Publishers today have a plethora of platforms to choose from when they plan their video strategy. But when it comes to selecting the right platform for monetising video, Facebook and YouTube have long been the most popular alternatives. But they’re not the only player in the monetisation playground…

Twitter is still primarily seen as a social media network for people who want to stay up-to-date with the latest news, comment on trending topics & hashtags, or enjoy twitter rants from presidents and celebrities. But as Twitter is shifting its focus to video, it is becoming clear that the platform has so much more to offer publishers.

Twitter still attracts 330 million monthly active users, placing them as the second most popular social network, and they still made the top 20 list of the World’s Most Downloaded apps in 2019. 

Whilst breaking news is still one of the major reasons people use Twitter, and nearly a quarter of all verified accounts on Twitter belong to journalists, the social networking site is shifting its focus to video. Video is now the fastest-growing advertising option on Twitter, attracts more than 1.2 billion video views each day, and it is the 3rd reason people use Twitter, after news and photos.

In fact, tweets with video are:

• 3x more likely to be retweeted than tweets with gifs
• 6x more likely to be retweeted than tweets with photos
• And tweets with video get 10x more engagement than tweets without video

Pretty convincing numbers!

Publishers use Twitter as a way to drive traffic to their site, spark conversations and keep their audiences engaged. But the big question remains: how do you monetise your video strategy on Twitter?

There are different ways of monetising on Twitter, and in this blog post we will break down some of those options. The biggest questions you need to ask yourself before you select which route is right for you, are; what is your objective and who is your audience? If the aim is to gain more followers or drive traffic to your site, your strategy will differ hugely compared to if you are building your video strategy around monetisation directly on Twitter.

Twitter Offers 2 Video Monetisation Programs in Their Media Studio

The Media Studio is Available exclusively to publishers in the Amplify Publisher Program in 16 countries, and it makes it easy to publish and measure the performance of content using two different Monetisation products:

In-Stream Video Ads

It allows advertisers to run pre-roll video content with brand-safe, premium content from publishers in the Amplify Publisher Program.

In-Stream Sponsorships

This is where brands can build brand association by sponsoring video content from Amplify publisher partners. Note that in-stream sponsorships are not available for self-serve advertisers, but requires a Twitter partnership manager. In-stream video sponsorships are meant for long-term partnerships between publishers and brands and is a collaborative process where you as a publisher work with Twitter representatives to find the right sponsor as well as developing a concept that suits the brand’s audience as well as yours.

The revenue split is also appealing; Twitter operates on a 70/30 revenue split, in favour of the publisher. This is better than for example YouTube’s revenue split, where 45% is kept by the platform and 55% goes to the content creators.

How Do You Join the Amplify Publisher Program?

Currently, only publishers who are working with Twitter Partner Managers are eligible to apply to the Amplify Program. Twitter is taking a stance as a premium advertising platform, in an attempt to distance themselves from other social media platforms. With this shift, Twitter market these solutions to advertisers as an opportunity to align their brand with premium content. In addition, Twitter only accepts content that is “brand safe”, which excludes material that is considered “violent, gruesome, bloody, or shocking”. In the industry, this has been viewed as a response to YouTube ad content being shown on inappropriate videos,  but it can result in difficulties for news publishers to be accepted.

So in order to get accepted, you need to:

• Have a verified account 
• Have a dedicated partnership manager
• Publish premium, brand-safe content

Access to Media Studio is given on an invite-only basis, but if you think you should be monetising your video content on Twitter, contact a Partner Manager and submit an application. Learn more about the Amplify publisher program here. 

Publishers can also launch a sponsored video series working directly with a brand. This is separate from the previous two options and there’s no interaction from Twitter, meaning that publishers can’t monetise via Twitter’s monetisation programs and will have to prove a track record of high engagement numbers and set the cost of the sponsored series accordingly.

Best Practises to  Prepare Your Profile for Joining the  Amplify Program

• Consistently publish quality video content on Twitter

In order to monetise your video strategy, you need to publish content often and of high quality.

•  Make sure your videos are optimised for mobile viewing

80% of all users access the site via mobile, and 93% of all video views happen on mobile. Also worth noting is that the average session duration on users visiting Twitter from app clocked in at just over 3 minutes and 30 seconds, so it’s crucial that you grab your viewers attention quickly.

• Include captions or subtitles for a ‘sound-off’ strategy

Following the previous point, users will watch your content on the bus, waiting in the queue, in the office… so they will likely watch it without the sound on!

Gone are the days when publishers view social networks as the enemy – With ad engagement up 23%, and Twitter reporting that the CPE (cost per engagement) is down 12%, it’s time to embrace the possibilities of working together and leverage the unique offerings of each social network!

So, there it is. We hope you enjoyed our guide and found it valuable for making a smart, killer and engaging monetisation video strategy on Twitter.