Twitter recently introduced several new enhancements to the service, including ads for its mobile applications, a move that could have significant implications for marketers looking to reach a targeted audience with relevant offers via mobile.

Twitter last week introduced a new site design and enhancements to its mobile app that include more robust brand pages and ads that run on the app. The news points to the bigger role that advertising in general ? and mobile advertising in particular ? is playing for the social networking company. 

?It is very significant, and a natural extension, for marketers that they can now advertise via Twitter mobile apps,? said Jed Williams, analyst and program director at BIA/Kelsey, Chantilly, VA. ?Already, 50 percent of Twitter use is mobile and the platform is inherently time, location and context sensitive.

?The self-serve platform will extend Twitter advertising down-market and help it scale, as will mobile,? he said.

?Both ideas set Twitter up for a migration into mid-market and local advertising in the near future. And brand pages deepen advertisers' relationship with the network, and their customers' interaction with them on the network.?

Combo pack
Twitter is generally considered to be lagging when it comes to developing a paid marketing platform.

However, advertising is playing an increasingly instrumental and central role for Twitter across the board, with brand messaging already integrated into the desktop platform via Promoted Products.

Twitter?s global ad revenue is forecast to grow 210 percent this year for a total of $139.5 million, according to research, from eMarketer. Growth is expected to be strong again next year and, by 2013, eMarketer estimates worldwide ad revenues at Twitter will reach nearly $400 million.

Twitter already has deep behavioral targeting capabilities through its social data, location awareness, and expressed interests and intent from users and their followers.

Twitter mobile ads open up a variety of possibilities for synergizing the data the company is aggregating and gives marketers a way to reach a very targeted audience with relevant offers in the right context.

?This is potentially a prolific combination to push real-time, contextually-relevant, social messages and offers,? Mr. Williams said.

?As an example, consider Twitter as an agent for mobile deals and flash sales,? he said. ?Previously they've run successful flash sales trials ? for example, selling football tickets for the San Diego Chargers.
?This has great promise for marketers trying to reach customers in the moment with highly-relevant offers around products and services they want to promote.?

As the penetration continues to grow for smart devices, consumers are increasingly accessing social networks such as Facebook and Twitter via these devices.

The growth in mobile social networking is providing advertisers with a significant new channel to reach consumers.

The new platform that Twitter has developed allows advertisers to purchase promoted tweets on a cost-per-follower basis.

?If you fail to place ads in mobile spheres, this can lead to brands missing on massive engagement opportunities with a target audience,? said Gabe Donnini, data solutions engineer for online advertising network Chitika, Westborough, MA.

?Twitter and social media on a whole have developed as channels for brands to deliver highly targeted ads to mobile and social users that are based on user activity and interest,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York