Twitter has announced that they're rolling out in-stream video ads, their latest effort to capitalize on the video trend and generate business around their video offerings.
As per Twitter:
"It should come as no surprise that consumers are watching more video on their mobile devices than ever. What you may not know is that video impressions on Twitter grew significantly from Q3 to Q4 2016 as Twitter is fast becoming the place for people to tune in and watch what's happening."
Twitter's been running pre-roll video ads on selected content for some time, and recently extended that option to Periscope streams. Now, advertisers will also have the option to include mid-stream ad content to boost revenue opportunities.
Pre and mid-roll ads always come with a level of concern, mostly because pre-roll ads are so disliked - some even see them as the reason why the use of ad blockers is growing so fast.
A survey of more than 50,000 online news consumers last year found that pre-roll ads were one of the top reasons why people didn't watch news video at all.
But that's pre-roll specifically, Twitter's introducing mid-roll ad content, which is a little different. Maybe.
To support the announcement, Twitter's also published some new stats which highlight the effectiveness of their on-platform video ads.
"Across 406 Nielsen Brand Effect studies, those who saw video ads on Twitter were 50% more likely to be aware of the advertiser's brand, feel 14% more favorable about the brand, and had 18% higher purchase intent (versus those not exposed to video ads)."
Twitter says that, overall, video ads on Twitter are 2X more memorable when compared to the same ads on "other premium sites".
As the platform has struggled to find its identity and develop focus on its core goals, video has become Twitter's key focus, and it's throwing all it can into video content in the hopes that live event coverage, coupled with real-time discussion, will be their path forward. Whether that works out or not we'll have to wait and see, but you can expect Twitter to continue pushing with new video options and monetization opportunities in the hopes of attracting more investment in their platform.