Twitter Opens Up Its Amplify Video Ad Program

Twitter just announced an expansion of its Amplify ad program that should make it accessible to more publishers and advertisers.

Amplify is the company’s two-year-old program for video ads. Initially, it involved a direct and somewhat complicated relationship — the publisher would embed a short video clip in a tweet, then the advertiser would both include a short pre-roll ad in the tweet and pay to promote the tweet in Twitter.

In the new, open version of Amplify, an advertiser no longer needs to work with a specific publisher. Instead, they choose a content category, then Twitter will automatically include their pre-roll ads in videos tweeted by relevant publishers. (Advertisers can also use Twitter’s other ad targeting capabilities at the same time.)

This isn’t just about making the process easier for advertisers — it also gives publishers a monetary incentive to share their video clips on Twitter. We’ve heard that the revenue split is 70 percent for publishers and 30 percent for Twitter, and that publishers will be able to blacklist certain advertisers or categories if they feel like they’re not a good fit.

“With this expanded version of Amplify, we’re excited to help people enjoy more great video, publishers drive more revenue, and brands align with the best mobile video moments, all at scale,” wrote David Reagan, a senior product manager at Twitter, in a company blog post.

Publishers participating in the expanded Amplify program include companies in sports (Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports and SB Nation), TV (Billboard Music Awards, Fox and MTV), digital (Maker, Fullscreen and Kin Community) and news and entertainment (Funny or Die, BuzzFeed and TechCrunch — yes, the site you’re reading right now).

Twitter made the announcement at an event for advertisers and marketers in New York City, where executives also talked about the broader vision for video on Twitter.

For one thing, Baljeet Singh, the company’s senior product director for media, TV and video, said that over time, Twitter will be making it easier for users to add media content to their tweets. So if you wanted to tweet about the new Star Wars trailer, you wouldn’t need to find the trailer on YouTube — instead, you’d be able to find and add it from Twitter.

The new Amplify program is currently in beta testing with a limited set of publishers and advertisers in the United States, with plans to expand globally.

Here’s a clip of Baljeet Singh explaining the latest on Twitter Amplify.

Baljeet Singh shares the latest on Twitter Amplify: http://t.co/Ip0Q8PzuKg

— Marketing (@Marketing) October 8, 2015

Update: COO Adam Bain ended by the event by announcing that Twitter will be opening up a beta for Promoted Moments later this year.