Video wars: Twitter takes on YouTube with pre-rolls

9 Oct 2015

Watch out YouTube, there's a new kid in town in the video advertising stakes

Twitter is muscling in on YouTube’s territory with an advertising approach that is eerily similar.

Not only does the embattled YouTube have Facebook to contend with, but now Twitter is muscling in on its space with an advertising approach that is eerily similar – short six-second pre-roll ads with revenue split 30/70 with publishers.

In a new offering it has added to Twitter Amplify, publishers just upload their videos to video.twitter.com and Twitter will do the rest.

Publishers will be paid the majority of the ad revenue (70pc) through automated rev-share payments.

David Regan, senior product manager in charge of video at Twitter said that Twitter Amplify is designed to let publishers and creators monetise their video content on Twitter, while making it easier for advertisers to reach massive audiences.

Publish and be paid

“With this update, advertisers can run video ads against premium content automatically based on their preferred content categories — without having an existing publisher-advertiser deal in place,” said Regan.

“This new offering is now available in beta to select publishers and advertisers in the US, with plans to expand globally over time.”

Regan said that Twitter is already home to video highlights from over 200 of the world’s top TV networks, sports leagues and digital publishers, including NFL and the Super Bowl, VMA red carpet moments from MTV, and Fox Soccer.

“With this new offering, it’s never been easier to monetise and sponsor videos on Twitter,” Regan said.

“Publishers simply upload their videos to video.twitter.com to start monetizing their content, and are then paid the majority of the ad revenue through automated rev-share payments.

“Advertisers can select categories of video content they want to run pre-roll with, and can layer on additional audience targeting. Then, our technology dynamically inserts their pre-roll ads into the most relevant videos being watched by their target audience.”