Twitter is rolling out a feature to let you leave a conversation on Twitter with what the company calls “Unmentioning.” The company announced this on Twitter saying “we’re experimenting with Unmentioning—a way to help you protect your peace and remove yourself from conversations—available on Web for some of you now.”

What is unmentioning. Unmentioning is a way to remove yourself from an ongoing Twitter conversation without communicating to the people on that conversation that you left. We are all stuck on these threads on Twitter that may not be relevant to us or might just be something you don’t want to be associated with. Twitter is addressing this annoyance with a feature to unmention yourself.

This feature removes the tag of your Twitter handle from any tweet and in the future prevents you from being tagged in any replies or receiving further notifications from that tweet. This does not stop you from viewing the Twitter thread. It does change your Twitter name to a gray color. And no, you cannot undo this, so if you leave a Twitter conversation, you cannot join it again right now.

What it looks like. Here is a screenshot showing how you can click on “leave this conversation” on a Twitter thread that mentions you to leave that conversation.

When will I see it. Twitter said this feature is currently available for some users on the web platform. It should roll out slowly to more users and on other platforms.

Why we care. On the brand side, removing your brand from a conversation that may be perceived as negative, when your brand has nothing to do with the conversation might make sense. From a consumer perspective, sometimes you just don’t want to be part of a conversation, for a number of reasons and now you have that option.

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Twitter is piloting three new ad types – Interactive Text, Product Explorer, and Collection ads. Only a few brands have access to them, but the new ad types will be visible to all U.S. Twitter users (iOS, Android and the web).  

Here’s everything we know about the ad formats and examples of brands using them.

Interactive Text Ads. These ads have a larger font than organic tweets and bolded text. Advertisers can also pick from 10 colors to highlight up to three words from their ad copy. Twitter users who tap or click on the highlighted words will be taken to a landing page, which the brand specifies. Brands testing this ad format include Oreo, Bud Light and Wendy’s.

Here’s what it looks like:

Product Explorer Ads. These are 3D product ads. Users can swipe and rotate a product to view it from multiple angles. Users can click on the Shop Now button to buy it from the advertiser’s website.

Here’s what it looks like:

Collection Ads. Advertisers can display a “hero” image (it remains static) plus five thumbnails beneath it (which users can scroll through horizontally). What happens when a Twitter user clicks or taps on one of the thumbnails? The advertiser chooses what URL to send them to (e.g., a product landing page). 

Here’s what it looks like:

New Balance, Lexus and Bose are among the “select brands in the U.S.” testing the Product Explorer and Collection ads.

What Twitter says. Could these experimental ad formats roll out to more brands and countries eventually? Yes, but there’s no timeline for that yet. In its blog post announcing the three new ad types, Twitter noted that they will be watching the performance of these new formats to see if they drive results for advertisers. 

The platform also highlighted its vision and goals for Twitter ads. Twitter said their ad products should:

• Give advertisers opportunities for more creative storytelling and brand expression across every stage of the funnel
• Offer consumers a more immersive, rewarding and interactive ad experience
• Help advertisers further lean into and unlock Twitter’s conversational power

Why we care. Although Twitter doesn’t have daily/monthly active user numbers that rival Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, it can still drive conversions and revenue for brands and businesses. Because these ad formats are new, they could attract some early engagement from Twitter users. However, it remains to see if that attention will be positive or negative. While these ads are still in testing, it may be worth a small amount of your time to think about how you could potentially creatively use these ad types so you’re ready if/when they become available.

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Twitter has introduced a new experimental ecommerce feature it calls Twitter Shops. Brands who want to create a shop can curate up to 50 items to include, which Twitter uses can then buy via an in-app browser from the merchant’s website. 

After a brand or business enables a Twitter Shop, a new “View shop” button will appear on its profile page, directly above its tweets. It looks like this:

For now, only iPhone users can view and interact with the shops. This is much the same way the Twitter Shop Module was rolled out last year. That feature was more limited, allowing brands to show up to five products on their profile, in the same location as the Twitter Shops “View shop” button.

Availability. Twitter only mentioned five brands that have enabled their shops. Those are:

• @Verizon (showcasing 11 products, as of publishing)
• @ArdenCove (9 products)
• @LatinxInPower (50 products)
• @GayPrideApp (13 products)
• @AllIDoIsCookUS (14 products)

Twitter Shops is only available to select merchants and managed partners in the U.S., according to Twitter’s blog post. Twitter isn’t charging brands to open a Shop.

What it looks like. A Twitter Shop contains a product image, product name, product type, and price. 

What Twitter says about Shops. “People are already talking about products on Twitter. We want Twitter Shops to be the home for merchants on Twitter where they can intentionally curate a catalog of products for their Twitter audience and build upon the product discussions already happening on our service by giving shoppers a point of action where a conversation can become a purchase.”

Why we care. Social commerce is one of those areas that brands would love to crack. Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks have rolled out similar shops. While Twitter has fewer users than those networks, it’s all about getting your product in front of potential customers, wherever they are. So if your target customers use Twitter, it may be worth testing out Shops to see if it can help drive any sales.

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Russia’s actions in Ukraine have prompted ad suspensions from nearly every platform that search marketers rely on to reach Russian audiences. At first, companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook started by restricting ads from Russian state media, but as the conflict continued, many have expanded those suspensions to include all ads that would be served to users in Russia.

