Social networks today offer a plethora of features for advertising. This is the case of Twitter, which makes Twitter ads available to companies. This advertising network makes it possible to design sponsored and targeted content to improve its visibility and find new prospects. To get the most out of this tool, you need to be interested and understand the different options it offers. We also recommend reading our article on 5 Pro Tips for Creating Twitter Ads.
Complete guide to advertising with Twitter ads
Before launching a campaign on Twitter, it is important to know the specifics of Twitter’s advertising network. Focus on the different features available to develop your notoriety and reach a new audience.
Contextual targeting reconciles consumers with advertising
What type of advertising to choose on Twitter?
Twitter ads offers three types of advertising. Each has different characteristics and aims to achieve specific goals.
Promoted tweets
Sponsored tweets are similar to classic tweets, except that the advertiser pays for the display of its content in the news feed (or timeline) of Internet users who do not follow it. They are offered to users according to their preferences. These tweets come with the basic features i.e. retweet, like and comment. They are accompanied by a mention “Sponsored”.
Twitter ads in the form of sponsored tweets are useful for expanding your target audience and improving your visibility. Note that they are only displayed a certain number of times on the accounts of the targeted tweeters in order to avoid flooding them with advertisements and scaring them off the social platform.
Example of a sponsored tweet. Image: Screenshot / Century Digital.
sponsored accounts
Sponsored accounts allow you to promote your Twitter account to targeted users who do not yet follow a brand, but who might be interested in what it has to offer. Like sponsored tweets, they are labeled “Sponsored”. This type of Twitter ads allows you to find new prospects as well as to develop your notoriety.
Sponsored accounts appear in the suggested accounts to follow box on a user’s profile. Image: Screenshot / Century Digital.
Sponsored Trends
On Twitter, trends are the topics tweeters talk about the most on the social network. On desktop, they appear to the right of the newsfeed. On mobile, they are in the Explore tab. Sponsored trends allow you to put one of these themes or hashtags at the top of the list of trends.
When the brand designs a sponsored trend, Internet users clicking on it access a list of tweets related to the theme. These are natural results. This is a way to naturally increase its visibility and improve the reach of its social media campaigns.
Sponsored Trends integrate with other Trends. Image: Screenshot / Century Digital.
The steps to post ads on Twitter
Twitter ads can be an effective tool for achieving lead growth and sales development goals. To achieve this, however, certain key steps must be followed.
Setting up your Twitter ads account
To start using the social network’s ads manager, you need to configure your Twitter ads account. To do this, you must first connect the Twitter account of your company or brand. It must be optimized with a profile photo, a URL or even a biography. If it has only just been created, you will have to wait a few days before accessing the advertising tool. You must then enter your time zone and click on “Start”. It literally only takes a few clicks. You can then start designing your advertising campaign to implement your web marketing strategy.
Choosing your goal
As on Instagram, the first factor to determine is the objective of its Twitter ads campaign. It is this that determines the types of commitments and the actions that will be invoiced. The social network offers several:
- Fameso that as many users as possible see his sponsored tweet;
- Conversionso that each Internet user who has already downloaded his application opens it again and uses it;
- Sponsored video viewswhen you want to improve its visibility;
- In-stream video viewsso that his video is broadcast at the beginning of Twitter partner content;
- Installing an appto increase the download rate;
- Traffic on its websiteto encourage Internet users to visit its site and take action;
- Commitmentto optimize the engagement rate of its sponsored tweets,
- Subscribersin order to expand its audience on Twitter.
Setting your ad group and bid
Twitter’s advertising system is built like a pyramid. A campaign contains different ad groups. We then define the allocated budget, the targeting, their time of distribution and their placement. Note that it is possible to target several audiences for the same campaign.
On Twitter ads, you must indicate the amount you are willing to spend for each interaction. This can be the engagement, the number of clicks or the number of views on a video. It is possible to manage the auctions yourself, or to automate them. The social network will then take care of defining the fairest and lowest price that will achieve good results.
Choosing where to place your ad
Once this step is done, it’s time to choose the location of your advertising. It can appear in the timeline of targeted users, on profiles and in replies to tweets or in search results.
Targeting your audience
Twitter ads comes with a powerful targeting feature. This allows you to choose the most appropriate audience. The first step is to determine the demographics of the targeted users. These are gender, age, geographic area and language spoken.
It is then necessary to specify the characteristics of its audience. Twitter’s advertising network offers the possibility of targeting Internet users according to the subjects, events, films and series that interest them. It’s even possible to do this based on the keywords they use or search for. An audience expansion feature is now available to attract users with similarities to its target.
To help us see more clearly, the interface reveals an estimate of the number of targeted users. It is updated in real time according to the options chosen.
Campaign launch
Finally, all the elements should be checked to ensure that you have not made any errors. Although it is possible to modify certain elements once the campaign is launched, a simple thoughtlessness can have a considerable impact on its social media marketing strategy. Once everything is ready, just launch your Twitter ads campaign.
This guide aims to be a starting point for any brand or independent professional wishing to design effective Twitter ads. To do this, however, it may be wise to call on a web marketing agency.
If you would like to know more about our areas of expertise within the Siècle Digital agency, do not hesitate to contact us using the form on our website shinemedia.fr