Micro-blogging site Twitter is now generating more revenue from ads shown on mobile devices than ads on Twitter.com according to Adam Bain, president in charge of global revenue at Twitter.

When preparing its advertising system, which was started in 2010, Twitter “knew it wanted something that took advantage” of its mobile roots, Bain said. “We know that mobile is how people access Twitter, it's where people are overall, and we know it's where the business is.”

Mobile vs Desktop

The fact that Twitter’s mobile advertising accounts for more revenue than its website is surprising in part because the company has only been offering mobile ads — including promoted tweets, promoted trends and other formats — since earlier this year, while advertising on the website version of the service has been available for much longer.

One key reason for the rise in mobile revenue is that people who see a Twitter ad on their phones are more likely to click or interact with it in some way, which is how Twitter gets paid for advertisements.

An integrated experience

Rejecting the common banner ad and large graphic elements, Twitter has tailored marketing messages to work in like regular posts on its service, making them less distracting and easier to fit on mobile devices' small screens.

“We think we've cracked the code on a new form of advertising,” said Bain.”They're completely integrated within the experience, not just bolted on to the top or the bottom or the side of the viewing experience, like a traditional display ad is in digital. Ads are tweets first and ads second, which makes all the difference in the world.”

In contrast, Facebook ads are much more desktop-focused, and the company has struggled to find an advertising strategy that works for mobile.

Case Study

An example of a P.F. Chang’s Lunar Twitter promotion in the U.S. showed just how effective a Twitter ad promotion can be. P.F. Chang spent $25,000 on a time-sensitive promotion garnering one million interactions, responses or ad clicks. Of the million users interacting with the ad, 70% came from mobile devices. “The results were staggering,” said Jason Miller, digital content and community manager for P.F. Chang's.

It is still early days in the mobile advertising market, with mobile ads making up only a small percentage of all current ad spending. But as former internet analyst Mary Meeker noted in a recent presentation, the gap between the amount of time people spend on mobile devices and the amount of money advertisers spend has started to close, and there lies a massive opportunity for marketers.