Twitter Launches New Ad Product, Promoted Video, Into Beta

Twitter announced this morning it will begin beta testing a new feature called “Promoted Video,” which is aimed at brands looking to upload and distribute their videos to the Twitter network. The feature, which expands upon the Twitter Amplify program, was previously revealed during Twitter’s recent earnings announcement, when new CFO Anthony Noto teased the forthcoming product as something that would allow content producers to upload, share and “measure the distribution effectiveness of their video content on Twitter.”

The move comes at a time when Twitter is working to show advertisers and investors that while its user growth figures are only slowly climbing, Twitter content actually reaches a larger audience thanks to views by non-logged in users.

It also follows on the heels of Twitter’s Amplify program, which previously focused on big media companies, including the likes of ESPN which uses Amplify to promote highlights from games. Other Amplify partners listed on Twitter’s site include NFL, McDonald’s, American Express, BBC and Viacom, to give you an idea.

50shades-screenshotTL-pngPromoted Video, on the other hand, seems to reveal an effort to reach a broader group of potential video advertisers, without the requirement that those brands first strike big media deals with the social network.

In this morning’s blog post detailing the feature, Twitter said that, along with Promoted Video’s launch into beta, the company is also working to make it easier for advertisers to set up campaigns by running ads with a Cost Per View (CPV) buying model.

Or, more simply put, it means that advertisers will only pay when a user starts playing a video.

Promoted Video testers will also receive access to video analytics, including completion percentage and a breakout of organic versus paid video views, says Twitter.

The company notes that video is one of the most popular forms of media on the network, as test with the newer Twitter Video Card have shown that native Twitter videos generate “better engagement” and more views than they did in the past.