INTRODUCTION TO TWITTER AD MARKET
Twitter is a social networking micro-blogging site which allows you to post and interact with tweets. Twitter provides you with an additional feature of advertising known as Twitter ads. Twitter ads are something which can help you to get more likes, get more people to talk about your products and services i.e. your business, brands or projects. The twitter users are projected to grow from about 258 million in 2015 to nearly370 million by 2020(Source: Statista). In 2017, twitter generated around 3.26 billio
U.S. dollars through its social ads platform and is expected to grow up to 5.5 billio
U.S. dollars by 2020. This stats shows that Twitter advertising can be a good tool which can be used by
Value Added Resellers(VARs) and Managed Service Providers(MSPs)to improve your sales and generate revenue. But, Why twitter? Why Twitter ads are superior to other online ads?
WHY TWITTER ADS?
Twitter has its problems but in some context, it is one of the best ad platforms.
Twitter helps System Integrators to the target audience with the help of keywords which is not the feature provided by any other platforms. In twitter, you can target people who have used a specific hashtag or have interacted using those hashtags. You can also get more precise by using hashtags related to your product or industries. For e.g., If you are dealing with IT Securities, you can use #ITSecurities.
Another hidden gem of twitter targeting is that it allows us to target the people who actually got engaged with our tweets rather than who saw it known as tweet engager targeting. This can help you to save a lot of time and efforts which unless you would have spent targeting wrong audiences.
You can also target people in twitter who follow specific account i.e. you can create your own tailored audience to target with your
Twitter ads. For e.g. If HP wants to advertise its product and wants to target customers of his competitor (say: Dell), he can directly target all the Dell customers by showing ads to all their followers. These are something which System Integrators and Solution Providers can use while setting up ads for marketing.
RESEARCH TARGET AUDIENCE
The ideal way of increasing your sales is by getting your products available to ideal customers. You must decide your target audience depending on demographics. Targeting customers based on demographics is very important for the success of your business.
• Targeting customers based on age
For e.g. If you are planning to deal in gaming laptops than the age of your target audience must be like around 14-22 years, but if you are willing to target people of age group 25-40 years you must deal with laptops which have high backups and storing capacity.
• Targeting customers based on location
It is another important aspect you must keep in mind while deciding your target audience. If you are dealing in heavy IT products like connectors, action camera and is difficult for shipping, then your target audience will be geographical bound but if you deal in products like mobiles which can be easily shipped, then your target market will not be geographically bound. IT channel distributors are also important while targeting customers. Generally, the size of your audience depends on the efficiency of these distributors.
• Targeting customers based on interest
Targeting customers based on interest is another feature which helps us to connect a large group of users. You can select from 25 interest categories. Being an IT dealer you can select categories like technology, business etc. This will show all your business and account information to the people who have selected the same category or the one who deals in technology-related fields.
AD STRUCTURE
Deciding ad structure which is most effective for your business is very important for the success of your business. You can decide your ad structure by-
• Testing campaign
Here, VARs and MSPs can test different versions of the ad by creating an ad campaign and can select the one which gets the best response. This testing helps to see how different version of ad structure can bring immense different to
Conversion Rates. For e.g., while advertising advanced IT products it's better to go with video ad structure so that it provides customers with enough information about whether to go for a product or not rather than image structure which will only provide you the basic information.
• Competitor analysis
You can also look for the type of ad structures adopted by your competitors. You can learn a lot from your competitors. You can look at the ad structures of those competitors who deal in the same type of products or in which the target audience is identical. If more of your competitor uses video ad structure and opts for app cards and are successful in the long term than you can also go for the same structure. Make sure to bring changes and innovation to your structure in order to drive traffics for your products. You should also determine how frequently your competitors post ads on Twitter. Try to find weaknesses of your competitor's ad structure, learn from their vulnerabilities and apply the gained knowledge to your ads.
CREATE ADS
Once you have decided your ad structure, its time to create your ad. While creating an ad you should keep in mind different aspects like timing, location, language etc.
Twitter’s geo-targeting feature helps you to create an ad and makes it reach to your potential customers with fits your business. Language is another important aspect that you should keep in mind. For e.g., If you are targeting people of France or Belgium and you are using English as your language than your ads will not be as effective as it would have been if you used French or so. Timing is something which immensely effects the efficiency of your ads. By monitoring what’s going on with the world and keeping tracks in the taste of your customers, you should make changes in your ads.
Try to keep your add short and simple. Shorter the add, more likely it will be effective as people won’t spend more than a second or two looking at your ad while you scroll. Your CTA i.e. Call-to-Action is the hook of your ads. It is where you want people to know what you want from them and what you expect in return. Don’t hide it and never make it complicated. Keep it simple and clear that explains what you actually want from your audience.
OPTIMIZE THE ADS
Creating and using ads are not enough. You must check for the conversions you are getting from these ads. If the ads you have created are not good enough and the conversion rate is lower than expected, then you should use proper tools to increase your conversions. The purpose of your ads is not just to get viewed by the audience but also to convert them to your ultimate customers.