Twitter's MoPub just beefed up its native ad platform

Twitter’s digital ad exchange MoPub now lets publishers work with multiple native ad sources instead of just one.

The company is calling this ability “network mediation for native ads.” What that means is that previously, if a MoPub mobile app publisher wanted to advertise on more than one ad network, it would have to expend time and resources managing those multiple networks. “Today, publishers can manage multiple ad networks for native ads directly through MoPub with one [software development kit],” Twitter wrote in a blog post.

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Native ads are ads designed and formatted to blend in with surrounding content, like camouflage. The most widespread example of native advertising is on Facebook, which inserts sponsored posts into people’s news feeds alongside updates from their friends and pages they’ve liked.

The move to native advertising on mobile is part of a big trend that we’ll be featuring at MobileBeat 2014, in SF on July 8-9. Indeed, Paul Gelb, Twitter’s head of marketplace development, and former Mopub executive, will speak at the event.

MoPub launched its native ad program in April, so this new offering is an expansion of that service. Here’s a list of MoPub’s new features from the press release:

• Work with multiple ad networks for native ads instead of committing to a single ad network
• Access multiple native ad sources with a single SDK and easily switch between networks with built-in mediation control features
• Automatically prioritize networks based on performance for different parts of your inventory

Twitter acquired MoPub last fall for a purchase price of $350 million in stock.

MoPub has been a big player in digital advertising for some time with a standard ad exchange for banner ads. Although native advertising is a newer area, it’s already saturated with startups. TripleLift, TapSense, Outbrain, Polar, and Sharethough are comparable firms occupying the same space.