Promoted Tweets: Twitter Ad Program To Draw Money From Corporate Advertising

One of the biggest questions confronting Twitter has been: how will the site make money?

Finally, it seems Twitter has answers. The site plans to unveil details of an advertising plan that will help Twitter monetize its quickly-growing user base.

The New York Times describes Twitter's plan for allowing advertising on its site for the first time ever:

The advertising program, which Twitter calls Promoted Tweets, will show up when Twitter users search for keywords that the advertisers have bought to link to their ads. Later, Twitter plans to show promoted posts in the stream of Twitter posts, based on how relevant they might be to a particular user.

The advertisements will begin rolling out Tuesday, April 13, to between 2 and 10 percent of users.

The 10 initial advertisers will include Starbucks, Best Buy, Virgin America, Bravo, Red Bull, and Sony Pictures.

The Wall Street Journal reports that details on the pricing of the ads are still sketchy:

For now, Twitter's ad-matching and pricing formula is a work in progress. The company will start by charging marketers per thousand impressions of their ads. Over time, it plans to move to a more complex model, charging based on how users interact with the messages. The Twitter spokesman said it will not show ads that don't receive a certain "resonance" score, based on factors like how many people clicked on or forwarded the ad.

Twitter described the plan on the company's official blog, calling Promoted Tweets "non-traditional," "easy," and something that "makes a ton of sense for Twitter."

"We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you," Twitter said in its blog post. "We'll attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don't resonate."

What do Twitter users think of the advertising plan? See how Twitter is reacting to the announcement.

Comments

[onnyang]

12:25 PM on 04/14/2010

I have never clicked on an ad from HuffPO, YouTube, etc. except maybe by accident. Do they (advertisers) get their monies worth paying for ad space?

[mi casa]

09:08 PM on 04/14/2010

[Weitberg]

12:02 PM on 04/14/2010

The micro-blogging site promises that the new addition will not change the Twitter experience at all, as the ads will be brief, poorly phrased and irrelevant within minutes.

TheWeekinRebuke.com

[curiousasheck]

11:05 AM on 04/14/2010

Whats gonna' happen if users just decide to ditch it and the guy's are stuck having to pay back $57 million to their investors. Ya' gotta' think people!

[Aquinnah1]

09:28 AM on 04/14/2010

Ads on Twitter? Is nothing scared? Stop the madness!
www.eightfits.blogspot.com

[floodmfx]

08:26 AM on 04/14/2010

The twitter fad is dying -
and now they come up with a business plan?

[SiouxSayer]

06:58 PM on 04/13/2010

It's trending on the Twitter!
Love Nashville...Music City...?
www.dreamrow.com

[SF TKF]

06:45 PM on 04/13/2010

Yet another reason to avoid this stupid trend.

[anthonytaurus]

06:32 PM on 04/13/2010

eh.. guess i can officially stop using twitter now.. i don't really use it as often as it is now.

[jabailo]

05:29 PM on 04/13/2010

What Twitter user "searches for keywords".

I just click a twitter button on a web page when I see an interesting feed.

[Beckland]

05:17 PM on 04/13/2010

I think this is actually a very positive development, and one that will actually lead to *less* spam. By putting Twitter’s own reputation and engineers behind the cause, Twitter has a great need to make Promoted Tweets extremely useful and relevant.

They have been able to hide behind the position that they are “just a platform,” so spam wasn’t really their fault or problem. Now, they will be forced to make a better experience.

My big interest is in how to create tweets that will be effective at building resonance, and how to shift marketing strategies. I discuss that here: http://bit.ly/cLIbR6

[Librick]

05:10 PM on 04/13/2010

It sounds like Twitter decided to embrace the "spam" business model. Hope it works out for them.

[DRaymond]

03:41 PM on 04/13/2010

I can agree with the easy part, but what part of pumping ads at you and charging adverrtizers per impression is 'non-traditional'?

[StansDad]

03:15 PM on 04/13/2010

garbage is now going to be cluttered with ads. yawn

[jetscan]

05:13 PM on 04/13/2010

Fanned.

[JackHoffman]

02:37 PM on 04/13/2010

The issue here is how much do users get paid for the intrusion into their timelines? I am assuming that the Promoted Tweets will be visible within individual accounts as per the Twitter Blog - "regular Tweets (and) will be organically sent to the timelines". So, where's my end?

[Antifascist-08]

02:35 PM on 04/13/2010

See ya, suckas