Twitter To Run Promoted Tweets On Flipboard, Yahoo! Japan

Twitter no longer plans to restrict ads to just its own site and application. The social media platform has announced a larger strategy to syndicate Promoted Tweets on partner sites and apps owned by Flipboard and Yahoo! Japan.

The new ad plan will help Twitter increase ad exposure beyond the social site’s own platforms. The syndicated Promoted Tweets will show up in both the already-present Twitter content areas on Flipboard and Yahoo! Japan as well as other sections on the sites. The Twitter ads will also boast the same appearance and “feel” as the partners’ platforms, so the Twitter ad integration looks native to users on those sites and apps.

“For the thousands of brands already advertising on Twitter, these new partnerships open a significant opportunity to extend the reach of their message to a larger audience,” Twitter wrote in a blog post.

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets syndication plan doesn’t mention how the social site will specifically integrate brands’ video ads. Twitter announced its intention to get into video ads all the way back in 2013, and finally started working with select partners around November 2014 to test out its native video player for advertising purposes.

However, Twitter video ads could still possibly be seen on Flipboard and Yahoo! Japan. Twitter noted in its blog post that the Promoted Tweet syndication will give brands the same creative control (i.e. using video in the Tweet) and analytics the companies are used to on the social site. For example, Twitter said if Nissan

wanted to run a Promoted Tweet on Twitter “with specific creative and targeting, and simultaneously run the campaign off Twitter, with the same targeting and creative in the Flipboard app,” it could do so.

If Twitter video ads are indeed included in Twitter’s expanded Promoted Tweet ad strategy, it could a huge win-win situation for both Twitter and its advertising partners. With even more digital platforms launching video ads (like Tumblr and Instagram) and the large amounts of company ad dollars just waiting to be used on video advertising, Twitter has the opportunity to offer advertisers a greater reach on its digital video ads than other social platforms are currently able to.

And if Twitter’s Promoted Tweet test run with Flipboard and Yahoo! Japan produces results all parties are pleased with, we could very well start seeing Twitter ads (both video and non alike) on many more sites to come.