Twitter launches advertising API following month-long beta trial
Twitter has launched its advertising application programme interface (API) after a series of beta trials.
The move is aimed at helping marketers better manage advertising on Twitter, letting them design bespoke ads which they can run at scale across the platform and integrate with cross-channel marketing activity.
Twitter has been trialling the product since January with partners Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, SHIFT, and TBG Digital, all of which are now offering Twitter ad features to a select number of clients.
This means brands can now run ad campaigns via these API partners rather than buying them directly through Twitter.
April Underwood, Twitter’s product manager, revenue told The Drum the move will help marketers generate better ROIs. "One of the areas these tools can help marketers with is understanding what segments are working in a campaign which means they can then reallocate budget depending on what is working most effectively," she said.
"The genesis of Ad API was around making it easier for marketers to work with is and give them better choices, and now this lets them run cross-channel campaigns, while providing deeper analytics," she said.
The move will help brands determine increased ROI from being able to analyse real time social media campaign activity at scale on the network.
Launch partner TBG CEO Simon Mansell said one of the biggest opportunities lies in capitalising on the growing role Twitter is playing as a companion to TV advertising or live event sponsorships such as the 2013 Super Bowl.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the second-screen phenomenon. People are watching TV and reading tweets at the same time – so the best results come from campaigns created with technology that can harvest, manage and respond to information about those reactions efficiently,” he said.
Twitter Ad API will let TBG clients, via its ONE Media Manager tool, set up “complex” twitter campaigns easily, measuring and managing performance in real time, then recommending a redirect of resources where necessary to those elements already delivering the best ROI.”
The social network is now looking for a limited number of partners to integrate the Twitter Ads API and will review applicants via this site.