Twitter unveils video ads, offering 'cost per view' ad buying model

Earlier this year, Twitter had started testing a new 'Twitter Video Card' that streamlined video playback and brought a one-tap viewing experience to its users' timelines. The micro-blogging site has now launched a new advertising program called 'Promoted Video'.

'These tests have shown that Tweets containing native Twitter video generate better engagement and more video views than before. After months of experiments and feedback from users and brands, we're excited to announce a beta test of Promoted Video on Twitter,' wrote David Regan, senior product manager, TV and video at Twitter in an official company blog post.

Launched in beta, Promoted Video builds upon the Twitter Amplify program, and brings a new set of video tools to content producers. By using Promoted Video, brands can upload and distribute video on the micro-blogging site, and also measure the reach and effectiveness of the content.

To begin with, the company is providing brands, publishers and a subset of verified users the ability to share organic and Promoted Video on Twitter.

The company is also offering advertisers the ability to run ads with a new Cost Per View (CPV) ad buying model. What this basically means is that advertisers will only get charged when a users starts playing the video. Additionally, advertisers using Promoted Video will have access to video analytics, including completion percentage and a breakout of organic vs. paid video views.

'In addition to the improvements we have made to the advertiser experience, we are excited to share that we've expanded the tests of our native video solution with select content publishers and verified users. The overall goal is to bring more video into our users' timelines to create a richer and more engaging Twitter,' the post further read.

The company saw its revenues rise over two-fold to $312 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2014 over the year-ago period led by rise in advertising revenue which grew 129 per cent to $277 million. The firm said mobile advertising revenue was 81 per cent of total advertising revenue and its mobile user base was 211 million or 78 per cent of the average monthly active users (MAU) in the second quarter.

The company also named former Goldman Sachs executive Anthony Noto as its chief financial officer (CFO). He replaced Mike Gupta, who is now the senior vice president of strategic investments at the company. During the same time, it acquired mobile ad retargeting startup TapCommerce.