Twitter on Ad Retargeting Bandwagon
Taking a page from Facebook FB +1.87%, Twitter said it will start experimenting with using people’s Web behavior to tailor ads on the short-messaging service.
Twitter in a blog post Wednesday said that a florist could opt to use data on who visits its website to target ads to those people when they are using Twitter. The San Francisco company also said the florist could take a list of his email subscribers and pitch ads to those people if and when they are on Twitter.
This ad targeting is similar to two types of Facebook ad formats, known as FBX and Custom Audiences, respectively.
Facebook and now Twitter are taking more advertising cues from old-school Web sites such as Yahoo YHOO -0.46%, which long have tracked users across the Web for ad purposes. For example, they would use data about a user’s visit to a Chevy website to show that person Chevy ads when they surf elsewhere. Facebook started offering the so-called retargeting ads recently, and advertisers have embraced it in a big way.
The retargeting efforts muddy the original advertising philosophy of Facebook, Twitter and other social media services. The promise was that ads tailored to “social signals” — checking into a Mexican restaurant on Foursquare, or “liking” a Nike NKE +4.85% shoe on Facebook — helps generate better ads than traditional digital banner ads. But Facebook’s and Twitter’s embrace of ads based on prior website visits and email lists may be a sign that new digital ad models will mix in plenty of elements from old ad models.
Kevin Weil, a Twitter ad-product executive, said that the company continues to back new kinds of ad models based on what people tweet, the types of accounts users “follow” and other social signals. But he said it also makes sense to meld in established digital-ad techniques like retargeting when it results in a more useful ad.
Twitter said it is starting slowly with its new ad efforts, and testing it first only in the U.S. with a small number of advertisers. The company said it may expand those new ad features if they prove popular with users and advertisers.
Consumer advocates have raised concerns about privacy implications as more digital services leverage more Web behavior and data to target ads. In its blog post, Twitter touted its privacy-friendly features, such as the ability for users to check a single box to opt out of allowing advertisers to tap their information to tailor ads on Twitter. Those people will continue to see ads on Twitter, however.
In a blog post, digital-privacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation praised Twitter for its user-privacy features in advertising.
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