One of the biggest mysteries on the web for the past 2 years is the issue of Twitter monetization . Since its launch the service has been trying to follow Google's path of offering a free service hoping to create a strong network effect and eventually find a way to put a few dollars in the bank. For a few days, Twitter has been talking about offering the possibility of “ Promoted Tweets ”, we will all have more details on this shortly. For now, suppose Twitter has its own ad server and it looks like AdWords, could it be successful?
THE SWEET PIE: WHAT WOULD WE BET ON?
The first question to answer is obviously what to bet on; on AdWords, we select the keywords that interest us and these represent the context in which our ad should appear. On Twitter, the process could presumably be the same:
1. Topics : similar to how the AdSense network works, betting on topics would be the equivalent of contextual advertising. Looking for someone who talks about a particular topic? Ok, select a list of words that would be of interest to you the advertiser.
2. Hash Tags : similar to how the AdWords network works, betting on Hash Tags would be like buying traditional keywords. Quite simply: “I want my ad to appear on these terms”.
3. Users : another possibility would be to select the users themselves, knowing that some are more interesting for their brand. It would be interesting to do some revenue sharing such as the AdSense network, so as not to face the principal-agent problem in economics.
There are definitely other ways to monetize everything a la AdWords, if you have other ideas please comment!
CURDLED MILK: THE PROBLEMS
Unfortunately there are some small issues behind this approach, hope you are not surprised to read this. Starting with Twitter's purpose : is it a search engine? To find out about trips or a particular product, will I go to Google or Twitter? Google scrambles every day to keep its search system healthy to deliver super-relevant results super-fast. The AdWords network has its Quality Score , which encourages users to fine-tune their account setup to stay as relevant as possible. From the perspective of an AdTwit, Twitter will at some point have to have such a metric to ensure a certain cohesion in its system.
Speaking of quality, if an advertiser starts betting on a user per se, the latter somehow enters into a contract with him. In other words, the user can become a spokesperson for a brand at some point. Imagine if Twitter encourages them by sharing revenue, the situation is even more delicate. If two competitors are fighting for the same space and the user talks about his preferences for one of the two brands, I would not like to be the advertiser who suffers. Also, how can an advertiser keep track of all these accounts without the use of a reputation management tool?
Finally, while there are potentially other issues and conflicts, it's worth remembering that not all users read their feeds from the original Twitter interface. At a time when Twitter wants ad revenue, the company will have to somehow find a way to ensure that the ad space it sells actually gets seen.
THE CHEST OF DRAWERS: WE PUT EVERYTHING AWAY AND WE CONCLUDE
The idea of an AdTwit is interesting and could potentially allow Twitter to seek income. Except that it remains to build a tool to manage everything, it remains to think about the problems that it generates, the question of quality, etc. Above all, we must think about the very intention of the consumer. Is he in the same state of mind when he connects to the service as on a search engine? That is the question.
