Twitter Extends Publishing Network, Allows Promoted Videos, Tweets Outside Twitter

Twitter is providing some powerful new advertising options to marketers. The social media company is renaming its Publisher Network to Twitter Audience Platform (TAP), and giving marketers the ability to serve up promoted tweets and videos as ads on mobile apps.

In September 2013, Twitter purchased the mobile advertising network MoPub for $350 million and launched the Twitter Publisher Network. The program let marketers buy mobile app-install and app-engagement ads on Twitter or on any of the thousands of apps in the MoPub network. Now, this re-worked, extended version of the Publisher Network dubbed TAP means marketers have the opportunity to run their Twitter-based promoted tweets and content as ads on any of the apps within MoPub.

Advertisers in the TAP network can push their promoted tweets and video campaigns using ad formats beyond just app-install versions; as noted by AdAge, Twitter is giving marketers the option of new ad formats like native ads, banners, interstitials, and video. Advertisers will be able to bid on promoted tweet and video ad inventory through MoPub.

“Today when our clients run ads on Twitter they can reach an audience of 300 million monthly active users,” said Ameet Randive, Twitter’s Senior Director of Revenue Products. But with TAP, Randive claims marketers will be able to reach more than double that number, around 700 million people. “We’re helping them with this trend where consumers are spending much more time on mobile, and spending more time within apps,” Randive explained.

Another benefit to Twitter’s new Audience Platform is the ad versions of Twitter’s promoted tweets and videos running on TAP through MoPub will have retweet and favoriting options. The promoted tweet and video ads will also have a customizable call-to-action button. This means marketers can essentially drive direct engagement with their promoted tweets and videos, even though they’re formatted as ads on a mobile app.

The engagement element of the new TAP network is key, especially considering brands who have benefited from Twitter’s video ads would likely want to carry over the interactive ability to ads on MoPub apps.

“The idea behind sending personalized video recordings direct to Twitter users who participated in the trailer launch was to keep the conversation going as long as possible,” Plishner explained. “In addition to our first-day numbers, our first-week numbers well exceed our internal benchmarks in terms of trailer views and discussion volume.”

Twitter’s decision to keep the retweet and favorite options on the promoted tweet and video ads within the new TAP network will only help companies like Sony further improve engagement in campaigns. And many companies using TAP have already seen similar success; before TAP was available to all advertisers, Twitter worked with select brands like Samsung Mobile in the UK to test the extended ad network offerings.

“When video on the Twitter Audience Platform launched, we were keen to be the first U.K. advertiser to make use of this functionality,” said Graeme Winston of Starcom Mediavest Group, which works with Samsung in the UK. “We saw a 365% increase in video views on the Twitter Audience Platform and [cost per views] saw an 84% decrease.”

In addition to the promoted tweet and video ad options within the expanded TAP network, Twitter said the program will also eventually include more parameters and features like the ability to track website conversions and clicks.