Twitter has started showing re-targeted ads to users based on browser cookies, joining other tech firms including Google, Facebook and Amazon, which depend on the technology to serve ads.
The new ‘tailored audiences’ service allows marketers to deliver "promoted tweets" to users interested in a particular brand via web browsing.
Rolled out globally, the new service may only be offered to particular advertisers, and those ads may not appear to all consumers.
In a blog post, Twitter product manager Abhishek Shrivastava said that the latest feature offers a new way for advertisers to define their own groups of existing and potential customers, and to target them with relevant messages.
"With tailored audiences you can reach users on Twitter who have shown interest in your brand or your category even away from Twitter," Shrivastava said.
"Let’s say a hotel brand wants to advertise a promotion on Twitter and they’d prefer to show their ad to travel enthusiasts who have recently visited their website.
"To get the special offer to those people who are also on Twitter, the hotel brand may share with us browser-related information (browser cookie ID) through an ads partner.
"We can then match that information to Twitter accounts."
However, users can block such ads by selecting the ‘do not track’ option on their browsers.
