Twitter may not be the first social network that comes to mind when you think about your social advertising strategy. But consider that Twitter ads can reach a potential audience of 486 million users. Ad formats range from ultra-simple to very complex. And there is no minimum cost.
With all of this in mind, it’s time to include Twitter ads in your marketing mix. This beginner’s guide to Twitter advertising will tell you everything you need to know to launch your first Twitter advertising campaign today.
Types of Twitter Ads
Twitter Ads
Twitter ads, formerly known as boosted tweets, are very similar to regular tweets. The difference is that the advertiser pays to show content to people who don’t already follow that advertiser on Twitter.
Like regular tweets, they can be liked, retweeted, and commented on. But they are marked as advertisements: it will always say “Advertised”in the lower left corner.
Source: @Oreo
Advertisements come in a variety of formats that include different types of media.
- Text Ads: Looks like a normal tweet without additional media components.
- Image Ads: Include one photo.
- Video Ads: Like the Oreo example above, these include one video. The video will loop if it is less than 60 seconds.
- Moment Ads: A curated collection of tweets to tell a longer story.
- Twitter Live Ads: Promoted live streaming.
- Carousel Ads: Include up to six images or videos that can be swiped horizontally. Here is an example of a carousel ad from Mitsubishi Canada:
Source: @MitsubishiCAN
Twitter Follower Ads
Previously known as Promoted Accounts, this type of Twitter ad allows you to promote your brand’s entire Twitter account. It is aimed at users who are not yet following your brand and can help increase your business’s Twitter following.
Subscriber ads appear on the potential subscriber timeline. The ad will also appear in “Whom to follow”suggestions and in search results.
In addition to being labeled to show they’re on the move, they also include a “Subscribe”button.
Twitter Amplify
Twitter Amplify Pre-roll allows your brand to place pre-roll video ads on content from over 15 pre-verified brand safe publisher categories.
Amplify Sponsorship allows you to sponsor videos from a specific publisher, just like Google does in this video from Leila Fernandez.
Source: @leylahfernandez
Twitter takeover
There are two different types of Twitter capture.
Trend capture
Formerly known as Trending Topics, Trend Takeover allows brands to feature sponsored ads in the What’s Happening section of the Twitter homepage and the Trending tab on the Explore screen.
Trend Takeover+ includes an image, video, or GIF and appears at the very top of the Explore tab.
Timeline Capture
Timeline Takeover is an ad that appears at the very top of a user’s timeline when someone opens Twitter for the first time in a day.
Branded hashtags
Branded hashtag ads allow you to add a visual component, such as an emoji, that automatically appears when someone uses your hashtag.
Source: @BacheloretteABC
Twitter Ad Specifications
Here’s everything you need to know about the components that make up each type of Twitter ad, from character count to Twitter ad size.
Note that a link counts as 23 characters, so if your ad contains a link, you will actually get 257 characters instead of 280.
Text Ads
Tweet copy: 280 characters.
Image Ads
Tweet copy: 280 characters
Image size: 1200 x 1200 pixels, or 1200 x 628 pixels unless you add features such as dialog buttons, in which case the size is 800 x 418 pixels.
Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 1.91:1
Valid file types: PNG or JPEG.
Maximum file size: 5 MB
Video ads
Tweet copy: 280 characters.
Video size: 1200 x 1200 pixels, or 1920 x 1080 pixels unless you add features like talk buttons, in which case the size is 800 x 450 pixels.
Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 16:9
Video length: no more than 2:20, but Twitter recommends no more than 15 seconds.
Valid file types: MP4 or MOV.
Maximum file size: 1 GB, but Twitter strongly recommends not to exceed 30 MB.
Thumbnail file types: PNG or JPEG
Maximum thumbnail size: 5 MB
carousel ads
Number of slides: 2-6
Image size: 800 x 418 pixels or 800 x 800 pixels.
Video size: 800 x 450 pixels or 800 x 800 pixels.
Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 1.91:1 for images; 1:1 or 16:9 for video
Accepted file types: PNG, JPEG, MP4, MPV
Subscriber Announcements
Tweet copy: 280 characters.
Follower ads automatically display a follower card that contains no images or videos (other than your Twitter profile and banner images).
Gain
Tweet copy: unknown
Video size: 1200 x 1200 pixels
Aspect Ratio: 1:1
Video length: no more than 2:20, but Twitter recommends no more than 15 seconds.
Valid file types: MP4 or MOV.
Maximum file size: 1 GB
Boost Your Sponsorship
Tweet copy: unknown
Video size: 1200 x 1200 pixels
Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 16:9, depending on publisher content.
