Advertising with Twitter Ads: that’s how it works!
Twitter Ads offers the possibility to bring your message to the attention of your target group in a very targeted way. As an advertiser, you can target a target group by, for example, specifying usernames, interests, keywords, or locations. In recent months, Twitter has been pushing the ability to advertise quite a bit. But how does advertising on Twitter actually work? And how do you set up Twitter Ads? In this guide, we provide practical tips for setting up an ad campaign on Twitter.
Table of Content
Two Twitter Ads Ad Types
An ad campaign on Twitter comes in two different forms:
- Promoted accounts. This form aims to generate more followers.
- Promoted tweets. These can be promoted organic tweets, existing tweets for better exposure, as well as promoted-only tweets. The latter form consists of tweets that have not been previously published. Promoted-only tweets can be enriched with a Card: an extra functionality such as a call to action (CTA) button.
Five Twitter Ads Campaign Goals
Twitter offers five pre-formulated objectives. It is also possible to create your own custom campaign. We briefly explain the five objectives formulated in advance. We also indicate where the ads will be visible and what happens when a user clicks on the ad.
1. Generate Followers
- Goal: increase your community on Twitter
- Type: promoted accounts
- Visibility: under tweets in the timeline and as an account under ‘Who To Follow’
- Action: the user is redirected to your Twitter account (don’t you follow automatically after clicking?)
- Extra functionality: a ‘Follow’ button appears
2. Generate website clicks and conversions
- Goal: generate more traffic to your website
- Type: promoted-only tweets
- Visibility: tweets in the timeline and in search results
- Action: The user is redirected to your website
- Extra functionality: a CTA button will appear on your website
3. Generate Tweet Interactions
- Goal: reach more users and stimulate conversation
- Type: promoted tweets (organic or promoted-only)
- Visibility: tweets in the timeline and in search results
- Action: none, functions as a normal tweet
4. App Installs or Interactions
- Goal: more downloads from your mobile app
- Type: promoted-only tweets
- Visibility: tweets in the timeline
- Action: The user will be sent to your app download page
- Extra functionality: a CTA button appears with the download link
5. Generate leads on Twitter
- Purpose: to collect email addresses from potentially interested parties
- Type: promoted-only tweets
- Visibility: tweets in the timeline and in search results
- Action: the user forwards his email address to you
- Extra functionality: a CTA button appears with the registration link
Also Read: 7 Tips for a Good Twitter Profile
Ten Twitter Ads Audience Variables
Twitter Ads offers extensive targeting options. Choosing a target group is very important, of course, you want your message to reach the right people. Below we provide a detailed description of the various targeting options.
1. Location
With location targeting, you can set countries, regions, or zip codes that you want to reach. A bicycle repair shop in Utrecht can use this method to target its campaign specifically at users in Utrecht. After all, a user in Limburg does not benefit from a bicycle repair shop located in Utrecht.
2. Gender
Thanks to the possibility to target by gender, you ensure that your campaign is only visible to men or to women. Are you planning to start a campaign for your online women’s clothing store? Then make sure that your ads are only visible to women.
3. Language
Language targeting helps you reach users who speak a particular language. This function comes in handy for a Dutch-language campaign.
4. Devices, Platforms, and Carriers
This feature allows you to tailor your campaign to users of a particular phone type, operating system, or phone provider. For example, as an iPad game developer, you can target your campaign specifically iPad Air users who are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
5. Keywords
Targeting keywords ensures that your promoted tweets appear in the search results. You can also reach users who have recently tweeted or otherwise interacted with the topic by entering keywords.
For example, a car dealer might enter the keyword ‘test drive’. This way he reaches everyone who searches for ‘test drive’, something about a test drive tweet, and everyone who has responded to a tweet with the word ‘test drive’.
6. Add Followers
By adding handles (usernames like @Outreach_way ) you can reach users with the same interests as the followers of these handles. For example, you can add a watch brand as a handle and thus reach everyone who is interested in watches. The reach of this option, therefore, goes beyond just the followers of the respective watch brand.
7. Interests
User interests are determined by Twitter itself. An interesting profile is composed of a user’s bio, tweets, and following profile. A user can be interested in several topics.
8. Custom Audiences
Custom Audiences allow you to build your own audience through audience management. This can be done on the basis of usernames, email addresses, telephone numbers, or advertising IDs. This function is only interesting for very specific and well-defined target groups.
9. TV Targeting
TV targeting allows you to target your ad campaign to users who are interested in certain channels, TV shows, or genres. A sports store may target its campaign to sports talk show enthusiasts and a news site may target avid news watchers.
10. Exclude Audiences or Behavior Types
All the above options are aimed at composing and expanding a target group. However, it is also possible to exclude certain target groups.
Budget and duration of Twitter Ads
You can set the budget of your Twitter Ads campaign in several ways. You pay per click on your ad and not per view. Recently you only pay for clicks from unique users, so it costs nothing extra if one user clicks on your ad multiple times.
1. Set a daily maximum
With this option, you can set a maximum amount per day. When you bet a low amount, your ad will be shown less often to your target group. The budget is reset daily at midnight. Setting a daily maximum is mandatory.
2. Set a bid
It is recommended to have a bid set automatically. Manually setting a bid ensures that you don’t pay more than a click is worth in your eyes, but it can also ensure that your ad is shown less often. The campaign with the highest bid is shown first.
- Do you have the highest maximum bid? Then your ad will be shown the most. In addition, you probably pay less than your maximum set bid: you pay just a little more than the second-highest bid.
- Keep track of how fast your budget is running out. Is your daily budget going through it quickly? Then play with the amount per click. If you reduce the amount and you see that you still easily spend the budget, you can safely reduce it again.
3. Pacing Options
Pacing options allow you to set the pace at which your budget is spent. By default, the pacing is set so that your ads are evenly distributed throughout the day. You can also choose to show the ads as much as possible after midnight.
4. Set a total budget
Setting a total budget is not mandatory. It ensures that no more ads are shown when your maximum budget is reached. So you never spend more than you had in mind. It is also possible to leave this field empty and enter an end date yourself.
Analyzing the results of Twitter Ads
Have you successfully launched a Twitter Ads campaign? Congratulations! Now it is time to start measuring the results. Twitter offers the possibility to view statistics of your campaigns within your business account.
- For example, you can measure the CTR (Click Through Ratio) and deduce which tweet, which handle, or which image causes the highest CTR. You can take this into account in future campaigns.
- In addition to the CTR, it is possible to measure the conversion of Twitter Ads. To do this, place a piece of code on the target page of your campaign, for example on the ‘thanks for your purchase’ page of a webshop. The code notifies Twitter Ads that a conversion has taken place.
- Twitter recently announced that it is possible to measure the total amount of conversions in addition to the number of conversions. This feature makes it easy to evaluate the ROI of Twitter Ads.
Need help setting up Twitter Ads or analyzing the results? Contact Outreach Way, we are an online marketing agency, and will help you take your Twitter Ads campaign to the next level!
