San Francisco — In an attempt to scoop up more advertising dollars, this marks the first time the search engine giant has shown advertisements from any other network beside its own Adwords in its SERPs, Google has begun displaying Twitter’s Promoted Tweets in its real-time search, and observers expect the trial to be extended to the UK in the new year.
The innovative service, which was launched in the US this month and is likely to be replicated in the UK when Twitter unleashes its advertising platform here next year, reports Marketing magazine.
Promoted Tweets allow brands to pay to insert ads in Twitter search results. It works in a similar way to the pay per click services provided by Google’s Adwords, with tweets appearing at the top of results pages under a “promoted” label.
Tweets already appears in Google searches. But, now onwards, Promoted Tweets will be displayed in Google’s real-time Updates search service in the US, where ads from brands such as Starbucks, AT&T and Verizon currently appear in a shaded box labeled “Ads by Twitter“.
A spokeswoman for Google said: “Twitter is pioneering advertising against short-form content, so it was a natural starting place for us.” She said Google is open to exploring other advertising models and systems.
The news comes as pressure mounts for the micro-blogging site to generate revenue to ensure its survival. And as Twitter seeks ways of making money from its content, some observers believe this could be the way forward. It is understood that about 30 advertisers have signed up to participate in the American version of the service, including Starbucks and telecoms companies Verizon and AT&T.
According to Nick Jones, managing director of I Spy Marketing, said the tie-up was a “breakthrough” for Twitter.
In November, Twitter affirmed it will be “experimenting” with placing ads in a user’s timeline. With the new tie-up, it is understood that Google and Twitter will share the revenue generated from Promoted Tweets on the former’s network.
However, Twitter is reported to be in talks with a host of big companies, including Sky, Vodafone and Sony about being the first organizations to utilize the new marketing channel when it arrives in Britain.
The micro-blogging site is currently testing out a new Directory tab, which provides users with advice on accounts they may be interested in following and lets them browse through the various categories of individuals and companies signed up to the website, reported Search Engine Land.