Twitter is now offering a mobile app installation format to all of its advertisers, encouraging users to download apps rather than click on links to web pages.
The new ad format promotes app installation through native ads. Users who click on a promoted link will automatically be taken to the App Store or Google Play, where they can download the app.
Tweeters on iOS will get a notification when the app finishes downloading.
The move follows similar formats offered by rivals Facebook, Yahoo and Google, and follows a trial earlier this year, where Twitter invited select advertisers, including EA Games and Lyft, to test-drive the feature.
Over the past few months, Twitter users might have seen ads suggesting they download apps such as Square or Spotify, or to try out games like Heroes of Dragon Age and Real Racing 3.
The move could be a profitable one for the newly listed social network, which is seeking new ways to make money from advertising to its user base.
Twitter’s revenue, most of which comes from advertising, more than doubled in the first quarter to $250.5 million, but the company has yet to make a profit.
Mobile-app install ads have driven Facebook’s mobile ad business, which made up 59% of its total revenue in the first quarter, up from 30% a year earlier.
Facebook, which launched mobile-app install ads in late 2012, has benefited because of the wealth of data it has on each user.
Advertisers can target users based on a number of factors such as age, location, gender and if they have shown an interest in that kind of app in the past.
Pay per click rather than a flat fee
Twitter’s accompanying payment model means that advertisers don’t pay until users click on a link.
Once the ads are running, Twitter provides conversion tracking for mobile apps, which lets users measure the conversion impact of their campaigns, including initial installs and in-app conversion events.
Twitter has partnered with mobile measurement firms Adjust, AD-X, AppsFlyer, Fiksu,Grab, Hasoffers and Kochava to help drive conversions.
Watch this promo video showing how the service works below:
Read the blog announcement here