Video ads could become Twitter’s biggest cash cow yet

The new ad feature comes hot on the heels of Twitter‘s newly-launched Moments feature, which provides curated collections of tweets and content around live events and other topics.

“With this new offering, it’s never been easier to monetise and sponsor videos on Twitter”, Regan said.

Under Twitter’s new terms, advertisers can select categories of video content they want to run pre-roll ads with, and then layer on additional audience ad targeting.

Twitter will place six-second ads – called pre-roll ads – in front of the video clips uploaded by publishers and split the revenue with publisher.

Twitter will take a 30 percent cut of the revenue earned from these ads, while content creators will retain 70 percent – a much better deal than what Facebook and YouTube – who keep 45 percent – are offering.

More precisely: Twitter is adopting YouTube’s video advertising approach.

On Thursday, Twitter’s senior product director of media, TV and video, Baljeet Singh said at Twitter’s #VideoNOW event: “Twitter video is now open for business”.

Twitter has brought its web-based service more in line with its mobile apps by giving users the option to upload videos from their desktop, Digital Spy reports.

“If a user wants to watch a video they will turn off the ad-blocker”, she said. The main difference from the traditional Amplify format is that advertisers no longer have to partner with a specific publisher to get their preroll ad placed.

Video remains a big growth area for Twitter and is key to its broader turnaround effort.

The updated Amplify program is now on a testing mode in United States with limited advertisers and publishers, and has plans to grow globally in future.

Publishers that have agreed to participate in the beta version of the marketplace include BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Aol, Fox, MTV, Time, Mashable, amusing Or Die, and Univision.