Video length: no more than 2:20, but Twitter recommends 6 seconds or less.
Valid file types: MP4 or MOV.
Maximum file size: 1 GB
Twitter Live
Event page copy: 280 characters
Video size: 1200 x 720 pixels recommended; Maximum 1920 x 1080
Trend capture
Hashtag: 20 characters
Description: 70 characters
Trend Capture +
Hashtag: 16 characters
Description: 30 characters
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Accepted file types: GIF, MP4, PNG, JPEG.
Maximum file size: 5MG image; 15mb GIF
Branded hashtags
Emoji Design: No larger than 72 x 72 pixels and must be clearly visible at 16 x 16 pixels.
How much does advertising on Twitter cost?
First, the good news: there is no minimum amount for advertising on Twitter, so you can pay as much as you want.
But that doesn’t mean that the cost of advertising on Twitter is completely up to you. Like most social networks, Twitter places its ads on an auction system. You set the bid you are willing to pay for a specific action, as well as the daily budget for your campaign.
Here are the paid actions for each type of Twitter campaign:
| Target | you pay for |
|---|---|
| Achieve | Thousand Impressions (CPM) |
| Video views | View |
| Previews | View |
| Application settings | impressions or clicks |
| Website traffic | Click |
| engagements | betrothal |
| Followers | Follow |
| Re-interaction with the application | Click |
If someone performs an action other than your goal, you don’t have to pay. So if you’re running a follower campaign and someone likes your paid tweet but doesn’t subscribe, you won’t be charged anything.
Generally, the higher your bid, the more likely your ad will be shown to your target audience. But this is not the only factor. When considering which ads to show, Twitter also considers how engaging your ads are. An audience with high demand will also be more expensive.
This means you can lower the cost of your Twitter ads by focusing on quality creative and relevant ad targeting.
According to AdEspresso, in terms of dollars and cents, most Twitter ad objectives cost between $0.50 and $3.00 per action.
How to set up a twitter ad campaign
Step 1. Choose an ad target
Sign in to your Twitter account and go to Twitter Ads Manager at ads.twitter.com to get started. You’ll start by deciding what you want to achieve with your Twitter ads.
As noted above, the campaign objective you choose determines what types of interactions and actions you will pay for.
In this example, we will run a campaign to increase the number of subscribers and create an audience for your account.
Clicking on your goal will take you to the campaign details screen. Here, name your campaign, choose your payment method, and set your campaign budget.
Once you’ve made your choice, click Next.
Step 2: Set up your ad group and bids
For your first Twitter ad campaign, you’ll probably want to stick with one ad group. But once you’re comfortable with Twitter ads, categorize your campaign to target different audiences, use different creatives, or test different budgets and timelines.
Name your ad set and choose a start and end time, or allow the ad set to run indefinitely.
Here you will also choose how much you are willing to pay for each interaction. If you choose Autobid, Twitter will set your bid to get the best results at the lowest price to fit your budget. This is a great way to start if you’re new to Twitter advertising and want to get a good understanding of how bids work.
Step 3: Target your audience and select placements
Targeting options help you choose the right audience for your ads and maximize your budget.
You’ll start with demographic targeting. Define your audience by gender, age, location, language, and technology.
With location targeting, you can target a specific area of a city or even a zip code. Or you can be broad and target the whole country. The technology component allows you to target by device, carrier, or operating system.
The Targeting Features section allows you to target ads to users based on events, interests and behaviors, and even specific topics and TV shows that users tweet about.
To help you, the interface provides a summary of your estimated audience size, which changes as you add more targeting options to your campaign.
You can also upload your own list of people (such as an email list) or target people similar to your subscriber base. If you want to use Twitter remarketing ads to reach people who have already interacted with your business, you can upload a list or create a custom audience based on website activity.
At the bottom of this screen, you will be able to choose where your ads should appear.
After making your choice, click Next.
Step 4. Create your ads
Now that you’ve set up the foundation for your campaign, it’s time to create some ads.
You can use an existing Tweet as an ad or create a new ad by completing the fields on the ad details screen.
As you work, you’ll see a preview of your ad.
If you’re happy with your ad, click Next.
Step 5. Launch your campaign
Finally, review all the options you have selected. Click Launch Campaign to launch your ad.
That’s all!
Twitter Ad Recommendations
keep it short
Of course, you can use up to 280 characters in your Twitter ad (or 257 if you include a link). But that doesn’t mean you should. Twitter research shows that the most effective Twitter ads use between 50 and 100 characters.
