Twitter will copy the model of ads in stories that Instagram has been using since 2017. Twitter’s so-called ‘Fleets’ will have full-screen ads.
Twitter is increasingly looking for ways to monetize its platform. It did it with its own paid mode without going any further and soon we will see some countries another way to generate revenue in this social network: ads in the Fleets, that is, Twitter stories.
These ads are powerfully reminiscent of those on Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg’s platform integrates full-screen ads in its stories, which are interspersed between the stories of other users. Now, Twitter copies this same business model, including this kind of ad.
And it will do it in the same way; full-screen ads within the Fleets, including the ‘swipe up’ option so famous on Instagram. This was announced by Jack Dorsey’s social network just this week.
Full-screen ads
The ads will work like those in Instagram Stories. The format will be in 9:16, they will allow videos of up to 30 seconds and will have the option to swipe up. Businesses will be able to access metrics and the reach of their ads including impressions, views, clicks, or visits to the associated website.
In this way, Twitter wants to turn Fleets into “full-screen billboards” for advertisers, as Justin Hoang, senior product manager at Twitter, explains. In addition, Twitter has already partnered with some advertisers to bring these ads to the current Fleets.
Twitter has openly admitted that for them, user interaction with stories on the platform is unknown to them. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter assured that they still had to learn who these Fleets were for and what measures they would take regarding them. The first was to turn them into an additional source of revenue for the social network.
And it makes sense. Currently, Twitter implements the ads on users’ timelines, with the label of promoted tweets. This implies that users will probably not interact with such ads; in a Fleet, these ads are much more prominent and interactive. Plus, after all, Instagram has been adding them in its Stories since 2017 and also includes them in Reels, its alternative to TikTok.
For now, the first ads placed in Fleets are part of tests being carried out by the social network to check what reception this new feature has in the Twitter community, so it is difficult to know when we will see these ads implemented in some countries.
