• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, February 20, 2013

Twitter on Wednesday announced the long-awaited opening up of its Ads API, a step expected to expand advertising on the microblogging platform and accelerate the company’s revenue growth.

In connection with the move, Twitter has named five launch partners that will initially provide the tools for creating and managing campaigns on the site: Adobe, Salesforce.com (which acquired Buddy Media), HootSuite, SHIFT and TBG Digital.

“What this means is that as marketers, you’ll soon have the ability to work with our initial set of Ads API partners to manage Twitter Ad campaigns -- and integrate them into your existing cross-channel advertising strategies,” stated a blog post today by April Underwood, product manager, revenue, at Twitter.

Software created by the Ads API partners should enable brands and agencies to develop and optimize campaigns that reach the target audience with the right message at the right time across desktop and mobile devices at scale.

Twitter is following the same playbook that helped Facebook build its ad business, when it launched its own Ads API in 2009 and established a set of ad partners that now include the five companies chosen by Twitter. LinkedIn also  introduced an Ads API program in November.

TechCrunch last month predicted that Twitter would soon take the same step. Until now, marketers either had to use the company’s self-serve option or work with its direct sales force to place advertising. The process of making ad buys and tracking campaigns should now be more efficient.

HootSuite, for example, said that in relation to Twitter opening up its Ads API, it would now allow brands to quickly buy, publish and analyze Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts from within its dashboard. Similarly, Salesforce.com announced a new Social Ads Platform for Twitter that will let clients run and manage Twitter campaigns in real time within its Marketing Cloud product.

In addition, Twitter said its Certified Products Program would be expanded in the coming months to include ad products that integrate with the Ads API and improve marketing efficiency and ROI. The company has begun screening the next group of ad partners, which vendors can apply for here.

For comparison, Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer program, which encompasses expertise in ads, apps, analytics and brand pages, has grown to more than 300 partner firms.