Wait: Are you investing a lot of $$$ in Facebook ads, but never considered promoted tweets through Twitter ads?
If that’s you and you want to know what you could be missing, keep reading!
No matter what type of brand you have, social media marketing is increasingly important. After all, consumers spend a lot of time on social media, and these networks are a bigger source of information (and product advice) than ever. However, Twitter is a network that has lost its cool factor as young people seem to gravitate elsewhere and the platform becomes more political.
However, just because Twitter isn’t as cool as it used to be doesn’t mean it isn’t a great marketing tool. Twitter is a powerful social media platform with more than 320 million active users. If you’re not using Twitter for your marketing efforts, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. One of the most effective ways to use Twitter for marketing is through promoted tweets. In this article, we’ll explain what Promoted Tweets are and how you can use them to boost your Twitter marketing strategy.
Further reading: The 21 best Twitter user stats for 2022 to guide your marketing strategy
3 different ways to advertise on Twitter
There are three different ways to advertise on Twitter. Each of them has different uses and is formatted differently. Keep in mind that you can use multiple types per campaign.
Promoted trends
Twitter offers Promoted Trends (also known as Trend Agreement) as a way for businesses to reach a large pool of potential customers. Promoted trends appear at the top of the list of trending topics on Twitter and are clearly marked as promoted. When a user clicks on a promoted trend, they will see tweets from both businesses and regular users related to the trend. Promoted trends are an effective way to reach a large audience on Twitter and they can help increase brand awareness and generate new leads.
This option has a distinct advantage: it allows people to see the conversation about the trend that has been promoted. For this reason, it is easier to deliver your brand message without having to convert it into another type of content, for example. Your audience will also see real feedback from happy customers.
Promoted Accounts
Promoted Accounts (also known as Follower ads) are Twitter accounts that businesses and organizations pay to promote to users’ timelines in certain countries. Promoted accounts appear in the same format as any other Twitter account and can be promoted to people who don’t already follow the promoted account. Promoted Accounts must comply with Twitter’s rules, and Promoted Tweets from Promoted Accounts must comply with the Twitter Ads Terms of Service. Promoted accounts are labeled as “Promoted” when they appear in timelines on Twitter.com, Twitter for iPhone, and Twitter for Android. Promoted accounts also appear on some partner websites. Promotions for Promoted Accounts are separate from Promotions for Promoted Tweets.
As you can imagine, promoting an account you control is a good way to grow your followers. Plus, you’ll get more engagement because more people see your Tweets. While this method can work well in many situations, an especially good time to use it is when you’re launching a new product or related brand.
Further reading: 14 Twitter bio ideas to attract more followers
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Tweets are tweets that Twitter users pay to promote on other users’ Twitter feeds. By paying to promote their tweets, advertisers hope to reach a larger audience and generate more engagement (likes, retweets, etc.). Promoted Tweets typically appear at the top of a user’s feed and are clearly labeled as promoted content. While some users may find promoted tweets annoying, others appreciate the exposure to new products and brands. Either way, promoted tweets are here to stay – so be it best to learn how they work.
Fortunately, Promoted Tweets are easy to use and (relatively) non-intrusive, especially compared to banner ads. Like ads at the top of a Gmail page, it’s easy to scroll away from Promoted Tweets if someone isn’t interested and the Tweet won’t be visually distracting.
Just because there are sponsored Tweets options doesn’t mean you can blindly buy them and expect results. Like everything else in social media marketing, and indeed marketing in general, you need to plan ahead. Here are ways you can try and maximize your ROI.
Choose your business objective
Before buying Promoted Tweets of any kind, it’s important to know what your business objective is. For example, you may find that you want to increase brand awareness through Twitter. If this is what you want, then promoting your account can be a good way to do it. On the other hand, if your goal is to get people to take advantage of your Black Friday sales, Promoted Tweets are a great option because you’ll be publishing a Tweet about the sale.
