Twitter is apparently gearing up to sell political advertising as the popular site attempts to capitalize on its current status as a hub of political discourse.
The company has already managed to poach a top political marketing exec from Google and stands ready to cash in on a contentious presidential campaign that is likely to exceed over $1 billion.
”We’ve had five years to watch and observe how people are using the platform organically and we know politicians are active on the platform, and we know that consumers enjoy the messages from those politicians,” Twitter’s president of global revenue, Adam Bain, told Politico.
“We’re excited about the election cycle, and we think that ads both in the timeline and in search are a huge opportunity.”
According to Bain, Twitter’s political advertising has kicked off with a “splash,” as early clients include five presidential candidates, one of which is believed to be Mitt Romney.
Fortunately, Twitter will not clog up user timelines with campaign ads. Rather, the microblogging site will offer placements in promoted tweets, promoted trends, promoted accounts and search results.
“Political campaigns and advertising campaigns share a lot in common… The motivation to connect and talk and create a dialogue between consumers and whatever the products that the marketers are driving for are not dissimilar to how campaigns think of the dialogue between the citizen themselves and campaigns,” added Bain.
