Twitterâs Lead Generation Card is âa gift for direct marketersâ, but does it spell the end of landing pages?

Twitter is on quite the roll with its latest ad offerings, leaving TV ad targeting alone for now, the newly released (although currently US only) ‘Lead Generation Card’ boasts an impressive claim; easily collect personal information, if the user says so. The latest in a long line of Twitter Cards (think: expanded tweet experiences or see here), LGC looks to be an early Christmas present for direct marketers with low barrier to entry, simple activation, pre-filled data and a large keyword targetable active user base: +10m in the UK per comScore 2013.

Users simply expand a tweet and a description of the offer, e.g. money off, newsletter sign-up etc and a call to action is then shown. The user then simply clicks on the ‘ok’ and Twitter provides the ad purchaser with name, @username and email address – each pre-filled so the user has to do nothing. The best thing? It’s all based on CPA so you only pay when people click.

Beta users New Relic, Full Sail and Priceline (LGC are currently only available to managed clients) have already seen “impressive results” although specifics these have not been shared. The announcement comes after recent eMarketer data that reported roughly 53% of the networks ad revenue is currently tied to mobile – expected to rise 7% by 2015. This year alone, it predicts Twitter will rake in +$300 million in mobile ad revenue which is more than double what it saw in 2012. It will be interesting to see how this announcement affects future predictions.

As Twitter readies for (rumoured) IPO next year, expect more moves in the ad and monetisation arena. Such moves can, like this one, cause privacy concerns however Twitter has assured it will treat data and its relationship with the users with care.

What do you think? When available will you be using this tool?

By DMA guest blogger Paul Armstrong, member of DMA’s Social Media Council and founder/owner of Digital Orange Consulting