Brafton has reported that Twitter ad revenue is expected to surpass $150 million this year, and it seems the company is looking for small business partners to help it reach this goal. A report in The Wall Street Journal indicates that the microblogging site wants small business marketers to put Tweets to work for their companies.
The company’s CEO, Dick Costolo (formerly with Google), is focusing on using Twitter’s popularity to sell ads. Indeed, Brafton has reported that the site now offers Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts, and there are rumors of a self-serve ad platform on the way.
Twitter is enlisting small advertisers by directly contacting SMBs. The company currently has more than 125 big brands serving as ad partners, but the Journal reports it has around 100 SMB advertisers. To appeal to more local businesses, Twitter plans to develop ad options that are geographically conscious and target mobile users.
The company has a long way to go if it is to hit its predicted $150 million ad revenue – eMarketer reports it made just $45 million in ad dollars last year.
As Jonathan Strauss, chief executive of Snowball Factory, told The Wall Street Journal, “Twitter has built an audience, but in order to achieve the scale and revenue that Google and Facebook are seeing it needs to show that marketing dollars spent on the site can perform well for mom and pops, not just big companies.”
Small businesses may want to take advantage of Twitter ad options. According to the latest comScore Digital Year in Review, Twitter saw 18 percent growth year-over-year last December.
