Twitter has announced several new additions to the toolbox that brands and app developers can use to drive downloads of their apps across the social network.
In a blog post this week, Twitter said it planned to introduce a new video ad format to drive app installs on mobile. The ad will look a lot like existing app promotion cards, but will include Twitter’s new autoplay video that plays muted until the customer taps to turn on the sound. The ad will link users directly to the app’s page in their device’s app store for download.
Rather than paying per video view, advertisers will be able to bid on Twitter ad space based on how many installs their video campaigns are driving. That was the other half of Twitter’s announcement: that it’s introducing cost-per-action pricing and optimization focused on app downloads, rather than just clicks.
Facebook has offered cost-per-install for a while, but it’s still a big deal for companies that promote their apps heavily on Twitter, like Comedy Central and Lyft.
“Over the course of the last year, we’ve consistently been able to beat our cost per install targets by 20% on several hundred thousand installs,” said Will Flaherty, director of growth at ticket marketplace SeatGeek, on Twitter’s blog. He said it was helpful that Twitter’s tailored audiences tool lets SeatGeek reach very niche audiences and exclude tweeters who’ve already downloaded the app.
Twitter’s currently testing the video app cards on its main site, but plans to roll the format out across its MoPub publisher network in the coming months.
