Twitter introduces a new video-centric ad format

While there’s a larger debate swirling around Twitter’s problems with abuse and harassment, the business side of the business is still chugging along.

Today, the company is unveiling a new ad format called the Video Website Card, which it describes as “a creative format that combines the power of video with the ability to drive users back to a site to learn more or take action in the moment.”

Basically, the Video Website Card starts out as an auto-playing video with a customizable headline, which then opens up to a larger video and website preview, and ultimately directs viewers to the advertiser’s chosen website when they tap on it.

None of this seems super-fancy or new, but Twitter also points to the fact that these campaigns can be optimized for different goals, whether that’s video views, website clicks or awareness.

“For example, a movie studio that wants to launch a new movie may run the Video Website Card optimizing for video views on the trailer early in the campaign when their primary goal is driving awareness, and optimize for website clicks later in the campaign when the movie is in theatres and their primary goal is ticket sales,” the company says.

Twitter says the Video Website Card is now available to all advertisers globally.