Here’s a look at Twitter’s current ad offerings broken down by objective:
Know your audience
You will need to specify who you want to target, so knowing your audience will allow you to target better and have more effective advertising. In marketing, we call this buyer persona, and there’s a chance you’ll have more than one if your product line is diverse enough. For example, a computer company has a buyer person for buyers of business machines, gamers and for home users.
However, there is a little more to knowing your audience than your buyer persona. You need to know what kind of Tweets they are most likely to respond to. A busy executive may not like to be drawn into the promoted trend. Finally, you should avoid pitfalls that will make you sound dull or offend your audience. Analytics does this better than anything.
If you’re not familiar with audience targeting in Twitter ads, here’s a snapshot of what’s possible:
Select the Tweet(s) you want to promote.
Once you’ve decided on your goals, it’s time to choose your Promoted Tweets. You can use a new Tweet, choose something from the recent past, or use some evergreen content. For example, now with the world in turmoil, something uplifting can be a great driver of brand awareness.
Of course, it’s important to remember those Promoted Tweets the same rules must be followed like everyone else. For example, you still only get 280 characters and still have limitations on features like thumbnails. Then again, if your goal is to drive site traffic through links, Twitter is one of the best places to do that.
Further reading: How to find my best Tweets – and those of my competitors – on Twitter?
Customize your Promoted Tweets where you want them to appear
Next, you want to make sure your Promoted Tweets match your goals and are delivered to the people you want. For example, you’ll want to write some new Tweets to attract that audience. Additionally, you must select the desired reach within the Twitter Ads console. For example, you can choose men aged 50-65, or women who like luxury travel. Another approach could be to serve your ad to people who are interested in a competitor as a way to draw their interest in your direction.
Of course, it is also possible to cast a wide net. For example, during the presidential election every four years, you’ll see political ads targeting the entire country. As a result, you will usually see ads from both sides. Or, during the “back to school” season, most retail brands do a lot of advertising for just about everyone, since even people without kids can take advantage of the discounts. Ultimately, however, your goal is to maximize ROI by choosing the right people to receive your Promoted Tweets.
Include a Call to Action
Advertising isn’t much good if you don’t get people to take the desired action. On Twitter, this often involves clicking through to a landing page. Alternatively, some Promoted Tweets may require a follow or a share. Once again, political Tweets provide a good example: lobbyists and special interest groups are always asking people to share their Tweets with their friends. The algorithm only goes so far!
Of course, some calls to action are harder to track, such as checking out a sale in-store or online. While landing pages will help determine that people are shopping online, they don’t work for in-store purchases. Likewise, there are situations where direct tracking is more difficult, such as recruitment advertising. Either way, make sure your CTA aligns with your overall business objectives.
Further reading: 7 Incredibly Effective Ways to Write Traffic-Driven Tweets
Do A/B testing
To get the best bang for your buck, it’s important to do A/B testing. This technique analyzes two separate pieces of content and sees which should be more effective. In the case of Promoted Tweets, proper A/B testing should consider both body text and hashtags. Sometimes you can drastically increase ROI with a few small changes.
Measure and optimize results
Finally, you’ll want to measure the results of your Promoted Tweets so you can improve them later. For many companies, measuring results involves using a social media marketing group or dashboard. This is especially true because there are hundreds, even thousands, of data points across platforms. And part of measuring results involves defining a data point or two.
Want an example of how this works? Hootsuite did an experiment to see which Promoted Tweets performed better, choosing between Tweets that had a photo, versus one with a link preview. Their result was that including a picture gets better results. Of course, as with anything, your mileage may vary.
Further reading: How to make better use of Twitter cards to generate more traffic from your tweets
Conclusion
As you can see, Promoted Tweets are a bit more complicated than most people outside of the marketing world would think. Fortunately, by following these seven steps, you can get better results in the short term as well. Then, be sure to track your results and adjust for better performance next time.
Heroic photo by Ravi Sharma on Unsplash
