Mark Pack

The news is out today that Twitter is going to start placing adverts at the top of search results. Although Twitter’s write-up is full of phrases such as “we’ve resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model” and how their approach is “non-traditional” it actually bears a striking resemblance to YouTube’s use of ‘promoted videos’:

• As with Twitter, YouTube’s promoted videos are adverts where the advertisement is existing content on the site rather than a dedicated advertising creative
• As with Twitter, YouTube mixes in the promoted content with normal content, but marks them clearly as such
• As with Twitter, YouTube puts promoted videos at the top of search results (though, in one difference, more often to the right)

So not so innovative after all. But copying Google’s approach to advertising isn’t a bad model to pick.