Twitter Advertising
A new billionaire owner, some controversial behind-the-scenes incidents, and a reduction in staff have not stopped Twitter advertising activities being extremely effective for companies looking to target audiences with short, sharp content.
Successful paid social campaigns on social media platforms such as Twitter are vital parts of your marketing mix and help to ensure your brand is present across multiple areas. So, if you’re thinking about advertising on Twitter, or are already in the process but are finding that you do not see the return you thought you would have. Then you’ll find this page useful!
We will provide a step-by-step guide to building out your campaigns plus education on what each option means and will look like. This in turn will help you to identify what is the best objective for your business to achieve your desired results. We’ve also included a few tips and tricks if your campaigns are struggling!
If you’re interested in this advertising platform and want to promote your business – be it B2B or B2C – to Twitter users then why not get in touch with our team today by phone at 0161 327 2635 or email at [email protected].
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Why Should You Create a Twitter Advertising Campaign?
There are still few social media platforms that have the pulling power of Twitter. Its ability to aggregate trending topics, interact with users be they large brands or small businesses, and mix the visual with the written word make it a potent network. All of those aforementioned benefits can help you drive meaningful traffic to your website and raise your brand awareness.
Twitter advertising is also a prime opportunity to carve out what you want your brand to sound like, too. Brands such as Wendy’s over in the States and KFC in the UK both use Twitter to create a recognisable and relatable tone of voice.
Twitter ads appear organically in a user’s feed meaning they sit alongside content from people they follow. This means that your ads cannot be ignored, swiped, or skipped, by users. Twin that fact with laser-focused targeting and you can rest assured knowing that you’ll always be seen by your target audience.
Being able to ‘mask’ your ads to look like normal organic content by choosing will go some way to increase click-through rates, especially if the tone of voice and content is in line with your brand personas.
They also have very specific targeting options which go past your usual demographic-based categories. With paid ad content on Twitter, you’re able to target users with your ads who may fall into the age, location and interest you’re targeting (for instance, 22-28 years old who are interested in sustainable women’s fashion and live in the northwest of England), as well as what device that individual is using.
Twitter is one of the most live social media platforms out there. When a World Cup match is on, Twitter is the place people go to talk about it, when a new film trailer is released, again, Twitter is the platform that people head to discuss and dissect it.
You can leverage this with your advertisements. You can create ads to feature specifically for key terms or topics that are happening in real-time. Similarly, if an individual is tweeting about a festival or large event, or even a popular conversation topic, you can target your ads at these topics.
Types of Twitter Advertisements
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Twitter Promoted Ads
You can create promoted ads on Twitter using the different media formats listed below.
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Only Text
These look like any other tweet published by a user. They consist of only text with no sort of creativity to add emphasis. The only difference is that promoted ads will have a little note at the bottom to let the user know it’s an ad.
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Single Image
Just like Facebook, Twitter allows single-image creative for advertising. This can be a great way to get your point across or educate users about your brand without eating into the 280 characters available.
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Carousel
Ads using this format can have up to 6 images or videos, where the users are able to horizontally swipe between the creatives.
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Video
Video is a great way to engage with your audience type, and capture their focus quickly. The max length of video you can use is 2 minutes and 20 seconds long, although Twitter strongly recommends using videos that are 15 seconds or less.
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Moments
Moments are different to the above as you have to create your curated moments on your Twitter profile and not on the ad account. You will be able to find this in the drop-down menu when you view your profile. From there you will be able to handpick which tweet you would specifically like for that exact ‘moment’. Once you’ve tweeted the link to your moment you will be able to select this as a promoted tweet just as if you were selecting a past tweet to essentially boost.
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Twitter Follower Ads
Follower ads can share some of the same media formats as promoted ads. However, a brand’s whole profile can be visible in the tweet which should include a clear simple CTA button labelling ‘follow’. The aim of this type of objective is to target users who know nothing about your brand and make you visible to them. You also only pay by following.
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Twitter Amplify
Twitter Amplify or as it’s categorised on the ads platform under the consideration campaign objectives as Pre-roll views. This objective allows advertisers the ability to collaborate their ads with premium video content created by other publishers. Twitter understood that brands wanted to connect with new custom audiences through videos that made the user want to connect with the brand. At the ad group level, you will have complete control over the 2 types of creative formats available to you.
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Standard categories
With this selection, you will only be able to select a common category and you won’t be able to be specific.
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Curated categories
Curated categories are where you can be specific within the category above. So for example, if you wanted to go for the sports category, by selecting curated categories instead you are able to select footie fans. Which can be great for people who may be running a campaign in line with the FIFA World Cup. It’s good to bear in mind that with both publisher formats you are able to download a full list of publishers, so if you find that there are some publishers you would not like to use either because their style doesn’t fit with your brand. You can exclude up to 50 Twitter handles.
