Twitter is a popular social network in the U.S, with an audience reach of 77.75 million users, and a global advertising audience of 187 million.
So, how does a business take advantage of this pool of prospects and customers, to successfully target, advertise to, and convert them to paying customers? By advertising on Twitter’s platform, of course!
How to Advertise on Twitter
The first step to advertising on Twitter is creating a Twitter ads account. Go to Twitter.com and log into the account you’d wish to promote tweets from. Once logged in, go to ads.twitter.com. This is where you’ll set up an ads account that you’ll use to set up advertisements, run them, and analyze performance. A Twitter ads account is mandatory.
The ads account will be connected to the Twitter handle you created it from. So, if your business has a business Twitter account, and you have a personal account, be sure to create an ads account from the business handle. Anytime you promote a Tweet, you’ll notice a “promoted” tag from your Twitter ads account handle.
There are some basic things to watch out for when filling in details in your ads account. You cannot change country and time zone details after creating an ads account. So, make sure that you select the country whose currency is your billing preference, and the time zone that’s relevant to your target audience. These things cannot be changed.
You’ll also need to protect your account from unauthorized access. To do this, link the ads account to your company domain email address, choose a strong and unique password, then set up two-factor authentication.
Phishing scams are also quite rampant. In 2020/2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported 241,324 incidents of phishing scams, causing losses of up to 54 million U.S dollars. A phishing scam happens when a scammer uses email or text messages to trick you into giving personal information that leads to theft of passwords and account numbers, among other details.
To protect your Twitter account, always confirm that the URL is https://twitter.com/ before entering your username and password. Avoid clicking links in emails you don’t recognize, and only authorize recognized applications. You can always track all connected applications at the accounts applications page.
How Much Does It Cost to Advertise on Twitter?
How much you pay to advertise on Twitter is up to you! However, your ad budget may have a direct impact on your results. Fortunately, you can customize your ad campaigns to always fit within your budget.
Twitter ads are based on three models: bids, auctions, and billable actions.
Billable Actions
Twitter will only charge you when your campaign objective and ad group goals are achieved, by the target audience taking the desired action.
For example, you’ll only be billed when someone installs your app if you chose the App Installs objective.
Bids
How much are you willing to pay Twitter for a billable action? Twitter will put your campaign up against advertisers targeting the same audience, and the advertiser with the higher bid has a higher chance of their campaign taking off. Remember to set a budget!
Auctions
All advertisers bid on the available ad space and the target audience, and how much they spend will be dependent on how engaging the ad is, how much you bid, the number of competing advertisers, and the size of your desired audience. A budget also works for this option, but you might need to increase it if you want to reach audiences that are in high demand. They usually cost more.
Advantages of Advertising on Twitter
Social media platforms are great avenues for promoting your business, but Twitter stands out for a few reasons:
- You only pay when your objectives are met. Through the Billable Actions objective, Twitter allows advertisers to only pay when their objectives are met.
- Twitter offers a better Click Through Rate (CTR). Studies have shown that Twitter advertisements have a 40% higher Return on Investment (ROI) than other social media platforms.
- You can target specific keywords or hashtags. While other social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, allow you to target audiences based on interest in topics, Twitter allows you to target by specific hashtags or words. This makes audience targeting more specific.
- Going viral on Twitter is easy. All you need is interesting content and massive retweets. Twitter seamlessly blends promoted tweets into user feeds, making commenting, mentions, liking, or retweeting simple.
- Twitter also offers more meticulously tailored audiences. You can target your ads toward Twitter users who follow specific accounts. For example, you can target your competition’s audience, just make sure that you have a better value proposition.
Best Way to Advertise on Twitter
You can advertise on Twitter in five main ways. Through text ads, image ads, video ads, moments ads, and carousel ads.
Text ads are similar to usual Twitter content, comprised of 280 characters, that can be liked, replied to, favorited, retweeted, or commented on. There’s no room for mistakes, as you only have these few words to convince your target audience to take the desired action.
Image ads include a tweet copy of 280 characters and a PNG or JPEG image of up to 5 MB. GIFs are acceptable but will render as static images, so it’s better to get a high-quality JPEG or PNG. Combine great copy with a clear call-to-action with engaging images, for a high-performing advert.
Video ads are best when you need to capture your audience and tell a story. For the best results, combine your 280 characters with an MP4 or MOV video of under 30MB, although up to 1 GB is accepted. Twitter allows up to 2:20 minutes, but try to keep it as short as 15 seconds or less, and include text overlays.
Moment ads are perfect when you need to tell a story and share different perspectives. It’s one of the ways to evoke emotion and tell a brand story. Combine 280 characters of copy with carefully selected and curated moments to induce the desired emotion from your prospects.
Carousel ads give you up to six images that can be swiped horizontally, to tell your brand story and drive traffic to your app or website, all in one ad. This is the best way to showcase your portfolio quickly. Video carousels should be 800 x 450 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio, while image carousels should be 800 x 418 and a 1.91:1 aspect ratio.
Advertising on Twitter Is Easy
Advertising on Twitter is as easy as setting up an ads account that’s connected to the relevant Twitter account. Setting an ads budget and deciding on the most favorable cost model help you maximize your investment. Bids, auctions, and billable actions are all great choices for how to reach your audience, but ensure that you stay within budget. Finally, decide on the type of advert that will best serve your purpose, then get out there and promote your post!
