• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, March 28, 2017

Trying to improve its revenue forecast, Twitter is going to start selling pre-roll ads against Periscope video.

At least for now, the new ad units will only appear before Periscope videos that run within Twitter’s platform, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday. 

“We’re extending our pre-roll program to include Periscope video on Twitter,” she said. “This is exciting for creators and publishers who now can monetize the content they create on Periscope and exciting for brands who now have more types of video to advertise against,” the spokeswoman added.

Brands familiar with Twitter’s Amplify ad program can expect to have the same level of control over these new pre-roll units, the social giant promises.

As its business outlook dims, Twitter is obviously in search of new revenue streams. For the first time, for instance, the company recently announced plans to host its own presentation during the Digital Content Newfronts. Along with other platforms and publishers, Twitter plans to vie for a piece of brands’ annual ad budgets, on May 1.

Twitter is also pondering a premium Tweetdeck-like service for professionals willing to pay for social insights.  

In the fourth quarter, Twitter saw revenue increase by just 1% to $717 million, year-over-year, while monthly active users were up just 4% to 319 million.

Worse yet, ad revenue totaled $638 million, down slightly year-over-year.

Analysts didn’t hide their disappointment with the once-high-flying company.

“Current quarter results were weaker-than-expected, with a big negative from what guidance implies about the coming quarter and the year,” Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser said in a recent investor note. “We are altering our long-term forecasts on the company and reducing our price target from $17 to $15 on a [year ending 2017] basis,” he said.