Twitter Is Now Letting Apps Advertise With Video

Twitter's video ads are looking for a little more action. For the first time, the microblogging platform is allowing advertisers to drive app installs directly from promoted videos, the company announced today.

The new video capabilities were part of an announcement that comes more than a year after Twitter first started selling app-install ads, a key driver of revenue across the mobile-advertising landscape. Twitter works with companies like Comedy Central, Lyft and Postmates to promote their apps on the service and through its network of partner apps on its MoPub mobile-ad network.

Twitter has been building up its video offerings much like the rest of the social-media world, with rivals like Facebook introducing new video ad units on the social network and Instagram. Twitter also recently introduced autoplay videos that start instantly without the need for a click.

Video ads are becoming standard in the app-install category. On Facebook, marketing partner Nanigans said video leads to more app installs and a lower cost per install.

Twitter's mobile-app evolution includes new ways to bid on the ad inventory as well, allowing marketers more flexibility to set prices. Twitter is offering what it calls "optimized action bidding."

"This new bidding type allows app install advertisers to optimize their bids according to install, while still paying by app click—offering another way to lower cost-per-installs and yield the highest possible ROI," the company said in it announcement today.