Twitter launches Ads API to give companies more ad control, announces five initial partners

Twitter has today announced a new Ads API that will give advertisers new ways to manage and purchase Twitter’s ad products.

This will enable advertisers to generate ads and campaigns and more easily tweak them specifically for user groups and platforms. But the Ads API won’t be available to everyone right off the bat, instead, Twitter has announced five initial partners that marketers will be able to use to leverage the API.

The first five partners who have access to the Ads API platform are Adobe, Hootsuite, Salesforce, SHIFT and TBG Digital. Expect more companies to get added to this group, and for a robust flock of companies doing nothing but offering ads for Twitter and Facebook to take flight.

Adobe has shared some initial success with the platform when promoting its Adobe Marketing Cloud community:

By using gran­u­lar tar­get­ing, test­ing dif­fer­ent bid lev­els and seg­ment­ing cam­paigns by regions, Media Opti­mizer was able to increase our fol­lower base by 63%. At the same time, we saw the total Cost Per Fol­low (CPF) decrease by close to 60%, or approx­i­mately $2.00.

Adobe SVP of Marketing and Advertising David Karnstedt says that customers have been asking Adobe to integrate Twitter in its Media Optimizer. “Pro­moted Tweets and Pro­moted Accounts are impor­tant assets in cre­at­ing a holis­tic dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing cam­paign,” he says.

“We chose these beta partners because they offer products that address some of the most pressing needs of marketers,” says Twitter Revenue Product Manager April Underwood, “and we’re currently evaluating the next round of partners to join the program.”

Underwood says that the Ads API partners will also be integrated into Twitter’s Certified Products Program. This means that approved companies offering ads products that integrate with the new API will be added to the program. Currently, it provides a curated list of products surrounding things like marketing research and data analysis.

The ‘big deal’ here is that an Ads API will finally allow intermediate companies to start offering highly customized campaigns and timing to marketers and clients. The ability to customize ad campaigns and set them up in batches has been long sought after by those advertising on Twitter. The current system for promoted tweets and other Twitter ad products is labor intensive and does not handle batches of ads very well, requiring a lot of manual input.

Opening the API means that companies will be able to build out products that allow companies to more quickly build out and ship campaigns of ads on Twitter. This is obviously good for those who wish to advertise heavily on Twitter and should also provide a large boost in ad revenue for Twitter, which will be important if Twitter intends to IPO any time soon.

An earlier version of this article implied that the Ads API would offer different or more customizable products than the current Twitter advertising program. The API will simply allow for easier access to and use of those products.

Image Credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images