Twitter is rolling out what it is calling “conversational ads” in a bid to boost engagement with advertisers.
The new feature will appear in users’ timelines similar to a Twitter poll, allowing them to get involved by clicking one button to compose a tweet that already contains a brand’s campaign hashtag.
Twitter claims the new feature will result in higher return on investment for businesses that advertise on the platform.
The move comes after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the helm of the company, where he has since rolled out a strategy of cost-cutting and boosting the social media giant’s revenue figures.
Read more: Five ways SMEs can get the most out of Twitter
Twitter’s revenue product manager, Andrew Bragdon, said in a statement the updates will allow advertisers to expand their presence on the social media site.
“For many years, marketers have successfully increased their brand engagement using promoted tweets with compelling images or videos and campaign hashtags that drive retweets, likes and follows,” Bragdon said.
“Conversational ads take this a step further by including call-to-action buttons with customisable hashtags that encourage consumer engagement.”
Twitter’s conversational ads are currently available in beta for select advertisers.
Meanwhile, businesses in the US can already track the impact of their conversational ads using Twitter’s brand hub.
Twitter has rolled out a number of updates that benefit small businesses over the past two years, including opening up its promoted tweets to Australian SMEs in late 2014 and no longer cropping images in its timelines.
Broede Carmody is a former senior SmartCompany reporter. Before this, he was a co-editor of RMIT University’s student magazine Catalyst.