Below is a list of platforms and their current policies with regard to the conflict in Ukraine. We will update this resource as platforms update their policies.

Search engines. Google and Microsoft Bing, the two leading search engines globally, have both suspended all ad sales in Russia.

• Google: On February 27, Google suspended ads from Russian state-owned media outlets. On March 3, the company expanded the suspension to include all ads serving to users in Russia.
• Microsoft: On February 28, Microsoft banned ads from Russian state-owned media outlets. On March 4, the ban was expanded to include all new sales of Microsoft products and services (not just ads) in Russia.

Microsoft Advertising powers ads on Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo! and AOL, so brands currently cannot advertise to users in Russia on those platforms either. While Apple doesn’t operate a search engine, it has suspended Search Ads on the App Store in Russia.

Yandex, which is headquartered in Moscow and the second-most-popular search engine in Russia, is still operating normally.

Social media platforms. Most social media platforms have also rolled out ad suspensions similar to the ones mentioned above.

• Meta: Facebook’s parent company paused ads targeting users in Russia on March 4. Several days prior, the Russian government announced that it would block its citizens from accessing Facebook, so ads may not have reached users anyhow. The company has not announced whether these changes will also apply to Instagram, but Meta has banned Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on any of its platforms.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft and is therefore included in the company’s ban on sales of its products and services in Russia.
• Twitter: On February 25, Twitter paused ads serving to users in Ukraine and Russia, citing the need to “ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it.”
• Reddit: On March 2, Reddit announced that it is not accepting advertisements “that target Russia or originate from any Russia-based entity, government or private.” The platform has also blocked links from all domains ending in “.ru,” Russia’s country code top-level domain.
• Snap Inc.: Snapchat’s parent company has stopped all advertising running in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the company announced on March 1.
• TikTok: TikTok has restricted access to Russian state-controlled media accounts, but it appears it has not stopped serving ads to users in Russia.

Why we care. Platforms are responding to the conflict in Ukraine by halting ads as a means to cut down on noise and misinformation, promote the right sources of information and avoid potential brand safety issues. Unfortunately for brands and their audiences in Russia, this also means that there are fewer channels they can use to reach those customers. Knowing which channels are still available to you can help mitigate the impact of these ad suspensions. 

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Twitter is launching three new ad products designed to improve performance for campaigns aimed at driving site traffic, the company announced Tuesday.

Site Visit Optimization is a new optimization goal for finding and serving ads to the audiences that are most likely to convert. Aggregated Measurement provides conversion metrics for audiences that have opted out of iOS tracking. And, the Events Manager is where advertisers can manage their Twitter Website Tag and associated web-based conversion events.

Why we care. During testing, Site Visit Optimization outperformed existing offerings and saw an average lower cost-per-site-visit of 31%, according to Twitter-funded advertiser tests. Results can vary, so testing it out for yourself can help you determine if it’s right for your brand or clients.

Aggregated Measurement may give advertisers a more detailed picture of their campaign results. With Aggregated Measurement, Twitter said it saw a 31% increase in attributable site visit conversions in Twitter Ads Manager, across advertisers. This feature may be an improvement for advertisers that have seen their attribution impacted by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. 

Site Visit Optimization. Twitter is introducing Site Visits Optimization, a new goal under the Website Traffic objective (formerly the Website Clicks & Conversions objective). This goal is designed to find and serve your ads to the audiences that are most likely to visit your site.

This goal uses Twitter’s Website Tag, which (when enabled) tracks actions that users take on an advertiser’s site so that they can be attributed to their Twitter campaign.

Aggregated Measurement. This feature is meant to provide conversion metrics (by counting events in aggregate) for audiences that have opted out of iOS tracking. Advertisers will be able to see an aggregated view of site metrics and conversion events within their Twitter Ads Manager Reporting.

Events Manager. The Events Manager is Twitter’s hub for managing Website Tags and their associated web-based conversion events.

The platform plans to integrate App-based events into Events Manager at some point this year.

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Twitter has launched Shop Modules, a dedicated section at the top of profiles where brands can showcase their products, as a pilot, the company announced Wednesday. The Shop Module pilot is currently rolling out with a handful of brands in the U.S., and only people in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iOS devices are currently able to see the module.

Why we care

Twitter hopes that Shop Modules will be “a feature that allows us to explore how shoppable profiles can create a pathway from talking about and discovering products on Twitter to actually purchasing them.” If the pilot is successful, Shop Modules may become widely available, providing brands with a new way to help audiences discover their products.

The user bases of social media platforms vary by factors like age, gender and education level. This new feature may be especially useful for B2C or D2C brands whose target audiences are particularly active on Twitter.   

More on the announcement

• The Shop Module is a carousel of products. Tapping on a product takes the user to the associated product detail page (in an in-app browser, so they aren’t leaving Twitter), where they can learn more and/or complete the purchase.
• The Shop Module pilot is currently not open for businesses to sign-up.
• “We’re creating deeper partnerships with businesses that reflect whom we’re building for with a new Merchant Advisory Board,” the company said in its announcement. The board will consist of “best-in-class examples of merchants on Twitter” and the company hopes to utilize this advisory board to address the needs of businesses of various sizes and across verticals in its own product innovation.

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