Twitter is the platform of big ideas within a 140-character count. With 317 million monthly active users, Twitter is still one of the most successful social media platforms around.

For advertisers, that means that there is immense opportunity with Twitter. Knowing the basics will help you go a long way in the Twittersphere, as like every social media platform, it has its own unique characteristics.

We will uncover the foundation of Twitter to help you build up your followers and increase the odds of advertising success.

How to advertise on Twitter

There are four types of ad campaigns that you can run on Twitter. Each one is broken down below for you. What’s great about Twitter advertising is that you can either be specific or broad with your targeting. And, as Twitter has such wide, international use, you can easily reach both global and local audiences.

Related reading: The complete list of Twitter ad specs and image sizes

Drive traffic

The purpose of website cards is to drive traffic to your site using images, contextual content and a clear call to action. Website Cards are a good resource to to boost site traffic, increase online purchases and drive specific, consumer actions. As each campaign operates on a cost-per-click basis, you only pay when someone clicks through to your site.

Promote accounts

This type of campaign is all about boosting your followers. Why does that matter? Because someone following you on Twitter is not only more likely to see your ads but to also advocate on your behalf and become a customer.

The key to follower campaigns is to create a compelling reason for people to follow you. As a business, this means something along the lines of exclusive discounts, information about upcoming products and other things of that sort. For the best results, Twitter recommends that you create at least three ads with slightly different wording to see which performs best.

Boost brand awareness

The primary purpose of an engagement campaign is to boost brand awareness and further develop your relationships. Twitter advertising measures engagement by the number of likes, retweets, and replies you get to posts. If you’re familiar with Twitter, these often take the form of “Promoted Tweets” and appear labeled as such on your timeline. Impressions are free and you pay when a user engages with any of your promoted tweets.

App promotion

Perhaps the most specific of all, app campaigns are designed specifically for the promotion of apps. Very similar to the website card campaigns, an app card allows users to preview an image, view app ratings, and install or open an app directly from their timeline.

What’s particularly interesting about this type of campaign is that you can target users based on their device type, operating system of Wi-Fi connectivity. The app campaign can increase downloads, encourage app re-engagement and target the most likely users of the app. And, just like website cards, you pay on a cost-per-app-clickpricing system.

How to create a Twitter business account

Now that you know the four basic types of Twitter ads, it is time to learn how to set up a Twitter account for your business.

1. Go to www.twitter.com and click the button, “have an account,” which is located in the upper right section of the banner.
2. Choose a @username for your company (also known as your “handle”). Choose a profile photo that visually represents your brand and fits well in a thumbnail size.
3. Create a bio within the 160-character word limit that has all useful information that consumers can use such as location, business hours, and a link to your website.
4. Decide on a header image. Since this is a wider image, think of our header image as a sort of virtual billboard for your company: It can feature products with graphic and text and should probably be swapped out periodically to highlight certain promotions.
5. Pinned Tweets are important posts that you keep at the top of your timeline. To pin a tweet, click on the “More” option on a tweet and scroll down to select “Pin to your profile page.” What are important tweets? Typically, for a business, important tweets are those that highlight the latest product offerings, promotions, or events.

Tips for Success

• One thing to remember when starting out on Twitter is that not everyone knows your product. With that in mind, explain it to them using graphic, picture ads like this:

  

• If you feel like your responses are stagnating or declining, try to refine your approach. Experiment with different images, text and calls-to-action to see what works.
• Try to fine-tune your targeting To have even better results, invest in keyword targeting, geo-targeting, follower targeting, tailored audiences targeting, and behavior targeting.
• Pause campaigns that are under-performing and reassess
• Remove campaigns, keywords, and follower groups that are not performing well and replace them with something else
• Analyze device-specific conversion data and respond accordingly

In the world of social media advertising, there is little that can compare to Twitter’s effectiveness. With such a wide user base and a variety of advertising options, it is an ideal platform for businesses both big and small. Now you have the tools to make it happen for your business. Good luck!