Twitter's video website card achieves higher clickthrough rates
Twitter has extended its ad features by adding a Video Website Card unit, which offers autoplaying videos with a web link. Before the update, video ads had to be posted with URLs in the tweet’s body text. Advertisers can select optimisation of the ad unit for video views, awareness objectives or website clicks. The new ad unit has been tested by Twitter with advertisers such as Jaguar and the Bank of America, and has reported a clickthrough rate that is twice the mobile video ad industry benchmark.

Twitter has added to its ad offering with the Video Website Card unit, which – as the name suggests – combines an autoplay video with a web link.

It might sound basic, but previously video ads had to include any URLs in the body of the tweet itself. This new unit brings video ads in line with the Website Card that is used for most embedded links on Twitter.

Advertisers can choose to optimise the ad unit for video views, website clicks or awareness objectives, paying for the action that most matters for their campaign.

“The Video Website Card is designed to work across a variety of brand objectives, as well as in the grey spaces that often exist between objectives,” said Twitter product manager Sean Huang. “So whether a brand is pairing the Video Website Card with the high reach of First View to announce a product launch, inviting travelers to click through to learn more about a featured destination, or showcasing game play to drive advance sales of a new video game, the Video Website Card removes friction for the consumer to engage, learn, or convert at their own rate.”

Twitter has been trialling the ad unit with advertisers including Bank of America and Jaguar, and reports a clickthrough rate of twice the industry benchmark for mobile video ads.