27/01/2020
IS YOUR BUSINESS TWITTING?
Twitter, also known as the “SMS of the Internet”, was founded in 2006and now has more than 300 million registered monthly active users whopost and read messages with up to 140 characters. Users can add links,
photos and videos to their tweets, include hashtags to help others findtheir message, and run polls within a tweet.For advertisers, Twitter offers a variety of ad types that can be tailored to differentcampaign objectives, from increasing website visits and sales to creating a biggerfollowing for a company’s Twitter account. Twitter also offers rich options to target aspecific audience, including demographic, interest and behavior targeting.
▶What ad types does Twitter offer?
Twitter organizes its different ad types by campaign objective: i.e., the action an advertiser wants a user to perform. Depending on which campaign objective you choose,the ad will be displayed in a different format, which Twitter calls “Cards.” For detailedtechnical specifications of the different card types, take a look at Twitter’sdocumentation. Here is an overview of the different campaign objectives you can choosefrom, and what the ads look like to the user:
▶Tweet engagement
Promote a new or existing tweet to your target audience. You pay for engagement withthe tweet, e.g., clicks, retweets, likes, follows and replies. If you prefer to maximize brand awareness and care less about engagement, you can book an Awareness campaign. Here
you pay for the number of impressions (CPM). You can attach up to four images to yourtweet. If you do this, only 116 characters are available for your Tweet, as 24 charactersare used for the images.
▶Video views
Embed a video in a tweet and promote it to your desiredaudience. Your videos will auto-play muted on scroll,encouraging users to tap or click to open the tweet andwatch. Twitter will show your ad as a “Video Card” thatconsists of your ad copy (max. 140 characters), a video, avideo title (max. 70 characters), and a video description (max. 200 characters). You pay for video views, which
Twitter defines as follows: “A view occurs when a video is atleast 50% in-view on the user’s device and has beenwatched for at least 2 seconds, or the user clicks to watch
the video in fullscreen.”
▶Grow your followers
If you want to promote your Twitter account and grow your follower base, this is the ad
type for you. Twitter suggests to your target audience that they follow your account, and
also indicates whether any of their followers follow your account. These ads show up in
the user feed and in the “Who to follow” sidebar on Desktop. You pay for every follower
the ad generates.
▶Website visits
Drive your audience to your website using this
campaign type. Twitter will display your message in a“Website Card” that consists of your ad copy (max. 116characters), an image and a website title/description(max. 70 characters). You will pay for website link
clicks.
▶Website conversions
This ad type makes use of the “Website Card” shown above, but optimizes campaigns for conversions such as purchases or downloads on your website. Advertisers have tointegrate the Twitter website tag on their site, so Twitter can track conversion. User dataabout interests and intent helps Twitter optimize the campaign delivery. Although theobjective is conversion, you still pay for website link
▶App installs and re-engagements
If your campaign objective is to generate downloads of yourmobile app or motivate people to open it again, this could be a
great ad type for you. This promoted tweet is shown as an “AppCard” which consists of an ad copy (116 characters), an image,the app name, price and rating (pulled from the app store), and acall to action button. You can choose to either pay for app linkclicks or app installs.
▶Lead generation
With the lead generation campaign type, you can createpromoted tweets that aim to collect the user’s emailaddress, so you can follow up with a newsletter or offer.
The Lead Generation Card includes your ad copy (116characters), a Call to Action button (20 characters), ashort description (50characters) and an image. If a userclicks the Call to Action button, Twitter will submit thename and email associated with the user’s Twitteraccount and show a customizable message (100characters). You pay for the number of leads generated.
▶What is the minimum budget to advertise on Twitter?
Twitter requires you to set up a maximum daily budget for your campaigns, after which
Twitter will stop distributing your ad. Optionally, you can also set a maximum budget for
the duration of the whole campaign. The cost of an action (defined by campaign type, as
explained earlier) depends on how much other advertisers, who compete with you for
the same audience, bid. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter does not ask you to
commit a minimum budget.
▶How to get started
To get started you need an active Twitter account. Go to Twitter Ads and you will be
prompted with a screen where you select your campaign objective. These objectives
match the ones we have discussed above. If you get stuck, have a look at Twitter’s