Google Challenges Twitter with "Real-time Ads"

When social media users think of “real-time” engagement, they automatically think of Twitter. In recent years, Twitter has dominated the market of real-time advertising. A major partner of Twitter is the National Football League, which allows Twitter to sell video ads against highlights from games that are posted on the site. With all the success Twitter has had, other social media companies want a piece of the profits and have begun to implement their own user live engagement solutions.

Google announced last week that it is launching “real-time ads.” This would allow advertisers to serve video advertisements across YouTube, thousands of apps, and millions of partner websites during special events. Google plans to create ways to “time” mobile, video and display ads in conjunction with live events such as sports, political rallies, and award shows. Beta testing of this new platform has been conducted with companies such as EA Games and American Express, showing positive results. In addition, YouTube AdBlitz will once again combine all Super Bowl ads into a central location to allow consumers to watch and vote on. Google’s more aggressive actions for ad dollars during major events have stepped up the competition with Twitter, leaving advertisers with a more difficult choice when it comes to choosing a media outlet.

Check out Google’s “Madden Giferator” real-time ad

Does Twitter still have the advantage? With an already established user-base attracted to its real-time ads and major partnerships with companies, Twitter has a leg up on the competition. In addition, Twitter recently bought Periscope in order to increase its real-time service with live streaming videos added to the Twitter stream. The details and technicality of Google’s new live engagement still remain slightly unknown and confusing. Twitter on the other hand allows companies to specifically target users specifically interested in an event such as the Super Bowl. The use of hashtags identifies these individuals more precisely, adding to the effectiveness of real-time ads. Research has shown that users click on Twitter ads 20% of the time during special events, in contrast to 3% on regular days (Sloane). These numbers prove that live events are when Twitter advertisers best perform on the social media platform. Although Twitter has made efforts to expand its reach to consumers, Google has a massive footprint when it comes to Internet advertising. Google is an extremely powerful company, with a large reach and scale, especially with ad platforms. In saying this, could Google’s “real-time ads” stand a chance in the live engagement market?