Twitter is looking to start placing ads into users timelines, reports the Financial Times. The publication cites ‘people with direct knowledge’ of Twitter’s plans that the company will begin placing “promoted tweets” into the main stream of user’s Twitter accounts.
In addition to placing ads right into the stream, other options that are being considered include a local deals option that would rival Groupon. This would pull information from user conversations and trends to offer limited-time offers. Twitter is also looking at introducing enhanced profile pages for brands and giving advertisers the ability to pre-schedule Tweets, a feature that many Twitter clients already feature.
Adam Bain, Twitter’s head of revenue, and other executives, have been meeting with potential client firms at the Cannes Lions event this week.
Twitter has experimented with other methods of advertisement, like the unfortunate #dickbar, which displayed links to promoted trends as well as organic trending topics. These efforts have not met with much user acceptance or success. That being said, placing advertisements directly into the Twitter stream is widely thought to be the best way for Twitter to monetize its service and should not come as too much of a shock to regular users of the service.
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