FIRST LOOK: Cool Stuff Inside Twitter's New Advertising Interface

Twitter recently allowed just five companies to build new interfaces for Twitter's Ads API, the interface that allows advertisers to plug in promoted tweet ad campaigns automatically to Twitter.

The move was potentially the beginning of a huge transformation for Twitter, a platform seen as an interesting but small-scale social media add-on for many marketers.

Now, with automated, en masse buying made easier, Twitter is poised to move to the core of any large advertiser's budget — in part because of its close association with TV.

TV watchers like to tweet, and activity on Twitter closely reflects stuff that's happening on TV.

TBG Digital gave us a first look at the dashboard it has built for Twitter's Ads API. The company — already one of Facebook's largest ad buyers — believes advertisers will want to buy campaigns on Twitter to augment their TV advertising. (After all, what's the point of buying a Super Bowl ad if no one tweets about it?)

The TBG Twitter tool also allows advertisers to time their campaigns so they can hijack, or ride on the coattails of, anything else that's happening on TV, too — much as Oreo did when then lights went out at the Super Bowl in February.

Here's how it works.