Twitter is one of the leading social media platforms for marketing purposes. You can find all the brands you use daily on Twitter, promoting their business. Roughly 60% of the continuously growing Twitter users follow small businesses and engage with their favorite brands. With millions of tweets sent out each day and a Twitter algorithm that keeps evolving and updating, it might be hard for your business to stand out. There are tips and tricks to increase the chance of your tweets being seen, but how valid are they?
This is where Twitter ads come in. Like Facebook or Instagram, Twitter introduced an advertising program for businesses to ensure their tweets and promotions are seen by their organic target users on the platform. There are steps to write a Twitter campaign and advertise with Twitter ads. But don’t worry. By the end of this blog post, you will learn about different types of Twitter ads and can run your first Twitter advertising campaign without hesitation.
Twitter Ads and Promote Mode
The first thing you need to learn about advertising on Twitter is that there are two methods. When you promote a tweet, it will appear in the Twitter stream and search results of specific users. Twitter ads are a slightly different approach. They are the official method of advertising on Twitter.
If you want to gain more impressions and engagement with your website, you can use promoted tweets. With this option, you pay a monthly fee for as long as you have promoted tweets. This is a great way to have more exposure and generate leads for your business. If you want to grow your follower count and build your audience on Twitter, Twitter ads are the right option.
In the following sections, I will explain the two and how to use them to promote your business and reach out to potential customers on Twitter.
How to Advertise on Twitter Using Twitter Ads
Follow this guide to successfully build an advertising campaign on Twitter:
1. Set up your Twitter ads account
In order to use Twitter ads, you first have to build an advertising account. Log on to your Twitter account and head to ads.twitter.com. Type in your country and time zone and click on Let’s go. This process will set you up with the Twitter Ads Manager, where you can use features like tracking your advertising campaigns and following analysis metrics.
2. Choose your advertising objective
After setting up your account, you have to choose the reason why you are advertising on Twitter. There are eight options to choose from. I classified them by motive and objective so you can have a clear view:
● Awareness
Reach: Choose reach if you want the highest amount of people to see your Twitter ad. You will be charged for every 1000 impressions in this option.
In-stream video views: choose this option if you want to promote a video ad. Twitter shows video ads at the start of videos from premium content partners. You will be charged for each video view.
● Consideration
Video views: video views are different from in-stream video views. In this method, your video or GIF will be posted as an independent tweet. You will be charged for each video view.
App installs: if the product you want to promote is an app, then choose this option. You will be charged not for each time your app is viewed but for each time your app is installed.
Website clicks or conversions: you can link your website to your Twitter ads with this method. You will pay per link click.
Engagements: if you want to increase engagement with your Twitter ads, you can choose this option. You will be charged each time a user engages with your tweet. Each user can engage with your tweet multiple times. But you will only be charged for the initial engagement per user.
Followers: this option is for building a follower base and increasing your follower count on Twitter. You will be charged for each new follower gained.
● Conversion
App re-engagements: You can choose this option if you want to motivate your customers who already have installed your app to open it and interact with it. You will pay per click.
After choosing your objective, you will be directed to the Campaign set up screen. Here you have to determine your budget. Once you have added all the information, click on Next.
3. Set up your ad group and bidding
When you are first starting with Twitter ads, it’s best to stick to one ad group. The more experienced you get with Twitter ads, you can organize and categorize your ad groups. You can split up your campaigns and test with different options and budgeting. You can also assign each ad group to different target audiences.
In this step, you have to give your ad group a name and set a starting and ending time for it. Then you have to determine the amount you are willing to pay for each interaction. Twitter has an automated bidding system. It will suggest how much is best for you to pay to get the best results from your advertising. Automate bidding gives you a good overview of how you should budget if you are new to advertising and bidding.
4. Target your audience
In the targeting section, you have to determine your target audience. Who do you want Twitter to show your ad to? First, you have to type in demographics like age, gender, location, language, and technology. If you have an email list of people you want to target, or people similar to the users with email addresses on your list, then you can also add that list.
5. Choose ad placement
Now that all information is prepared, you need to choose where you want Twitter to display your ad. You have the option to choose from user’s timelines, profiles and tweet detail pages, and search results.
6. Launch your campaign
You are almost ready to launch your campaign. Review all the information you added, and once everything is set, you can launch your campaign. Your Twitter ad is now up and running!
How to Advertise on Twitter with Promoted Tweets
So far, we have learned about posting ads on Twitter. We also know the difference between ad tweets and promoted tweets. Let’s move along and learn how to promote a tweet:
1. Select Promote mode from the campaign menu
We will start at the very beginning. The campaign menu from where we previously chose Twitter ads. This time you have to choose Promote mode. Click on Get started. Now click on Next on the top right corner of your screen.
2. Select your promoted tweet’s country and timezone
You can choose to promote your tweets in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan. Choose your country and then choose your desired timezone. Once you have done so, click on Next.
3. Choose “interests” or “locations”
Twitter can promote your tweets to users based on their interests or locations:
- If you choose to target your audience by interests, you will be asked to choose up to five interests provided for you. You can choose the interests based on your products and brand identity. The more interests you choose, the more people will be presented with your promoted tweet.
- If you choose locations to target your audience, you can use up to five locations in the previously mentioned countries to promote your tweets. You have to consider which locations you want to target based on your store location or places you offer your products and services.
4. Review your ad criteria and click or “Proceed”
Once you choose your desired locations or interests, you can go to the next level, where Twitter will show you an overview of your promotion request and billing. Review the information you put in, and once you are happy with the results, you can move on to the final stage.
5. Add billing information and run your promoted tweet
You will be asked to add your billing information in this last stage. Promoted tweets cost somewhere around $99 per month right now. Each time you add another promoted tweet, you will be charged separately for it.
After adding your billing information, you can click on Save and launch your promoted tweet!
To Wrap Up
Promoting tweets and advertising on Twitter is a great way to reach out to millions of users who might be your potential customers. Digital marketing made it possible for online and small businesses to be seen and heard way better than the traditional marketing methods. Twitter ads have helped many big and small businesses reach out to more potential customers, and I’m sure you can benefit from them as well!