Twitter Hires Ad Tech Veteran Bruce Falck to Rejuvenate Advertising Tools
Twitter TWTR 0.30% has hired advertising technology veteran Bruce Falck as its new general manager of revenue product, the company announced Thursday. He will report directly to the company’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey.
Mr. Falck joins Twitter from ad-buying technology company Turn, where he served as CEO since September 2015. Prior to Turn, he was chief operating officer at video ad company BrightRoll, and spent eight years working on various ad tech products at Google, including its display advertising network and ad exchange.
Mr. Falck’s appointment, along with recent updates to Twitter’s data policies, reflects a push to offer more targeted and measurable ad offerings for marketers. It also comes at a time when the company is facing increasing pressure from investors to grow its stagnating ad business.
Twitter’s revenue rose by 1% to $717.2 million during the first three months of 2017, representing its 10th straight quarter of slowing revenue growth.
Like most other online ad sellers, the social media company is battling the growing power of online ad behemoths Facebook and Google, which continue to suck up market share thanks largely to the strength of their user data and the huge audiences their services attract.
Twitter on Wednesday tweaked its privacy policies to allow it to store certain information about its users for 30 days instead of 10 days, and to share that data more liberally with partners. Those tweaks are designed to better personalize ads and other content on Twitter, the company said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Falck has a wealth of experience in helping to build and manage data-driven advertising tools designed for both sellers and buyers of digital advertising. At Twitter, he will be responsible for both engineering and product development related to advertising tools, the company said.
“I am very excited to be joining Twitter, one of the most important companies of our time. The team has made great strides in renewing their focus on products that are both valuable and differentiated for consumers and advertisers, and I am thrilled to have the chance to build on this momentum,” a prepared statement from Mr. Falck said.
