14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter has been moving towards this for years now, but the company is finally ready to roll out self-serve ads. It is now testing the feature with a few customers, but it will be available to everyone eventually.
When it does, any Twitter user will be able to pay for Promoted Accounts, or Promoted Tweets, and have a campaign run on the site, just like they can on Google or Facebook.
Twitter has officially confirmed that is testing a self-serve option, but it doesn't really come as a surprise to anyone. The site had said that it plans to eventually open up its ad platform to all users.
"Last month, Twitter began testing self-service advertising with a handful of existing advertisers. These advertisers can now set up and run their own Promoted Products campaigns and pay via a credit card," Twitter told AllThingsD.
"This is an important step in continuing to grow Twitter’s business. Our Promoted Products can help small and medium-sized businesses build their audience on Twitter and better engage with the people they want to reach," it said.
What's more, if Twitter is ever going to see the kind of revenue it needs to see to justify its current valuation, it has to open up to more advertisers, especially since it's using only in-house ad options and not just plastering banners all over the place.
The tests began last month. The ones allowed to use the new tools can create their own campaigns, pay with a credit card and don't have to deal with any human being at any stage of the process.
There's no word on when the tools will be available to everyone and it may be a few months at the pace Twitter usually moves, but the feature is definitely coming.
Of course, self-serve ads can be a great to pump up revenue, but they can also be a huge hassle since you need to deal with all of the things stemming from leaving users to as they please on your site.