Back in February Twitter launched its advertising API that allowed brands to run more sophisticated ad campaigns. The only problem was, the API was invite-only.

From this week, Twitter has opened its advertising platform to all US users, with the rest of the world expected to be invited to the party shortly.

Tweet all about it

Twitter announced the news in a recent blog post, explaining the API was aimed at everyone from an individual wanting to promote their person brand to online retailers looking to increase sales.

“Whether you’re just building your presence on Twitter, or you’ve already received access to our self-serve ad platform, we’ve got the right tools to help you engage with the right audience, and ultimately improve your business outcomes.

“Over the past year we’ve listened carefully to feedback from the thousands of businesses and individuals who’ve had access to the self-serve tool, and made enhancements based on their suggestions, including more targeting and reporting in the UI,” wrote Twitter's product manager of revenue Ravi Narasimhan.

Tweets on target

Twitter first launched in advertising API with five partners: Adobe, Hootsuite, Salesforce, SHIFT and TBG Digital.

Before the API brands had to advertise through Promoted Tweets, which had to be uploaded manually. So if a brand was running the same ad for customers in 20 different languages, each Promoted Tweet have to be manually processed through Twitter. The API streamlines this process.

Adobe reportedly increased its follower count by 63 per cent using the API, while decreasing its cost per follow 60 per cent, or roughly US $2.00.

Public service

By allowing US brands access to its API Twitter will not only increase the productivity, reach and efficiency for US-based marketers, but open up a potentially massive revenue stream ahead of its rumoured IPO in 2014.

The rest of the world will have to wait and watch. Hopefully not for long.

To find out more visit advertising.twitter.com.

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