I signed up for a trial of Promoted Products on Twitter – the twitter equivalent of Google PPC – but sadly as I don’t have a US billing address I can only watch from the sidelines. But for those smaller businesses on the other side of the pond, it’s worth thinking about advertising on Twitter.
You can see in the short video below what your options are, but in summary:
1. Promoted Accounts
Twitter matches your interests, with the interests of potential followers. It then recommends you to those potential followers. Simple. If your objective is to grow your following, this is the best option for you.
2. Promoted Tweets
Twitter automatically promotes your best performing tweets to people who match your interests. If you want engagement and click throughs, this is the option for you.
For both you only pay per action.
In others you only pay when you gain a new follower, or when someone engages with your tweet. You set a daily budget limit and away you go.
Sounds good to me. Now we just need it to be live for small businesses in the UK too. (By the way, thanks American Express for promoting that offer to UK Cardholders who aren’t eligible).
Comments (14)
Kendall M. Hoover -
July 19, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Thanks for this. I’m just now launching the Facebook and blog page for my business but I’m trying to decide whether twitter or pinterest should be next. Do you prefer Twitter or pinterest?
Andy Bargery -
July 20, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Hi Kendall,
Good luck with the facebook and blog page.
In terms of whether you should use Pinterest or Twitter, I would suggest you first of all think about why you should be on either? What’s your objective, is your target audience on those platforms, how will you measure if the time you spend on them is worthwhile etc.
Generally twitter is a good idea for building awareness, identifying prospective customers, demonstrating your skills / knowledge, engaging with influencers etc with text based content. Pinterest has a high female to male ratio with it’s audience and is obviously all about images. If you have a particularly visual product (is proof reading that easy to show in image) then this might not be the platform for you. But again, it all boils down to your objectives and target audience.
Andy
Alfred -
July 22, 2012 at 7:32 am
That’s excellent. I have never used twitter but I will have to look into setting up an account with them. I hear about it alot and I know its very popular but it’s cool that it can match you with others’ interests and targets them.
Liz -
July 22, 2012 at 11:30 am
Thanks for the information on twitter pay per click. I use twitter but never thought of promoting my tweets. It might be a good thing if you can get in on the ground floor before the costs per click rise as more and more businesses opt in.
Andy Bargery -
July 23, 2012 at 5:27 pm
And the costs will certainly rise.
Thanks for the post Liz.
Matt -
July 22, 2012 at 2:50 pm
I think Twitter is probably the best social networking tool for web marketing and small buisness. The great thing is, it kind of promotes itself unlike facebook where to be successful you have to pay for expensive advertising.
Durga Singh -
July 23, 2012 at 9:39 am
I agree to Andy’s suggestions for Twitter over Pinterest. I still find Twitter little too much for very small B2B companies. It’s a great strategy for B2C companies though.
Alliee -
July 26, 2012 at 7:27 am
Being a micro blogging site Twitter is very popular today and nice to know that it has got ppc ads also which I think is going to be very interesting.
Bernie Scott -
July 27, 2012 at 6:54 pm
I think Twitter is probably the best social networking tool for web marketing and small business.
Anders J. -
August 2, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Unfortunately Twitter isnt as big in Denmark as it is in every other country :(
//Anders
Andy Bargery -
August 23, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Hi Anders,
I didn’t know that. Any thoughts as to why?
Have you tried identica or Friendfeed, perhaps they are more successful microblogs in Denmark?
Andy
John -
August 8, 2012 at 8:57 am
not just tweeter can be used for promotional purposes. all social resources are more than important and useles. there are tons of potential customers, they are our target group)))
thanks for post
J.T. Advertising Management -
September 17, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Nice article, its also nice to see you advising on a platform based on its merit against objectives rather than what happens to the buzzword of the time. Twitter and Pinterest are certainly great for branding but I would suggest if people want social for acquisition they should continue to look at facebook ads.
facebook fans -
January 24, 2013 at 8:13 am
Informative article and good advice.