Today Twitter quietly released a self-serve ad platform to a small group of advertisers. Previously either a direct sales team (larger accounts) or inside sales team (smaller accounts) were required to advertise on any of their products. Current Twitter ads include Promoted Accounts, Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.

This service is a long-time coming for Twitter as they try to keep up with larger ad networks like Google & Facebook.  This new service will help add scalable revenue to the network without adding personnel. With a lower barrier to entry and an easier interface the more Twitter Advertising will appeal to small and medium businesses.

EMarketer reported that Twitter should see $139.5 million in 2011 ad revenue and self serve ads should boost this up even higher.  Analyst, Debra Williamson, estimated that Twitter self-serve ads could compromise up to 60% of Facebook Ad revenue.  She also stated that:

“Self-service is extremely successful for Facebook and Google … So self-serve could really open up Twitter to a new category of advertisers that aren’t currently using the service.”

The current an ad signup form is not specially for the self-seve option, rather for all advertising inquiries. The self-serve platform is only available to a select handful of existing advertisers, so stay tuned for more details.

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising

About The Author: Greg Finn is the Director of Marketing for Cypress North, a company that specializes in social media and search marketing services and web-based application development. He has been in the Internet marketing industry for 6+ years and specializes in Social Media Marketing. You can also find Greg on Twitter (@gregfinn) or LinkedIn. See more articles by Greg Finn

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