Why You Should Consider Advertising on Twitter
On average, Twitter users shop online 6.9x a month, while non-users shop online just 4.3x a month.
And there’s particularly good news for smaller businesses: Twitter reports that 60% of users purchase from an SMB.
Beyond direct conversion, Twitter is a popular resource for customers along the purchasing funnel.
Nearly half (49%) of female Twitter users say Twitter content has influenced their purchase decisions –– while only 7% have made a purchase through Twitter.
On the other hand, 17% of men reported in a BigCommerce survey that they’d purchased something directly from a Tweet in their timeline.
The data speaks for itself: Twitter is prime real estate for brands wanting to increase conversion, revenue and social proof (e.g., customer reviews via social media).
The advertising platform represents a wide variety of interests and demographics, and is particularly relevant for college-educated audiences under 50.
Some 36% of Twitter users visit the site daily, with 22% saying they go on Twitter several times a day.
We’ve broken down exactly what you need to know to start advertising on Twitter and generating brand awareness, new customers and ROI for your brand.
Your Twitter Advertising Options
Twitter offers objective-based campaigns, in which brands only pay for the actions that align with their goals and expand their reach.
Those goals are often to gain:
For the most part, website click campaigns are the most effective for retailers.
With this option, Twitter users can follow your brand from a promoted post/ad as well as immediately click through back to your site.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what that is and how it works.
A website clicks or conversions campaign allows you to use a website card or an app card with your promoted tweets.
Similar to website cards, image app cards offer a choice of call-to-action (CTA) buttons, an image and a headline to let you drive traffic to your site directly from a tweet.
Promoted tweets with image app cards drive 43% more engagement than just tweeting out a link.
You can also use a basic app card, which removes the image in place of a custom icon image.
Here is an example provided by Twitter.
With both options, you’ll only pay for clicks to your website, and you can set up online conversion tracking to see every dollar spent.
You can also set up remarketing based on people who have already visited your site.
Optimize Your Twitter Ad Spend
People who follow brands on Twitter generally really like those brands, and are more inclined not only to purchase from them, but to communicate with them on a 1:1 basis as well.
So, to maximize your Twitter ads, here are some best practices:
Once you start implementing these tips, take some time to analyze how they changed your social engagement and advertising success.
Remember, your strategy should always involve monitoring, publishing and reporting.
Once you figure out what works best for your brand, double down and continue to iterate.
Test Out Conversational Ads
Similar to Instagram’s carousel ads, Twitter allows brands to use conversational ads to tell a better story about their brand or product.
There’s a big difference here though: Twitter’s conversational ad plays up the platforms conversational tone.
Brands can ask questions, interact with customers and automate a thank you process that pushes users back to the page or encourages them to follow the brand.
Just be sure that if you use this type of ad, you have someone actually responding to users and interacting!
Use gifs, graphics and storytelling techniques to move Twitter users through a conversational funnel.
Use trending topics to determine popular conversations –– or know that Twitter trends are often centered around news activity.
Here’s the specific information you’ll need to know for this ad type:
The Twitter Shopping Funnel
Twitter is a very different social channel than your Facebook or Pinterests of the world, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising campaigns.
In general, the active audience is more educated and professionally inclined.
For instance, journalists are heavy users of the platform.
Combining knowledge of the platform with your target audience can help you to determine the type of content and product you advertise.
Tech and gadgets will likely do well –– as will any items that help to busy professionals live less busy lives.
Write your content to that target audience!
Bottom Line:
In all, listen, respond and connect with your Twitter audience.
Provide valuable insights, information and service –– and let your ads do the conversion work for you.
Whether you’re a small business or an emerging multi-million dollar brand, there is a Twitter advertising campaign that can help grow your business.