Twitter has struggled to convince investors lately. The 140-character microblogging network is launching a new source of revenue, the Promoted Video ads, to the tweet stream of users. The overall goal is to bring more video into users' content feeds to create a more engaging and visually appealing experience.
Revealed in August 13th, 2014, after months of experiments and feedbacks from users and brands, the Promoted Video is Twitter's new attempt to create a more mature and visualized experience for its users.
The Cost Per View (CPV) ad buying model allows advertisers to pay for video ads on the times they are played. To some extent, it's similar to Promoted Tweets, which are ads that look like tweets and appear in users' content feeds.
Promoted Video are ads in the form of videos, embedded into tweets via Twitter's "card", allowing users to watch videos in their timelines with a single tap. Twitter claims that tweets containing native Twitter video "generate better engagement and more video views than before."
Builds from Twitter Amplify programme, Promoted Video also allows networks to distribute short video replays of what's going on in near-real time.
A Shift of Visual
Traditionally, Twitter has been a text-heavy service. And during 2013, the company has introduced several new features and designs that marked the shift of the service from a text oriented sharing medium to a stream of eye-catching look and feel.
"Video is an incredible storytelling medium and we're thrilled to be giving brands, publishers and a subset of verified users the ability to share organic and Promoted Video on Twitter," said David Regan, Twitter's Senior Product Manager. "By using Promoted Video, it's easy for brands to upload and distribute video on Twitter, and to measure the reach and effectiveness of this content."
By becoming more visual and interactive, advertisers can share previews of their new adverts, and make their consumers feel closer to them. Brands have access to events and celebrity talent that consumers want to feel a connection with and engage with, and with Promoted Video, they can give more information that consumers want most.
"Additionally, advertisers using Promoted Video have access to robust video analytics," Regan said. This include completion percentage and a breakout of organic versus paid video views.
Twitter accounted for 0.5 percent of global digital ad revenues in 2013, according to research firm eMarketer. As digital ad spending grows to $140.15 billion, Twitter is expecting to see an increase to 0.8 percent. The possibiity regards Twitter's 24 percent increase in monthly active users since 2013, and its new ways of delivering ads to users' tweet stream.
When Twitter fully launches Promoted Video ads, it will compete directly against Facebook's Premium Video Ads after it acquired LiveRail to bolster its ability to sell video across all types of devices.
