Twitter is rolling out an Instagram-like carousel ad more than six months in the making.
The new type of ad unit that lets brands place multiple tweets, in some cases from users themselves, in a carousel format that lets people swipe through. Digiday first reported in January that it was working on this.
— Twitter Advertising (@TwitterAds) June 3, 2016
The unit, called a “Promoted Tweet Carousel,” lets companies jam up to as many as 20 tweets into it, including videos, pictures and tweets from satisfied customers as long as they give the advertiser explicit permission to use their tweet. Twitter is charging companies only when a user engages with a tweet in the unit.
“Since people tweet about their favorite brands and products every day, we developed this powerful solution to help marketers leverage social recommendations,” Twitter explained in a blog post.
Agencies welcomed the new unit of using people’s tweet since a post from a normal sometimes holds more clout than a celebrity.
Twitter is also likely hoping to replicate Instagram’s monster success because people are 10 times more likely to engage with a carousel ad compared to a static ad on the Facebook-owned platform. Even just a little bit of Instagram’s advertising success could be a boon to struggling Twitter.
More in Media
The Rundown: Google has drawn its AI payment lines — and publishers’ leverage is narrow
For publishers trying to navigate AI licensing, the message was blunt: Google is willing to pay for access, but not for training – and it remains unwilling to define AI Overviews as a compensable use of journalism.
Media Briefing: Google’s latest core update a reminder that pageviews can’t remain the primary metric
Google’s latest core update signals pageviews can no longer be the primary metric, favoring intent-solving publishers over scale.
After an oversaturation of AI-generated content, creators’ authenticity and ‘messiness’ are in high demand
Content creators and brand marketing specialists on how 2026 will be the year creator authenticity becomes even more crucial in the face of rampant AI-generated “slop” flooding social media platforms.