Twitter Wants To Make Ads Chattier

Twitter is looking to make Promoted Tweets seem a little less advertorial to users and a little more conversational.

Yesterday (Jan. 5), the social media platform unveiled “conversational ads,” a new format through which brands and marketers can — rather than just settling for the exposure generated by likes and retweets that Promoted Tweets are geared towards — further engage consumers with call to action buttons and customizable hashtags.

“When a call to action button is tapped,” writes Andrew Bragdon on Twitter’s blog, “the tweet composer opens with a pre-populated brand message accompanied by the creative and hashtag buttons. The consumer can then personalize the tweet and share it with his or her followers.”

A consumer who follows these steps, the Twitter blog post goes on to explain, receives a thank you from the brand he or she promoted, and the new tweet appears in the consumer’s timeline, visible to his or her followers (along with the media from the brand’s original tweet).

“Each shared tweet is powerful because it drives earned media for the brand at no extra cost, resulting in higher ROI,” continues Bragdon. “Additionally, research has shown that organic conversation about a brand delivers significant value for advertisers.”

The Twitter post announcing conversational ads — which are “currently available in beta for select advertisers in all markets” — goes on to share some positive remarks about the function made by brands who have participated in that beta testing, including Samsung and Lifetime.