We've often written about the benefits of Twitter for your business, and last week we wrote about a cool new feature called Twitter Lead Generation Cards, which allow you to capture leads directly within a Tweet (they don't even need to go to your website!).
This post is about paid advertising on Twitter in general: what's the purpose, how it helps your home performance business grow, and downsides.
There are a few different ways to advertise on Twitter, and we'll discuss each.
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Tweets allow you to get your Tweets in front of a larger audience. They're labeled as a promoted tweet, so people know that they're an advertisement, but you can still have a lot of success with them. The keys here:
Great content: promote the Tweets that are most apt to drive engagement: free offers, really exciting information, etc.
Good targeting: you don't want to pay to have your tweets show up in the timelines of users who are outside of your target market (outside your geography, outside your target demographics, etc.).
Promoted Tweets can show up both at the top of the timelines of users who you've targeted (based on geographic info, etc), and at the top of search results pages.
Promoted Accounts
While promoted Tweets can grow your followers, they may be more effective at driving engagement, driving traffic to your website, and promoting a special offers and the like. Promoted accounts are strictly about growing your number of followers, while targeting users that fall within your target demographics.
In the words of Twitter:
"Your followers already love you. Our targeting options allow you to get your account in front of more people who are just like your followers – engaged users who are passionate about your business. A bonus: connect with customers in a specific geography or with specific interests using our laser beam-like tools. Pretty cool, right?"
You can target by interest, geography and gender, and maybe the best part: you only pay when people follow you.
Promoted accounts show up in the "who to follow" widget, the "who to follow" page, in search results on Twitter, and in the "similar to you" widget.
Promoted Trends
The third way to advertise on Twitter is through promoted Trends. "Trends" are what appear in the left hand column (on the web version of Twitter) and are typically simply the words or phrases that are being used most frequently across Twitter. A promoted Trend is marked as a promoted trend and shows up alongside the other "organic" trends. If the content is compelling, a promoted trend can be a great way to drive engagement and promote awareness of an event, a special offer, or a campaign. Think catchy.
Ups and Downs of Advertising on Twitter
Without testing, it's tough to determine the ROI of Twitter ads. We've talked about the ROI of social media in general, but there is something of a difference between simply posting a few tweets in your free time and actively promoting your account financially.
Will growing your Twitter following drive leads? Will driving engagement drive leads? Will driving traffic to your website drive leads? It's tough to generalize because all of these questions depend on so many factors: the content of your Tweets, any content on your website that you're driving traffic to, how well you target your ads, the effectiveness of your call-to-action, the usability of your website -- the list goes on.
But all other factors equal, advertising on Twitter can be a great way to promote your brand and your offerings in your region. There's a good chance that your cost-per-acquisition will be better than putting your message up on a billboard if you use Twitter ads; and the best part about it is that it's all very measurable, so you're actually able to determine exactly how effective your ads have been and whether they're worth continuing.
For more info about using Twitter to grow your home performance business, check out the following articles:
-
10 Reasons Home Performance Pros should use Social Media
-
Guide to Local Search Tools on Twitter
-
Using Twitter Lead Gen Cards
-
Twitter & SEO for your brand search
-
Capitalizing on Twitter Lists
Check out the attached free social media white paper too, and feel free to leave a comment or give us a shout with any questions, comments or concerns!