Speaking at The Economist Group Conference in San Francisco, Twitter founder and CEO Dick Costolo revealed that the social network had generated more advertising revenue from its mobile incarnation that its desktop version for many days in the last quarter. Twitter only introduced ads to smartphone users’ timelines in February, so the news highlights the way in which mobile marketing campaigns can be quickly and successful integrated – as well as confirming the ever increasing popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets amongst consumers.

“We’re borne of mobile,” Costolo commented, when asked about Twitter’s mobile strategies. “We have an ad platform that already is inherently suited to mobile, even though we launched our platform on the Web and only started running ads on mobile recently.”

It is interesting that whilst Twitter’s mobile ad campaigns appear to be flourishing, their prime social media rival Facebook is frequently criticised for their equivalent offering. Facebook have stated that they hope to make improvements to their current mobile strategies, but as of yet they have not experienced the levels of success that Twitter is reaching.

Comparison between the advertising of the two platforms demonstrates both the positives and the pitfalls of mobile marketing campaigns. Mobile marketing is a valuable technique within the digital marketing industry, but only when it is done well. Campaigns that are too invasive or offer information that is not particularly relevant to the  audience will not provide the desired results, so it is important for marketing professionals to strike the right balance to ensure that their campaigns produce the desired results.