Twitter launches TV ad targeting

Twitter have just launched TV ad targeting to help marketers coordinate Twitter ads with TV ads.

According to the company, Twitter is becoming a “fundamental part of how TV is measured” - 32 million people in the US tweeted about TV programming in 2012.

Twitter’s TV ad targeting was developed through the February acquisition of Bluefin Labs, and is only available to a limited group of partners running national TV ads in the US. The aim is to make ad campaigns easier to run and synchronise across Twitter and TV.

What is Twitter’s TV ad targeting?

Marketers can manage their TV ad targeting through a new dashboard that automatically detects when and where their TV ads air. This is done through Twitter’s new video fingerprinting technology, meaning marketers don’t need to upload media plans or carry out manual tracking.

Marketers will be given insights about how to best integrate Twitter ads with their TV ads through the dashboard. Twitter will also identify Twitter users who tweeted about the programme the TV ads run with, helping marketers plan their Twitter ads effectively.

What’s the impact of Twitter’s TV ad targeting?

Second screening is an established (and growing) trend - it refers to watching TV whilst using a secondary device, often a tablet or smartphone (you can read a bit more about it in a blog post we wrote last summer).

According to Twitter, 64% of its ‘primary mobile users’ (users who use Twitter primarily on mobile devices) use Twitter in front of a TV when they’re at home. Similarly, Econstultancy recently found that 86% of TV viewers are using a second screen whilst watching TV.

With Twitter’s TV ad targeting, brands will find it easier to coordinate and measure their marketing campaigns across TV and Twitter. As Twitter puts it, brands will be able to “continue the conversations they start with their TV advertising” by engaging directly with their audience on Twitter.