Twitter has unveiled a new video ad type which provides a more immersive brand experience direct from your Twitter feed.
Called ‘Video Website Cards’, the new option enables advertisers to connect their video ads to a website, with the ad continuing to play as the website loads. When clicked on mobile, the video shifts to the top of the screen, with the chosen website opening below it – here’s an example from Jaguar.
As explained by Twitter:
“As users have come to expect more personalized interactions with brands, we’re increasingly hearing from brands that they want to create more seamless user experiences for consumers along various stages of the path to conversion. Today we’re introducing the Video Website Card, a creative format that combines the power of video with the ability to drive users back to a site to learn more or take action in the moment.”
The new cards include autoplaying video, a customizable video headline, and the destination URL, providing more opportunities for marketers to generate more direct connection with their owned properties. When opened on desktop, the URL will load as normal – the combined experience will only work on mobile device. Once the website has loaded, any scroll action down the page will pause the video, with the content resuming once you return to the top.
Video has been growing on all platforms, and Twitter is no exception – internal research published by Twitter earlier this year shows that tweets with video generate 9X more engagement than basic text updates (as opposed to tweets with images which generate 3X more engagement than text alone). Building on that, in testing, Twitter says that the new cards achieved a 2X higher clickthrough rate than the industry benchmark for mobile video ads.
The new option also reduces friction, in regards to people clicking away from links that might take too long to load, because the video continues to play while the accompanying page comes up.
“By bridging this experience, we saw a significant reduction in the number of users who quickly abandoned the site while it was still loading. In fact, beta participants saw an average 60% increase in user retention over industry averages.”
It’s a good looking option, and provides a range of new opportunities for Twitter advertisers. Essentially, you’ll now be able to use your website as an extension of your ad content, which provides a larger canvas with which to boost your mobile presentation.
It won’t be for all brands, of course, but if you’re looking to boost your reach on Twitter, it’s definitely worth considering how this new option could be used to enhance your messaging.
The Video Website Card is now available to all advertisers globally.