spreading jam

Many believe Twitter missed a trick by not introducing a monetised ad platform earlier in its lifetime, but come October that’s all changing here in the UK. we’re not so sure they’ve really missed anything.
Twitter has spent a long time building its user-base and site traffic. Its users appear ready for it to become monetised in some way or other. The users themselves are likely to be more accepting of what some have called “feed-intruding” ads because, as Twitter has made clear, the user experience comes first.
Promoted Tweets in users’ feeds have been live elsewhere in the world for more than a year; so far, if research is to be believed (a sample size of just 500 US Tweeters was used), they have caused very little disruption to the user and been fairly successful.
The study by market research firm Lab42 has shown that only 10% of people find promoted tweets in their feed to be annoying, and that roughly 25% of people actually find the tweets relevant. 14% have retweeted one, 22% have received discounts, and 21% have learned about new brands through Promoted Tweets. These numbers suggest that users can hack a little advertising appearing in their feed, and some at least are willing to engage with the Tweets.
Our concern lies with the cost. Rumours suggest Twitter has been after 6-figure sums from marketers for larger, packaged deals incorporating promoted trends, tweets and accounts. Will the expense of these tweets rule out anyone other than a large multinational with a sizeable social media budget? With reports of regional targeting in the pipeline, will the high fees ward off marketers who could make use of the local targeting for the smaller, regional businesses that have managed to utilise Twitter to great effect so far?
What is certain is that Twitter will continue to evolve the platform with additional functionality that drives revenue. Let’s hope they continue to adopt a user-centric approach.