Twitter Promoted Tweets
Twitter is set to launch an advertising platform that will include the insertion of Promoted Tweets into your search results and eventually into your main stream. Here are a few takes on the new ads.
Q. What are you launching? What are Promoted Tweets?
A. We are launching the first phase of our Promoted Tweets platform with a handful of innovative advertising partners that include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America -- with more to come. Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses want to highlight to a wider group of users.
Q. What will users see?
A. Logged-in users will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to users. We will attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that do not resonate. Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as “promoted” when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect, they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of users who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on a search results page.
Q. How will companies use the platform? Where do I signup?
A. We are providing a self-serve dashboard to companies using Promoted Tweets. There will undoubtedly be some rough patches during the early going, so access to this dashboard will initially be limited to a handful of advertisers. As the tools become more robust, we will gradually open up the platform to other advertising partners.
Q. When will that happen?
A. As soon as possible.
Q. How much will it cost to promote Tweets? Will advertisers use a cost-per-click (CPC) model or something else?
A. We will use a simple impression-based pricing model until we, and our partners, can better understand the value of promoting Tweets. We have not decided on the right model going forward but we will be measuring multiple indicators of engagement such as Retweets, @replies, re-use of hashtags, avatar clicks, hashtag clicks, in-Tweet link clicks, views after Retweet and more. We call these collective indicators “Resonance” and believe that over time a pricing model based on Resonance will be better tuned to the actual value of promoting a Tweet than simple cost per click or dollars per friend, fan or follower models. We’ll know more after our initial launch and look forward to working with our advertising partners in refining our thinking around pricing and Resonance.
Q. Is that all there is?
A. This is phase one of our Promoted Tweets platform. Follow-on phases will include syndication to ecosystem partners and expanded delivery of Promoted Tweets beyond search. Our approach will focus on benefit for our users and will necessarily involve iteration and testing. This will also allow advertisers to understand better the impact of the platform as it rolls out further.
Q. When will we see Promoted Tweets in the user timeline?
A. We are taking an approach to our rollout that focuses on user value. We will start with search and when we understand the impact of Promoted Tweets on user experience, it will go more places, including the timeline.
We believe that the real-time interest graph that Twitter offers is very powerful. We are hopeful that we can enhance the user experience by promoting the right Tweets to the right people in the right places in real-time.
Q. Is what you said we would love and would be awesome?
A. While we are excited about the platform, there are several specific aspects of the launch that we are delighted to highlight. All Promoted Tweets start out as organic Tweets. There is not a single “ad” in our Promoted Tweets platform that is not already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. For advertisers, this means a unique ability to leverage and measure earned media and paid media within one platform with one set of customer communications. For our users, we are measuring the resonance of every Promoted Tweet, and those that do not resonate with users will disappear. That is worth repeating: If a Promoted Tweet does not resonate, it will disappear. Perhaps most importantly, Promoted Tweets is a real-time platform in every respect. From real-time creative development and Tweet delivery to real-time analytics providing immediate feedback, the ability for advertising partners to interact with customers in the moment, we think, is a big deal.
Q. What is the algorithm for Resonance?
A. We are keeping it secret to prevent gaming.
Q. Come on, give me at least a simple outline.
A. Resonance is a metric that measures how well a company's Tweets are resonating with users. Algorithmically, Resonance is used to determine which Tweets are displayed as Promoted Tweets and which do not. It is a real-time Tweet-quality algorithm that is at the heart of the Promoted Tweets platform. Conceptually, a metric reflects the combination of all parts of a company's interaction with its customers on Twitter. Since it is the 'secret sauce' of the ad platform, and will evolve over time, the details of what makes up Resonance will not be disclosed.
Q. Why are you starting with Promoted Tweets in search when Google, Microsoft and Yahoo already have great search advertising products? Are you competing with them?
A. Real time search is very different from intentions-based search. As we have seen with global events, product launches, customer relationship services, movie premiers and local elections, people use Twitter search to discover real-time updates they cannot get anywhere else. Brands will engage with customers through Twitter search differently than they will engage with users on Web search.
Q. Will you syndicate these search ads to third parties?
A. Absolutely. We will syndicate Promoted Tweets to third parties in the Twitter ecosystem.
Q. Will third party apps be able to run and make money on these ads?
A. Yes.
Q. It would be more interesting if a brand could promote a regular user's positive Tweet about them? Can this be done?
A. While Retweets are a powerful and fundamental way for companies to amplify customer sentiment within Twitter, we will initially restrict Promoted Tweets to a brand’s own or related accounts. We want to encourage natural and authentic user behavior and discourage inauthentic behavior. We are going to be thoughtful about the ways in which we integrate other organic Twitter capabilities into the Promoted Tweets platform.
Q. How can my company participate?
A. We're currently limiting the initial test group until we can properly open up the system to handle more advertisers. If you have any general inquiries, please fill out this form and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
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