Twitter Testing YouTube-Like Video Advertising Model With New Amplify Offering

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Twitter is opening up its Amplify program beyond direct publisher buys with a new option that should appeal to a much wider array of advertisers looking to run pre-roll ads on the platform.

Instead of having to have sponsorship deals set up with select publishers to participate in Amplify, advertisers will be able to bid on categories of videos and add additional audience targets on top of those categories. Twitter will serve pre-roll ads into the most topically relevant videos being watched by the advertiser's target audience.

A key difference between the Open beta and the Custom program currently offered is that the pre-roll ads in the Open program will run on organic videos. This is similar to the YouTube model, where publishers can monetize much more of their video inventory. With the Custom program, video content is distributed via Promoted Tweets.

Publishers such as Outside Television, HGTV, Maker Studios, Mashable, People, Sports Illustrated and SBNation are participating in the new offering.

The beta is open to a select number of publishers and advertisers in the US. Twitter plans to expand globally. Those interested in joining the beta can contact Twitter.

About The Author As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin. (Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)
Source: Twitter Testing YouTube-Like Video Advertising Model With New Amplify Offering