Twitter just took a big step toward increasing ad revenue.
The social platform has announced that it’s beta testing a way for developers to display ads directly within embedded timelines in Android and iOS apps. This means ads will soon appear within tweets, but only in timelines that are embedded within third-party apps — at least for now. For example, the NBA’s official app, which featured an embedded Twitter timeline, could potentially take advantage of this feature.
The new feature marks one of Twitter’s first attempts at monetization beyond its own platform. In the company’s Q1 2016 letter to shareholders, Twitter noted that it had 1 billion monthly unique visitors to pages that syndicate Twitter content. Monetizing that demographic would provide a significant bump in revenue for the company.
Twitter is adding this feature module to its SDK, Twitter Kit, which holds a collection of Twitter feature modules that can be integrated with third-party apps. The new feature was created by combining Twitter Kit with MoPub, the mobile-focused ad serving solution that Twitter purchased in 2013.
In a recent blog post, Twitter focuses on the ease of integration for developers.
“This doesn’t just open up a new canvas for you to monetize,” states the post, “We’ve also taken care of all the ad rendering, so you don’t have to worry about performance or how to display the ads. Plus, we’ve made sure that ads match the theming and color preferences you set in Twitter Kit, so they fit the look and feel of your app.”
Related reading: Periscope ‘Go Live’ button to be integrated into Twitter’s Android app
[source]Twitter[/source]