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Twitter Takeover
This type of ad format will give you the biggest reach out of all the ad creatives. By selecting Twitter Takeover you are essentially taking over a user’s timeline and explore tabs. Like Twitter Amplify you have two types of takeovers – you can either take over an individual’s timeline or appear within a thread in the explore tab for those big conversation talkers.
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Timeline Takeover
If you want your ad to be the first thing someone sees when they open the app then this format is for you. You’re able to put your brand first before any news or trend that may have sparked their interest in the first place to go on the platform.
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Trend Takeover
The other option is to appear within the explore tab on the app where you can find out what’s trending right now. Your profile will appear within the list of topics curated for the user. However, if you want to have a bigger impact you can select Trend Takeover+, this will allow your brand to feature an image at the top of someone’s screen where you can strategically use an image/video to capture a user’s attention.
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Twitter Live
Like all other platforms that have launched a live feature on their app, Twitter’s is quite similar to the rest. The idea is that you are able to connect with your audience in real-time allowing them to comment and ask questions but also receive answers there and then. You can also push this through paid and reach past your current followers and connect with a large audience.
How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost?
The ‘cost’ of Twitter ads depends entirely on what objectives you have and how relevant the audience you are targeting is. It is one of the cheaper platforms to advertise on compared to LinkedIn and Meta, however, there is no simple answer to how much the ads will cost to host on Twitter.
There is also no minimum spend when selecting your campaign budget but we would advise you only spend what you’re comfortable with. The great thing about any paid social media platform is that you scale your budget up or down depending on your circumstances.
How to Set up an Ad Campaign on Twitter
If you’re wanting to learn how to set up your first campaign on Twitter ads, we’ve detailed a step-by-step guide below.
If you go into your ads account – you’re looking for the URL to start with ads.twitter.com/
In the top right-hand corner of your screen, you’ll be able to spot ‘Create Campaign’. Press this and you will be taken to the next screen.
There are two routes you can take, so we will go through both of them. If you’re wanting an easy set-up where Twitter essentially does it all for you, you’ll be taken to a screen where you’re offered 4 options and not as detailed as you would get with the advanced option.
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Ad Campaign Set Up: Simple
From here, you need to decide what you are attending to achieve with this campaign. Are you looking to reach new audiences, engage with people who are like your followers, increase your following or drive people to your website? Once you’ve figured out what you want to achieve you will be taken to the next screen.
For this example, we selected to increase our followers. This screen should be similar to the other objectives. Essentially this is where you are able to build out what your ad will look like. So this includes ad copy, creative and if driving people to your site – what link you will use (Just remember to add your UTMs first so you can track the traffic!).
Once you’ve finalised how your ad will look you will then need to decide on your targeting. As you can see below, you can select between age, gender and location, interests, lookalikes and whether the users are on their phone or desktop.
You will also need to decide how much you are willing to spend either each day or you can set a campaign maximum amount, which will mean Twitter will not spend more than that chosen amount over the timeframe you have selected.
Once you have everything filled out you’re good to go and set the campaign live!
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Ad Campaign Set Up: Advanced
Now, if you’re quite acquainted with other social media ad platforms then you will be able to dive straight in with Twitter ads.
As I mentioned above, the Simple account set-up only presents 4 campaign objective options, however, what’s great about Advanced is that you’re able to get to the finer detail which is why they offer 8 different campaign objectives.
These are split into three pillars: awareness, consideration and conversion. Once you’ve figured out what you are looking for, you can then go into the pillar and see what options are available to you.
As mentioned previously each option has a different look and feel on Twitter (please see types of Twitter ads to remind yourself before moving forward).
What’s different about simple is that you are giving more targeting and delivery capability.
For delivery, you’re able to choose how you define your end goal of the campaign. Within each objective you will be given different options – the below is for website traffic.
You also have the ability to control how your campaign spend will pace, now for important sporting events that only go over a short time span – you have the option to accelerate how often your ads will be shown to a user. This will in turn increase the frequency however this is only over a short period of time.
Again, you have all the normal demographic options like Meta, plus additional features like targeting users based on their device model. As we have previously mentioned on why you should be advertising on Twitter we have spine about all the options available to advertisers on the app.
Once your targeting is all sorted out, you can even pick and choose how you would like your ad to be delivered, so essentially you’re in control of whether you would like Twitter to push your ad out to further audiences based on the ad categories you choose below. This is an additional feature and you can opt-out if you wish to continue without.
