Complete Guide to Twitter Ads

As a brand, you might be confused on whether Twitter Ads can provide a good ROI for your marketing budget or pushing more money on Facebook Ads can deliver better business results.

Before kick-starting Twitter Marketing, it would be great if you can set clear the goals you need to achieve from the ads. Any marketing strategy implemented without a clear objective would fail to deliver results, and Twitter is no exception.

Why should brands leverage Twitter Ads?

Facebook & Google Ads are undoubtedly quite popular among marketers. So, it’s important to know the reasons why brands should leverage Twitter Ads:

• No Text Limit on the images

Facebook has a very powerful targeting back-end but the text limit of 20% sometimes can be a hassle. Communicating the message with call-to-action & brand logo might seem difficult sometimes. Twitter doesn’t have this limitation & this is a major advantage for running detailed offer ads.

• One-click seamless Lead Generation

Twitter Lead Generation Ads have a great advantage that it generates lead with one-click on Twitter, without the need for the interested audience to click & go to the landing page or a website. This reduction in the funnel length increases the conversion rate for your lead generation. Recently, Facebook has also launched its Lead Generation Ads on similar lines (currently this feature is only available through the Power Editor).

• Easy Ad interface

The Twitter Ads dashboard is simpler in comparison to the more complex Ads interface of Google. It requires practice & time before the Ads creation can be mastered. Facebook Ads interface can fall in between Google & Twitter.

• Target users based on Accounts followed

Twitter allows you to accurately target the followers of a particular account. This can be a great way to target the fans/customers of your competitors. Facebook allows you to target the fans of a page only if you are the page admin.

• Keyword Targeting

Keyword targeting feature is similar to Google Adwords where you can target people who have tweeted using certain keywords or have interacted with tweets containing those keywords. Broad, Phrase & Negative keyword targeting is allowed.

• Detailed Ad Content

Twitter has 140 characters restriction for tweets but you can leverage the Twitter Cards that allow you to add more text content along with links, quite similar to Facebook ads. We shall look at the different Ad types in the late section.

Different Type of Ads on Twitter

Twitter offers many different type of Ads such as Promoted Account, Promoted Tweet, Website Click/Conversion, App Install, Lead Generation, Promoted Trends and Video View ads. Let us have a look at each of these types below:

Promoted Account / Follower Ads:

When someone follows you on Twitter, you get the chance to engage with them over time. Studies show that followers just don’t follow you, the interactions with them benefit your business over a period of time. As per the Small Businesses Customer Insights Survey conducted by DBS, 70% users who follow SMBs provide free advertising via retweets & 43% will make purchases from them. This percentage can vary based on the quality of the follower you have & hence, it is important to acquire followers who can become your potential customers.

Before creating the ad, you should create a strong short description that focuses on why potential fans should follow your account. If you are an ecommerce player, you can showcases shopping deals. These ads will appear in the following places:

• Home Timeline
• “Who to Follow” widget on Home, Profile, Notifications & Search Results pages

Lead Generation Ads

The Lead Generation Ads are ads implement using the Lead Generation Cards. These Lead Generation Cards can be used to collect email addresses and qualified leads. It’s designed in a way that the user doesn’t have to click on the ad and go to an external website or a landing page. If interested in the offer description, the user can submit his information with one-click from within the Twitter App itself. His Twitter handle & email address is directly sent to you as soon as a user submits the lead. The Leads can be downloaded from the Twitter Cards dashboard.

Promoted Tweet Ads

The Promoted Tweet ads help amplify the reach of your tweets to a wider audience. This can help you get more engagement on your tweets & at the same time showcase your content to your target audience. These appear in the home timeline of the targeted users. The setup process of these ads are similar to the Promoted Account ads.

Website Clicks / Conversion Ads

The Website Click Ads are implement using Website Cards. The Website Cards are ad units which allow users to preview horizontal creative image, descriptive text, website Url & a big call-to-action in their timeline. You can also link the preview of your website in these website cards.

App Install Ads

With more than 75% users accessing Twitter from a mobile device, brands have a huge opportunity to tap & drive downloads for the mobile apps. An App card is to be created – it has title, description, app icon and the option to highlight features such as your App’s rating. It requires your App ID to submit the card. Once the card is ready, it can be linked to the app install ad. Users can install or open the App directly from the tweet.

