Twitter Slowly Opens the Gates With Advertising APIs

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Twitter released a new set of APIs today that give marketers third-party access to manage and implement their Twitter Ad campaigns. The move is expected to enhance targeting capabilities, performance metrics, and cross-channel opportunities for brands interested in Twitter's ad products such as Promoted Tweets and Accounts.

But not every brand or social media platform will gain access to the APIs right away. Integration is limited to select brands working with one of Twitter's first five partners - Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, Shift, and TBG Digital - that have been testing the service since last month.

"As we built out Twitter's ads API, we knew it would be important to work closely with our advertising partners to understand how to effectively scale their marketing campaigns," says Adam Bain, president of global revenue at Twitter.

Marketers will gain access to Twitter's initial set of advertising APIs through a growing set of partners as Twitter also begins work on certifying the strongest performing ad products that integrate with the Twitter Ads API.

"Our system rewards marketers for being good, not for being loud. And this approach encourages ads that are engaging, relevant and useful," April Underwood, product manager of revenue at Twitter writes in a blog post.

"We believe that this will result in improved management efficiencies, targeting and optimization capabilities, and stronger insights, which in turn will help us drive better results for clients through Twitter advertising programs," says Lisa Cucinotta, associate director of social media at Omnicom Group's Resolution Media.

After it applied granular targeting, tested different bid levels, and segmented campaigns by regions, Adobe revealed some impressive results, reporting a 63 percent increase in the brand's follower base and a 60 percent decline in total cost per follow.

Adobe gained an average of 400 new followers per day with Promoted Accounts during the trial, up from an average organic growth rate of around two dozen followers per day. By the close of the campaign, new followers were coming to Adobe at a rate of about 115 per day.

"Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts are important assets in creating a holistic digital marketing campaign," says David Karnstedt, SVP, media and ad solutions at Adobe. But as Michael Lazerow, CMO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud adds: "Successful Twitter marketing has evolved and must be more holistic than just publishing content."