Now time for the fun bit, you can curate your ads through engaging ad copy and creativity. This is where you will decide if you want to use a single image, carousel, or video or use an organic tweet.
Once you’re happy with how your ad is looking all you need to do now is review all the details and launch the campaign!
Twitter Ads: Best practices
If you’re wondering why your ads on Twitter aren’t performing as well as they could be or you’re looking for new account opportunities, we’ve listed a few hints and tricks below that you could start implementing in your campaigns now or going forward.
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Keep it short
First, take a look at your ad copy, is it too long? Is there a way you could reduce it and be more concise with the point you are trying to get across?
For new product launches it’s best to be short and simple, if using images let the picture do all the talking and back this up with a few words or sentences. You want to create conversations amongst your followers.
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Include a call to action
Sometimes users need to be told what to do in order to achieve their desired outcome. If you want people to follow your account, then tell them. Add a little snippet at the end on why they should follow you. What is the benefit to them of completing this action?
Quick actions like ‘Follow us..’ ‘Click the link..’ ‘Tag your friends..’. There are all these little action points you can include at the end of your ad to ensure your message is getting across to the end user.
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Avoid hashtags and @mentions
This one is especially important if your objective is not awareness. Hashtags can take away from the user what you are trying to achieve. As we said above a clear call to action is just as important as not adding in content to distract the user. The same goes for @mentions, if you don’t want people clicking on to their account is there a need to tag them? Probably not.
Focus on including links and clear CTAs in this case.
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Lean into video
It’s a known fact that all platforms favour video content due to the large growth in popularity of TikTok. Users are wanting to absorb content quickly, therefore it would be a good idea to include at least 1 video in each of your campaigns so you’re able to appeal to this market.
Try and get your point across within the first 5 seconds, you need a hook to keep the user engaged. Remember there is a population who will watch your videos with the sound off, so make sure you are able to connect with them.
Aim for a max length of the video to be 15 seconds, any longer and you are at a high risk of someone skipping your video and scrolling on. And, remember to make your brand clear, there’s no point in having an engaging super interactive video if the consumer doesn’t know who created it.
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Explore targeting options
For any ad account if this is your first time running a campaign for a particular objective, always start off broad. You want to be able to try and push your ad out to as many people as possible within a 2-4 week period. By allowing this amount of time you’re able to make more accurate decisions based on all the data available. You might find that what you thought your audience was is actually very different to what it actually is.
After this period you will be able to narrow your targeting down based on what you have found out. If you’re a menswear fashion brand and you have found that the users that have most engaged with your ads are interested in ‘reality TV’ then you know you can build out a campaign targeting people who may like Love Island, The Circle and I’m a Celebrity.
Essentially you can narrow this down further by delving into the data you gather from this campaign, which could show you that most of your consumers are engaging/driving traffic when viewing on a desktop. Therefore, you know to create another ad set where you only target desktop users.
The Future of Twitter Ads in 2022 and Beyond
We would be burying our heads in the sand if we ignored the fact that, of all the social media advertising channels, Twitter has been in the news over the past few months for almost always the wrong reasons.
Sacking half the staff, predictions of millions fleeing the app over the next two years, and emboldening some of the nastier parts of the internet, Elon Musk’s time as owner has been controversy after controversy. This constant noise presents an issue to brands about whether to actually use Twitter as a platform for their social media marketing.
In truth, we at Embryo don’t know what the future for Twitter is. This time next year, the platform could be the all-encompassing X app that Elon wants it to be, or it could cease to exist.
And despite all that is going on there, Twitter advertising is still an effective marketing channel (when it forms part of something wider, don’t put all your eggs into the Twitter basket). There are millions on there scrolling, retweeting, and liking content and the opportunity to go viral with witty, relevant content is just too great.
Despite Its Problems, a Twitter Ad Campaign Is Still Worthy of Investment
Be a business that knows what’s trending, be one that can network with influential Twitter users, and be one that can target keywords which are being used by the people who are likely to buy your goods.
At Embryo, our paid social team have run Twitter marketing campaigns for years, for dozens of companies. We understand the issues surrounding the platform but passionately believe it is still a very effective way to brand your business.
Speak to Our Team about Advertising on Twitter Today
If you have questions about how we achieve your advertising objectives through Twitter then feel free to get in touch. You can tweet us, at @embryodigtial, call us on 0161 327 2635, or email us at [email protected].
I'd recommend Embryo to anyone looking for digital marketing services. I've worked with Embryo on a wide range of tasks and can truthfully say the team will unfailingly go above and beyond to help you out. They're genuinely knowledgeable, talented people really willing to help.