Twitter, which has recently started offering enhanced corporate pages to brands, is launching its new self-service advertising platform for small businesses.

The microblogging site said the initial roll-out of the platform will be confined to advertisers who accept or use American Express credit cards.

From late March, the new platform will allow small firms to take advantage of Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts products without the need to speak to a sales representative.

Until now, Twitter’s in-house staff have sold advertising products on a case-by-case basis, but the new system should allow for much higher numbers of transactions.

It will give greater creative control to advertisers, who will be able to write their own messages and set their own limits, as well as choose where the advert appears.

The self-service advertising platform, which was trialled last year with a number of selected businesses, will let small and medium-sized businesses “build their audience on Twitter and better engage with the people they want to reach”, according to the San Francisco-based company.

It is thought Twitter will only charge for advertising that results in some form of measurable consumer engagement, for example, if a person chooses to follow the brand, retweet the ad or click on a link.