I'd like to share with you the experience I had with running a successful Twitter Ad campaign. It all started when I found out that Twitter teamed up with American Express for an exclusive offer:
“We invite American Express Cardmembers and merchants to try our new advertising solution for small businesses. American Express will give $100 in free Twitter advertising to the first 10,000 eligible Cardmembers and merchants that register.”
Lucky for me I am an American Express cardmember and not to mention a bonafide Twitter addict, so you can see how this was an “offer I couldn't refuse”. 🙂 If you have an American Express card, you should go to the site and see if they have any spots left.
UPDATE: Twitter Has Updated their Advertising Platform and Ads Are Now Open To Everyone!
If you're not an AMEX cardholder, running a Twitter Ad is something you should consider giving a try anyway, and based on my experience, setting up the Twitter ad was very easy to do and also very effective.
Twitter Ad Set Up Video Tutorial
In this video I demonstrate how easy it is to set up your Twitter Ad and I also give you a quick tip on how to pick your target market using Tweepsmap. Watch the video called How to Run a Successful Twitter Advertising Promotion.
Running a Twitter Ad vs a Facebook Ad
Overall, the Twitter Ad interface is very simplistic compared to the Facebook Ad interface. Facebook ads can be targeted to reach many different segments from people who have liked your page all the way to people who have liked your competitor's pages. With Facebook ads you can target users by age, sex, interest, job title work place and so much more and you can really hone in on a very specific audience.
Twitter ads are not as laser focused as Facebook ads, however you can choose by country and you also have a choice of 5 different messages you can promote with the ad. I like this option because it allows us to vary the test and promote a wider range of offerings. I also, think that people tend to have a level of ad-blindness on Facebook and they may not have their Twitter ad-blinders on yet, since the platform is so new.
Don't miss this: YouTube Advertising Formats: The Essential Guide
Conclusion
In the video I talked about how I used a combination of JustRetweet along with Twitter Ads to promote a SlideShare presentation called Get Plugged In To Google Analytics: The New Listening Tool for Social Media ROI. You can also download the entire Google Analytics presentation as a pdf for free.
I found some level of success with using Twitter ads and I certainly recommend using them to promote your small business, launch a new product, generate buzz for an event or to grow your Twitter following. The ads are affordable and effective and the Twitter ad interface is user friendly and super simple to set up. How about you; would you give Twitter Advertising a try?
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