Promoted Hashtag Ads

Trends that appear on the left side of your Twitter page is one of the most watched sections on Twitter. It’s a great way to keep a tab on current hot topics. Hence, promoted hashtag ads allow you to be in the right place & a perfect trigger to grab eyeballs, trigger conversations and launch new products/brands.

Platforms and Placements

The Twitter Ads allow you to select the location of the display of the ads to the targeted users. You can select to show the ads in their timelines or search results (in case of promoted tweets / app install ads alone). The platform selection is limited to iOS devices, Android devices, Blackberry phones, Desktops, Laptops & Mobile Web on other devices.

Targeting Options on Twitter

Targeting is undoubtedly an important part of the ad creation. Targeting the wrong audience can waste your marketing budget while proper targeting can help you have a great ROI and help you reach your objectives. The available targeting options on Twitter are discussed below:

Keyword Targeting

The Keyword Targeting Ads are used to target users who have either used the keywords in their tweets, engaged with tweets around those keywords or have searched for those keywords on Twitter. The matching options for each keyword are as follows:

• Exact Match – targets users who have searched for this keyword content & not as part of their tweets
• Broad Match – targets variations of keyword & any order of keyword
• Phrase Match – targets exact order & words in the keyword with no variations in the terms
• Negative Match – these keywords are excluded from the targeting
• Negative Phrase – targeting excludes all matches of the keyword in the exact order with no variations

When typing the keywords, Twitter will allow you to choose between the above options. You can also import a matching keyword or a phrase from another document. On the selection of the keyword & modifier type, Twitter gives an estimate of the audience size for that keyword.

Interest & Follower Targeting

This option allows you to target the users based on their interests and the accounts they follow. Interest targeting on Twitter is very wide hence, it is advisable to use only the popular interest that are recommended by Twitter. Follower Targeting is very accurate and is recommended. You can manually type the Handles you want to target (for example – @MurugappaGroup) or import the list of usernames from a document. You are not required to be a follower of the account you are targeting. On selection of the handles, Twitter provides you an estimate of the reach as well as the other suggested handles in the same reach. There is also an option of Lookalike Audiences through which you can allow Twitter to target users similar to the followers of handles you want to target.

Television

In recent times, leading Television Shows & News Channels have leveraged Twitter to engage with their audience. Twitter allows you to target users who engage with such TV Shows on Twitter. This is an option currently limited to few countries like US, UK, Italy, Spain, etc.

Tailored Audiences

From the ROI point of view, this is one of the best form of advertising on Twitter that allows you to target fans who have already interacted with your brand. This interaction includes visitors to your website and are more likely to convert. You can also use an existing customer database & import the Twitter-ids or mail-ids.

Location Targeting

The Location targeting feature allows you to select the geographical location of the users who you want to target. You can target a country or state or a city.

Tracking & Reporting – Metrics that matter

Now, the last but an important part of any ad campaign – measuring the performance and results of the campaign. The summary of your campaigns are displayed on immediately logging into your Twitter Ads account.

Some metrics that are important in terms of performance measurement are:

Impressions: The number of times a tweet or an ad has been displayed

Engagement: Action taken by users such as a follow, click or an install

Follows: The number of users who have followed your handle based on the ad

Spend: The total spend for the campaign (the cost per action would vary based on the campaign types and campaign goals)

Conversions: This shows the number of users converted (if you have used conversion tracking for your campaign). This is an important metric for Offer campaigns or for ecommerce players. For Follower campaigns, the conversions would show the number of followers gained for the promoted account.

Audience Interests, Demographics & Locations: This is an important metric to check the accuracy of your targeting. It shows the topics your acquired followers are interested in, their geographical locations, tweets they engage with (based on Interest cluster) and the demographics. The demographics data would be of real interest to brands that go after a niche audience say, only females or youth.

Twitter is not radically different from other ad platforms in its basics – you have got to be prepared with the details, run the ads & test to see what works for you. Deep dive into the reports and see whether your campaigns are delivering and what needs to be optimized. Keep a track on all campaigns regularly.

Note: This article was first published on the Social Beat blog.