Tweet, retweet, follow may be the new formula for video social media marketing results. Social video platform TwitVid has launched SocialAds – a new video advertising network that lets marketers directly connect to their audiences with customizable retweet-to-watch and follow-to-watch functionalities.
TwitVid explains that SocialAds is the “first-ever video advertising network for social media, aligning core advertising objectives and target markets with key Twitter activities.” The retweet-to-watch function prompts viewers to retweet a message before viewing a video, while the tweet-to-watch function asks users to follow a company before watching a sponsored video.
TwitVid thinks this strategy will appeal to social users who benefit from transparent, interactive introductions to brands. “Traditional means of monetizing video has heavily relied on pre-roll ads, which work great for premium content but can be quite suffocating for an end-user who may only be trying to watch a short video,” Mo Al Adham, co-founder of TwitVid, said. “SocialAds offers an alternative advertising solution, which provides measurable value to both advertisers and viewers.”
Advertisers using the platform pay an agreed price per follower and retweet, with higher bids receiving better placements on ad units. This new hybrid platform may be valuable to marketers because it combines two powerful channels – Twitter and online video.
Recently, Twitter reached a search volume of 800 million queries per day (perhaps explaining this and other efforts to monetize the platform). At the same time, research indicates that half of internet users watch videos online, and 7 percent of viewers are more open to ads in online video than on television. Tweeted video ads could be key to maximizing viewership.
