Twitter’s New Ad Platform: And the Future of Sponsored Tweets?

How exciting! It’s time for a new social advertising platform to go live. First we had Facebook, then MySpace and PlentyOfFish all opening up their networks with killer advertising platforms. With amazing demographic targeting we haven’t really seen before, it opened a whole new world for affiliate marketers. With another platform being released, we are all anxious to get in early and reap the profits of being first to place new ad campaigns. However, what should we expect to see from the Twitter ad platform?

For anyone who has used SponsoredTweets or Ad.ly, you may have been given a taste of what you might see. Unfortunately for many, advertising through sponsored messages on Twitter hasn’t been everything is cracked up to be. It’s often hard to pull a profit and the CPM prices are usually too high. It will be interesting to see how Twitter’s advertising platform compares not only to the likes of SponsoredTweet and Ad.ly, but also how much they are changing advertisers.

TechCrunch broke the news and provided even more details on Twitter’s new ad platform and what we can expect:

Here are the details outlined in the articles:

• As we previously described, the new system serves up ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries.
• Promoted Tweets will appear at the top of the search results page, with small text indicating they were sponsored. The Times piece notes that companies could use this to combat negative tweets (they can place a positive tweet at the top of the page)
• A Promoted Tweet isn’t guaranteed to stay afloat for a long time — if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter is calling “resonance”, it will be pulled, and the advertiser won’t pay for it.
• One ad will be shown at a time

• Initial ad partners include Best Buy, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo
• Advertisers will be paying on a CPM basis initially, with plans to adjust the model once Twitter can better gauge how people are engaging with Promoted Tweets

As with most ad platforms, it’s usually limited to only a few major companies in the beginning while tests and ad results are being studied. Once the platform opens to the masses we will see an onslaught of new advertising like Twitter has never seen before. Will Twitter end up going through the same hassles as Facebook Ads in continually updating their terms and conditions, while allowing less and less affiliate related offers.

Branding can only go so far, so let’s hope for something unique and special from those first big name companies who are advertising on Twitter.

Remember when the idea of getting paid to send out “Sponsored Tweets” to your Twitter followers? It didn’t go over well and many were disgusted and hated the idea. Now with Twitter releasing their own advertising and have stated “In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser.“… everyone will have to accept the fact that Twitter is a real business too and needs advertisers.

A few sites have already been reporting their thoughts on the new platform.

• AdAge -  “Twitter Has a Business Model: ‘Promoted Tweets'”
• NY Times – “Twitter Unveils Plans to Draw Money From Ads”
• TechCrunch – “Full Details On Twitter’s Long-Awaited Ad Platform: Promoted Tweets”

What are your thoughts on the new Twitter Ad Platform and how does it affect the future of businesses like SponsoredTweets and Ad.ly?