We’ve covered before how important social media advertising can be to your business. Most platforms allow you to target specific demographics and followers in order to make sure your brand gets in front of the right audience. Twitter is a great place to advertise your business and boost your tweets. Its conversational nature can allow your ad to feel authentic and reach your niche audience. Make sure your advertising campaign on Twitter is as effective as possible by keeping the following tips in mind.
Starting at the beginning: your account and your goals
Before beginning any social media ad campaign, it’s important to start with the basics: your account. Make sure that you are using a Twitter business account and not a personal one – not only is this more professional, but you will also have access to all of Twitter’s analytics.
If you already have a Twitter business account, take a peek and make sure that it’s as effective as possible. The ads will be linked to your account and users will ultimately end up there, so you want to make sure your account is an accurate depiction of your brand. Twitter uses keywords in your profile to match you with potential audiences, so make sure that you’re including all the necessary information in your bio and description. Space and characters on Twitter are at a premium, so make sure that every word you use counts!
Once you’ve made sure that your account page is up to date and looking spiffy, take a moment to determine your goals for your ad campaign. Keep in mind that different ads can have different goals and it’s a good idea to plan out several different ads. For example, one ad may focus on generating more leads and another ad could focus on direct sales. Having clear goals ahead of time will help make sure your ads are effective and will maximize your ROI.
Planning your ad content
Once you’ve decided on your goals for each ad, it’s time to plan the content! An effective Twitter ad should integrate easily into a user’s feed. In other words, it shouldn’t feel too much like an ad. A great way to boost your overall brand is to integrate your ads into your Twitter content strategy. You can plan ads that follow the direction of your other content in order to create a seamless feel to your brand. In order to make sure your ads really pop and represent your brand, keep in mind these things that make up the anatomy of a good ad:
Images and video: Images and videos work exceptionally well for Twitter. People respond well to compelling audio and visual stimulation. Finding audio or pictures that are professional, creative, and authentic is a great way to grab the attention of your followers.
Tip: Studies have shown that people respond especially well to ads with faces in them! Twitter ads can be a great way to showcase employees or customers and give your audience a behind-the-scenes peek at your brand.
Short and sweet: Twitter has character limits, so it’s important to make sure that your text content gets to the point and accurately conveys information.
Tip: Avoid excessive hashtags. Make sure that if you do use them, they’re relevant to your specific ad.
Calls to action: One of the most important parts of your Twitter ad is going to be your calls to action. Often, these correlate directly with your goals. If you want to gain more followers, the call to action would be “Follow our Twitter.” If you wanted to gain more leads, your ad might say “Sign up today for our free newsletter.”
Tip: Sometimes, calls to action can be subtle and flow with the rest of the ad. If you can work your call to action in with the rest of the text, that’s best. You want to create an ad that compels readers to follow the call to action. An example of this is: “Discover new worlds each month with our book delivery box that you can purchase here.”
Like Facebook, Twitter advertising will allow you to promote an existing tweet as your ad. This is a great way to boost your content, and if you have content that meets the parameters of a good ad, boosting Tweets can be a great way to get your content in front of your audience. Before launching your ad campaign, it’s a good idea to have 4 – 5 ads ready to go. Once you have those, it’s time to actually launch your campaign.
Launching your ad campaign
Twitter’s ads program interface is user-friendly. They have a helpful guide on their blog that explains much of what they do, and will even walk you through a series of questions about what kind of ad campaign you want to run. Twitter allows you to choose and control your campaign and gives you control over parameters such as audience, budget, location, audience interests, timing, and more. You can select how long you want to run your ads for and what your budget will be. Twitter uses a bidding system for their ads, but there is no minimum amount. You can select your daily budget maximum, and Twitter will automatically place bids for you that stay within your budget.
You can spend as little or as much as you want to get the exposure your brand needs. You may want to spend more around relevant dates to your brand or company, such as events, holidays, or product launches. When setting out to launch your ad campaign on Twitter, remember that planning is important. Planning ahead and making sure that the content of your ads is follows the guidelines above will help your campaign be a success. Remember to frequently check your Twitter ad metrics to track your success and make sure that your campaign is effective.
The data will tell you how successful each campaign was and will serve as a great guide for future campaigns. Launching a Twitter ad campaign may seem intimidating, but it’s a great, easy way to accomplish your goals and connect with your audience.
