Tweet,
Tweet, Tweet
The fact that Twitter is
a real-time information network that connects users to the latest stories,
ideas, opinions, and news and which can be accessed through a variety of
methods, including Twitter’s website, text messaging, instant messaging, and
third-party desktop, mobile, and web applications, stands to reason that it is
a benefit to any company, especially to public relations professionals aiming
to engage with its publics through this tool.
Why Advertise on Twitter?
Twitter ads are best for a few common marketing objectives, including:
- Promotions: Recommended for time sensitive events
- Brand awareness: Allow advertisers exposure to
potentially new audience
- Followers: Pay-per-follow to grow the follower base
and leverage this audience for future promotions and dialogue.
Twitter
has grown to over 500 million users and is expected to see ad revenues grow as
well. Making most of its money from advertising, Twitter is expected to post ad
revenues of $259.9 million this year, according to researcher eMarketer.
The introduction of Twitter’s
monetization model which are “promoted tweets”, “promoted accounts” and “promoted
trends” has increased the way in which companies can engage their followers.
Since the introduction of these tools from 2010 onward, users
have been engaged with Promoted Products on Twitter at rates that far exceed
typical forms of online advertising. Promoted Tweets has helped even more people
discover interesting accounts, people and information they may otherwise have
missed.
Twitter now provides
advertisers with higher engagement levels than Facebook.
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Tweets allow brands to spread their message
in ways that engage
users and drive conversations about their products. Promoted Tweets are offered
on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis, so you only pay when someone clicks,
retweets, replies to, or favorites your Promoted Tweet. In addition,
impressions on retweets are free and can amplify the reach and
cost-effectiveness of your campaign many times over.
More info on Promoted Tweets
- Promoted Tweets
are ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider
group of users or to spark engagement from their existing followers.
- Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled as Promoted when an advertiser is paying for their placement on Twitter. In every other respect, Promoted Tweets act just like regular Tweets and can be retweeted, replied to, favorited and more.
- Promoted Tweets
in search – Reach users
who are searching for your brand or related topics. Your Tweet appears
fixed at the top of the search results based on winning the auction for
the search terms.
Promoted Tweets in timelines – Reach users who are likely to be
interested in your message, at scale - including followers who might have
missed your organic Tweets and/or users who share similar interests with your
followers. Your Tweet appears at or near the top of the user’s timeline and
scrolls down in the timeline like any other Tweet.
Geo-targeting – Reach users in the locations that are most
relevant to your message. Promoted Tweets can be targeted to specific countries
or to specific metro areas within the U.S.
On average, marketers have
seen a 3-5% engagement rate for Promoted Tweets in search (an order of
magnitude above most forms of digital advertising) and engagement has remained
strong.
Cost: Promoted tweets use
cost-per-click pricing and Twitter recommends $.50 to at least max of $1.50.
Promoted Accounts
Promoted Accounts are part of Who to Follow, which suggests accounts that people don’t currently follow and may find interesting. Promoted Accounts help introduce an even wider variety of accounts people may enjoy.
How do Promoted Accounts work?
Promoted Accounts are suggested based on a user’s public list of whom they follow. When an advertiser promotes an account, Twitter’s algorithm looks at that account’s followers and determines other accounts that those users tend to follow. If a user follows some of those accounts, but not the advertiser’s account, then Twitter may recommend the advertiser’s Promoted Account to that user. For example, a lot of people who follow several education-related accounts also follow @teachforamerica. If someone follows education-related accounts, but not @teachforamerica, Twitter may recommend @teachforamerica to that user.
Cost: Promoted Account ads
are priced on a cost-per-follower basis with advertisers only paying for new
followers gained. The recommended bid to start is $.50 to at least max of
$2.50.
Promoted Trends
Promoted Trends began as an extension of the Promoted Tweets platform, and are now a full-fledged product in their own right. With Promoted Trends, users see time-, context-, and event-sensitive trends promoted by Twitter’s advertising partners. These paid Promoted Trends appear at the top of the Trending Topics list on Twitter and are clearly marked as "Promoted."
How is a Promoted Trend different from a Trending Topic?
Users interact with Promoted Trends the same way they interact with any other Trending Topic. They are able to click on a Promoted Trend to view all Tweets containing the trending #hashtag or trend terms. They are also able to Tweet about the Promoted Trend by including the terms in their Tweets. The only real difference is that a Promoted Trend is purchased by an advertiser and clearly marked as being promoted.
Cost: The
current cost of a Promoted Trend for
a day is $125,000!
It stands to
reason that any public relations program would benefit from one or potentially
all three of the promoted products, based on the strategy of the organization
and their goal(s) in how they want to reach their publics, whether it be
through promotions, increasing brand awareness or gaining new followers. The
key to assessing the potential value in using either of the three promoted
products, is to ensure to target your message and target your audience. If a
company hasn’t done either, it may burn through cash in minutes and fail to
make the impact it was aiming for. When using promoted
tweets, the tweets should change daily to remain effective. This requires a lot
of hands on management and tweaking so you will need a dedicated resource to
handle this.
Research found through:
1. Twitter Help Centre:
2.Twitter Advertising Guide
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This is a very comprehensive and well-rounded summary of promoted Twitter tools, Erin!
ReplyDeleteOrganizations that use these promoted Twitter tools along with their Facebook advertising must do well for themselves if they do it right, right?
Thanks for the post!