This past April, Twitter talked about allowing companies to advertise mobile apps within the Twitter mobile app timeline. These mobile app install ads were to be similar to the likes of Facebook and Google. A selected-few advertisers got to test drive this feature way ahead of time. It looks like it did quite well, because the service has been taken out of beta, and is now global.

This feature shows apps from the App Store and Google Play based on “interest, keyword, TV targeting and tailored audiences” as well as based on “gender, geo, language and mobile platform targeting.” I find the payment model particularly interesting: advertisers don’t have to pay until users click on a link. I’d say it’s a win-win. After all, advertisers will see exactly when and how the technology is working for them, and it could also be more lucrative for Twitter than a flat fee.

Once app promo ads are up and running, Twitter offers the publishers conversion tracking. This allows advertisers to measure the conversion impact of their campaigns, which includes initial installs and in-app conversion events. In an effort to better measure performance, Twitter turns to a few mobile measurement firms, including Adjust, AD-X, AppsFlyer, Fiksu, Grab, and Hasoffers.

This move was long overdue for Twitter. Facebook has been swimming in revenues from mobile advertising for quite some time now. Mobile ads now account for nearly 60% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue. But I guess I should give Twitter some credit for moving beyond promoted tweets, because their digital ad exchange, MoPub, now lets publishers work with multiple ad sources instead of just one.

BIA/Kelsey has estimated that social ad revenues will reach $7.6 billion by 2018 in the U.S alone. That’s an impressive amount, but with this new roll-out by Twitter, revenues can only get much higher.

Check out this vid to learn more about mobile app promotion on Twitter: