Embracing a service that has been a huge moneymaker for Facebook, Twitter will now also start offering mobile app downloads through its advertising tools.
Mobile app makers can promote their apps by embedding a download link in a Promoted Tweet and targeting Twitter users based on gender, location, mobile platform and language. The tweet can also be tailored to audience segments through interests, keywords and TV targeting.
Twitter will also offer a number of ways to make the Promoted Tweet more visually attractive and engaging. These include:
- the ability to automatically use your app’s icon and description from Google Play or the App Store, or customize them.
- your choice of deep link to enable users to open your app directly from Twitter.
- the ability to customize your Tweet copy to provide additional context about why users should download your app.
Once a user downloads an app as a result of the promotion, they will receive an instant notification, designed to drive engagement with the app as soon as the user has it.
Here’s what the app download ad (left), and download notification (right) will look like:
Twitter has also announced several Mobile App Promotion partners which will allow brands to place the app download ads and gain analytics on conversion rates through their marketing platforms. These include social advertising platforms SHIFT and Ampush and Sprinklr.
“Twitter’s Mobile App Promotion turns one of the most distributed pieces of content, a tweet, into a massive distribution platform for brands and developers looking to distribute their applications,” said James Borow, co-founder and CEO of SHIFT in a company blog post. “This integration also brings us closer to fulfilling our mission to empower advertisers to reach the right user at the right time with the right message across all platforms.”
Mobile app download adds are expected to be a lucrative offering for Twitter. After all, mobile app ads kickstarted Facebook’s ad revenues after it went public and now make up more than 60% of its total ad revenues. Twitter will be hoping to leverage its television and sports-centric audiences to court a large set of global advertisers, and you can bet Wall Street will be pretty eager to see some positive results from the offering.
