Many companies are probably familiar with both Google and Facebook advertising. But for Twitter advertising in particular, there are probably fewer who have become acquainted with. I therefore thought with this blog post to inform about a little different advantages and differences with advertise on Twitter versus Facebook and Google advertising.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a social network where users write so-called Tweets, which can be compared to micro-blog posts with a maximum length of 280 characters. Video, images and GIFs also work great to use in their posts. Twitter users are often very engaged and follow, discuss and interact with different content based on their interests. I myself, for example, use Twitter to keep up to date on my favorite sports teams and interact with like-minded sports nerds. Twitter as a social network is relatively large , even though they are a good distance behind Facebook in terms of the number of users.
So why should you consider Twitter advertising if there are fewer people on the platform? Here are some reasons I think you should consider.
1. Effective Target Group Specification
A golden rule for all marketing is really about reaching the right people, not most people. The first question you should ask yourself when evaluating an advertising medium is whether your target audience is there. Twitter does not have the most users of all social media, but they offer effective ways to reach different target groups. Among other things, it is possible to focus on people who:
- Used some specific keywords
- Used specific hashtags
- Has specific interests
- Engaged in certain topics and discussions
- Follows specific accounts
2. It’s Simple
Twitter ads have many advertising goals to choose from, for example, you can aim with your campaigns to increase the number of followers, get leads or increase sales. However, there are only a few ad formats. For example, you can only create:
- Sponsored Tweets
- A sponsored account
- Or a created and sponsored trend (trends are only activated if you spend a certain amount each month via the platform).
Setting up an account on Twitter versus Facebook is in my opinion much easier as there are fewer things to think about such as fewer placements and ad formats. All this is of course both positive and negative depending on who you ask.
3. It Looks Like Regular Posts
Another thing I personally like about Twitter ads is that they are not very annoying or intrusive. In fact, it is quite difficult to tell the difference between a regular post and a sponsored post as sponsored posts end up in the news feed among other ads and organic posts.
In order for your ads to be visible, you need to create relevant and interesting content.
4. Less Competition
Due to a smaller user base, it can generally be quite cheap to advertise on Twitter versus Facebook and Google as there is also less competition from other advertisers. According to Twitter itself , prices have been at about the same level in recent years while advertising on Google and Facebook has increased in price. At the same time, the proportion of users who interact with an ad has increased and the cost per interaction has decreased.
5. You Only Pay for Results
You only pay for results. That is, your campaign goal is to get more followers, you only pay for each new follower. Or if you want people to see your new video campaign, you only pay for people who have actually watched your video. On Facebook and Google, for example, you pay instead of exposures or per click, which is because it can vary a lot for cost per conversion. To clarify different objectives and what you pay for, you can see the table below. The X-axis shows the purpose of advertising, and the Y-axis shows what you are actually paying for.
In summary, there are both pros and cons to Twitter advertising, just like with any other platform. The disadvantages are, among other things, that there are fewer users than other platforms. But the benefits that it is still relatively cheap with advertising on Twitter, less competition and that you only pay for results, outweigh. Hopefully, after reading this blog post, you have gained a better understanding of Twitter as an advertising platform and how it may differ from other platforms.