Best Buy Canada uses only 87 characters in this carousel ad.
Get double the storage for the same price when you pre-order your new Z Flip4 or Z Fold4.
— Best Buy Canada (@BestBuyCanada) August 10, 2022
Include a call to action
Feel free to tell people what steps you want them to take after seeing your ads on Twitter. Are you running a subscriber campaign? Don’t rely on the “Subscribe”button. In particular, ask viewers to follow you in the body of your tweet.
The same goes for all campaign objectives. Ask for what you want and you are more likely to get it.
In this Twitter ad, Pipedrive engages Twitter users for a free trial with a simple call to action: “Try it yourself.”
How confident are we that you will love our sales CRM? We offer a 14 day trial and do not ask for your CC details. Ask any of our 100,000+ customers and they will tell you: Pipedrive CRM is magic 🐇 Try it yourself!
— Pipedrive (@pipedrive) August 19, 2022
Avoid hashtags and @mentions
While these Twitter features can be very useful in organic tweets, they are best avoided in paid advertising. They create ways for Twitter users to get away from your ad in ways that don’t do you any good.
Focus your efforts on getting users to click in ways that directly serve you, like your website or the Subscribe button.
In this ad, IBM mentions both Salesforce and TAG Heuer. But they didn’t @mention any of the brands as they want to drive clicks to the related case study and not to other brands’ Twitter accounts.
How IBM and Salesforce Helped TAG Heuer Create a Customized 360-Degree View of Their Customers to Drive Sales
— IBM (@IBM) July 26, 2022
Immerse yourself in video
We recommend that you include at least one video ad in every campaign. Twitter recommends reducing your video length to 15 seconds. Keep in mind that videos under 60 seconds will play in a loop.
Grab attention in the first few seconds, including clear branding within the first three seconds. Twitter research shows that video ads with a clear logo placement increase brand recall by 30%.
Disney+ hits the mark on all of those points with this video ad: a 15-second video with action right away, logo overlay throughout, and a full-screen brand challenge before the two-second mark.
Who is Mike Tyson? Mike is streaming on #DisneyPlus right now.
— Disney+ Canada 🇨🇦 (@DisneyPlusCA) August 24, 2022
Don’t forget to include captions or text overlays in your video ad so it’s just as effective without sound.
But not only video
Using a combination of advertising formats creates the maximum effect. Twitter recommends using three to five different ad formats for the most brand promotion, campaign visibility, and purchase intent.
The variety of ad formats allows you to introduce your message to viewers in multiple ways while avoiding ad fatigue.
Above, we showed an example of a Mitsubishi Canada carousel ad. Here is a photo from the same campaign.
Drive your family with confidence in the Mitsubishi Outlander with standard all-wheel drive, intuitive safety features and a third row of seats.
— Mitsubishi Motors Canada (@MitsubishiCAN) August 17, 2022
Work on your bidding strategy
When you first run ads on Twitter, it’s hard to know exactly how much to bid. In this case, it’s smart to use Twitter’s auto-bidding feature to make sure your ads are showing.
As your campaign progresses, monitor your bids and the performance of all your ads in Twitter Ads Manager. This will help you understand what bid you should expect and allow you to customize your bids to maximize the performance of your most successful ads.
Set up targeting
When you first launch a Twitter ad campaign, you don’t want to exclude potentially valuable leads by targeting your ads too narrowly. Focus on what you know about your audience, but keep things relatively broad to begin with.
As your campaign progresses, track results to see which audiences are the most responsive, and add targeting levels to focus on them and people like them.
If you’re running multiple campaigns at the same time, change your targeting so that the campaigns reach different audiences rather than compete for the attention of the same audience.
Create separate campaigns for mobile and desktop.
People use Twitter differently on mobile and desktop, and they also consume ads differently. Mobile advertising must be optimized not only for small screens, but also for fast sessions and fast scrolling of mobile users.
Twitter suggests that mobile Twitter use is also characterized by “momentary bursts of buying intent”.
Running separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users allows you to understand how people interact with your ads in each dimension and get the most bang for your ad spend. Or focus on one of these audiences if you see it converting better to reach your goal.
For example, this ad for Stack TV only appears in my mobile feed, not on desktop. Six-second video with quick transitions and text overlays optimized for viewing and listening on mobile devices. Meanwhile, the free trial offer takes advantage of these spontaneous mobile purchases.
Same OMG as cable TV. 13 amazing networks in one place.
Start your 30 day FREE STACKTV trial now.
— STACKTV (@stacktv) August 22, 2022