Twitter puts video ads at top of users' timeline feeds

Twitter has told marketers they can now place video ads near the top of people's timeline feeds.

It says the First View feature will give their clips "premium placement" on users' devices. It is initially being rolled out to the US ahead of a global launch.

The announcement comes on the eve of the company's latest financial results.

One expert said the move might help boost Twitter's profits in the short-term but was likely to backfire.

"The reason why Facebook has been so successful of late is that it has been able to put sponsored posts and videos into people's feeds," commented Richard Holway, chairman of the TechMarketView consultancy.

"But Twitter is a different affair as people typically spend a much shorter time looking at each post, and putting intrusive videos at the top of their feeds, making it more cluttered, is going to upset a lot of people."

Unlike normal ads on the platform - which algorithms target at specific users - a First View video will be shown to everyone within a region or country who uses Twitter over a 24-hour period.

 

That makes it a potentially more effective way to build mass awareness of a product over a short period of time.

But another company watcher also expressed doubts about the idea based on the examples Twitter had posted online.

"The whole point of in-feed ads is that they should seamlessly roll through and not interrupt your experience," said Sarah Vizard, Marketing Week's news editor.

"Brands will love [First View] as it sits across the top of the page and everyone will see it, but for the users themselves, they will think: 'It takes over most of the feed. I came here to see what the people I follow are posting and to find information, and to get to that I now have to clear the ad.'"

Twitter results

Twitter is due to post its full year's earnings after the US markets close.

The loss-making firm's shares are trading about 69% lower than where they were a year ago, partly because of concerns that its user figures are not growing fast enough.

Last month the Recode news site reported that the service had cut the number of ads being shown to some of its most active users as part of an effort to keep them engaged.

More recently, the hashtag #RIPTwitter began trending on the service after Buzzfeed reported that the platform planned to change the order tweets were presented in.

That prompted Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey to say such a move was "never planned" for this week, but he added there were plans to make the service "more Twitter-y".

Mr Dorsey is expected to be asked to clarify what he meant when he answers bank analysts' questions on this evening's conference call.