Twitter on Thursday announced the widespread introduction of ads based on web-surfing activity, meaning if you recently visited the website of, say, an automaker, you may see that brand's ads in your stream.
The program, called tailored audiences, rolled out in a smaller scale in July. Using tailored audiences, advertisers can target users who have either visited their website or "shown an interest" in your brand's category on and outside of Twitter. For advertisers, that means it's now possible to identify people who are in the market for a product. Such advertisers must go through Twitter partners Adara, AdRoll, BlueKai, Chango, DataXu, Dstillery, Lotame, Quantcast, ValueClick and [x+1] to do so.
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In a blog post announcing tailored audiences, Twitter noted that beta users HubSpot saw a lift in engagement rates of 45% vs. historical average. Krossover, meanwhile, saw a 74% decrease in cost-per-acquisition.
The introduction comes close on the heels of Facebook's expansion of "interest-based ads" in the News Feed, which was announced in October and is in the process of being rolled out widely. Such ads are also based on a user's previous browsing history.
Twitter's stock was up nearly 5% for the day following the announcement.
Image: Getty/Emmanuel Dunand