Social media platform Twitter has announced they are testing promoted tweets and adverts being mixed into a conversation thread.
Revenue Product Lead Bruce Falck explains that users on Android and iOS will see adverts appear after the first, third, or eighth tweet in a conversation. “We see a big opportunity to build an ad offering that creates value and aligns incentives for creators and advertisers,” Falck explains. “But first…we test!”
Starting today, we’re trying something different and testing a new ad format in Tweet conversations. If you’re a part of this test (which is global; on iOS & Android only), you’ll see ads after the first, third or eighth reply under a Tweet. 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/kvIGeYt2vp
— bruce.falck() 🦗 (@boo) October 13, 2021
Experimenting with the format will lead to results on how it performs, and affects people and conversations. By testing “frequencies, layouts, contextually relevant ads, different insertion points,” and more, Twitter will see if this will become a permanent feature.
It seems the feature will have an uphill battle, as the replies by many users to Falck and Twitter Business show some revulsion to the idea. Others however admitted it would be a good source of revenue.
“Absolute garbage,” tweeted flight attendant Dennis Jackson. “Just let me pay something a month to never see ads. Thank you.” Falck was surprisingly polite in return, and thanked Jackson for the feedback which he had noted.
“Sorry to be rude there,” Jackson continued. “I feel a lot would pay for a no ads experience. And hate going back and forth through main and third party app for a good experience.” Falck then tweets it was not taken as rude, and had noted “I feel a lot would pay for a no ads experience.”
Other recent additions have included users being able to remove followers, control who can reply to a tweet, and Twitter themselves labeling tweets as “harmfully misleading.”
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