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
Apple’s Safari ad tech blocklist sends publishers back to IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server
What publishers once filed under someday now has a deadline, and Apple set it.
Media Briefing: As AI search shifts referrals, publishers revisit registration walls
As referral traffic declines, publishers are rethinking registration walls as a way to turn anonymous visitors into valuable known users.
SPUR publishes AI content tracking standard, pitches OpenAI and Google to join advisory board
Publishers are pushing for AI transparency with a new SPUR standard to track how AI tools use content, and inviting frontier AI labs to help.