Plans to bring real time bidding into the Twitter ad platform and extend native advertising into mobile ecosystem
Twitter has announced it has acquired mobile advertising agency, MoPub. MoPub's technology lets mobile application publishers manage their inventory and optimise multiple sources of advertising – direct ads, house ads, ad network, and real time bidding through the MoPub Marketplace – in a single product.
The social network intends to continue to invest in MoPub's core business, with the plan to look for opportunities to extend more kinds of native advertising into the mobile space. Twitter also plans to bring real time bidding into the Twitter ad platform so its advertisers can automate and scale their buys.
Kevin Weil, vice president for revenue product at Twitter, stated on his blog: 'We're excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire MoPub, a mobile-focused advertising exchange.
'The two major trends in the ad world right now are the rapid consumer shift toward mobile usage, and the industry shift to programmatic buying. Twitter sits at the intersection of these, and we think by bringing MoPub's technology and team to Twitter, we can further drive these trends for the benefit of consumers, advertisers, and agencies,' he remarked.
Weil continued: 'The MoPub team has built a leading mobile ad exchange, and their focus on providing transparency to advertisers and publishers aligns with our values. We'll continue to invest in and improve their core business. In particular, we think there is a key opportunity to extend many types of native advertising across the mobile ecosystem through the MoPub exchange.
'We also plan to use MoPub's technology to build real time bidding into the Twitter ads platform so our advertisers can more easily automate and scale their buys. We'll maintain the same high quality standards that define our platform today. Our approach is to show an ad when we think it will be useful or interesting to a user, and that isn't changing.'
Twitter has been working hard on its advertising plans throughout 2013, including in February when announced a new Ads API and the first five partners to integrate it into their social media management tools. In April Twitter Ads were made available to all US businesses after being open to only select firms for a year and the company also announced large advertising deals with the likes of Starcom MediaVest Group.
Now with the addition of MoPub, Twitter has the structure required to push its plans forward.
Jim Payne, CEO at MoPub, commented on his blog: 'In addition to investing in new capabilities for our publisher platform, we believe there are opportunities to bring better native advertising to the mobile ecosystem. With the support of the team and resources of Twitter, we'll be able to move even more quickly towards the realisation of our original vision.'
Reassuring existing customers, he added: 'Twitter will invest in our core business and we will continue to build the tools and technology you need to better run your mobile advertising business.'
