iMedia Connection Blog

Last week, Twitter launched a new ad product called “Keyword Targeting in Timelines.” This new targeting method enables advertisers to reach users based on the keywords in their recent Tweets and the Tweets with which users recently engaged. Twitter’s Kevin Weil later said that the big advantage of this new targeting technique is timing.
Twitter’s new capability is a well needed platform move and is similar to Google’s ability to target in “real-time” whoever searches for “buy shoes.” One could argue that searches have clearly better intent than tweets. For example, “Justin Bieber’s new song is awesome!” (and getting served an ad for his album). Keyword targeting doesn’t provide any timing advantage on any other platform, without understanding the sentiment and context of the entire tweet.
Twitter is right, timing means nothing if you are unable to react to things that happen right now. The big opportunity for advertisers is how to engage users in moments that matter to them. Advertising is about being in the right place and in the right time, yet finding the right users who have explicitly expressed interest isn’t scalable, it requires an intelligent approach to finding new users who also may be interested but haven’t expressed... Read more