Twitter is continuing its rollout of advertising initiatives, with today’s launch of its new program for small businesses, which is being launched in partnership with American Express. Originally announced last month, American Express merchants and cardholders are now being alerted to Twitter’s new advertising opportunities, which were kicked off by a related promotion in which the first 10,000 Cardmembers and merchants received $100 in free Twitter ads.
Today, those first 10,000 will be notified that they can get started in building their ad campaigns. For Twitter users, this news means more ads from smaller stores, brands and chains, which will accompany the now-familiar Promoted Tweets, Trends, and profiles that have historically highlighted both national and international companies, like Samsung or Starbucks, for example.
According to a company blog post, the SMB program is starting off small, and will gradually increase the number of participating merchants over the coming weeks. Advertisers participating in the program will have access to all of Twitter’s Promoted Products, which will allow them to promote their Twitter accounts, place promotions and messages in Twitter timelines and promote tweets which will then appear at the top of Twitter searches.
The expansion of Twitter’s advertising program coincides with other changes the company has made over the past few weeks, specifically those that have brought more of these ads to mobile clients. Earlier in March, Twitter announced an expansion of Promoted Tweets on mobile, allowing advertisers to target recipients by both interest and device. This followed a previous announcement which saw the arrival of additional Promoted Products on iOS and Android, specifically Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets.
SMBs choosing to advertise using these new options will be able to pay per follower for Promoted Accounts and per engagement (click, retweet, reply, and favorite) for Promoted Tweets, says Twitter. They’ll also be able to target the world, specific countries, or even specific U.S. metro areas.
Businesses that have not yet signed up to participate can still do so now here, and will be alerted when the option opens up further.
