertisers and brands then it will probably be rolled to more companies and will allow general promotional videos to be advertised rather than those centred on TV events.
Video is a very compelling medium and as internet speeds increase, particularly mobile internet speeds, and the coverage of 4G networks improves there is likely to be an increase in the popularity of online video.
Facebook introduced a similar feature towards the tail end of 2013 so it may be seen that Twitter is playing catch up. One interesting difference in the strategies that the two social media giants are using is that on Facebook the ad will start to play automatically when it is loaded into a user’s newsfeed while on Twitter the user has to click play on the video. Twitter will only charge an advertiser if the video is clicked on, potentially providing better value for money for advertisers. Twitter will also provide analytics information including the number of plays and percentage of the video that has been seen.
One possible concern for Twitter is the number of users who use third party apps to access Twitter. These apps do not carry ads and so this will affect the number of people that can see an ad in the first place. On the plus side Twitter also owns Vine (an app that allows users to upload 6 second videos known as Vines) and Vines have proved to be extremely popular.
Since Twitter became a publicly traded company in July of 2013 it has had to develop new ways to generate income. Twitter is hoping that promoted videos will be a step towards them making a profit out of social media.