First we had Google Adwords (and a bevy of other pay-per-click (PPC)) campaigns. Then Facebook launched an advertising platform that has small business owners paying for Likes and clicks to websites and/or landing pages. It should be no surprise that Twitter have followed in step giving small business owners the opportunity to put in their credit cards with the hopes of driving traffic to their website as well as getting individuals to “follow” them on Twitter.
There are many types of ads you can run on Twitter:
- Get followers
- Clicks to a website
- Tweet engagement
- App installment or engagement
- Leads
Knowing which type to choose, how to run the ad on Twitter, and also setting up the infrastructure on your website can be a bit overwhelming. Social Media PPC is another dimension of your marketing strategy that needs to set-up correctly and managed so you maximize the effectiveness and you do not run up a credit card bill (that part is very very easy to do).
Just starting out and doing this yourself. Here is how I suggest you attack it by the categories listed above:
- Get followers – do not bother. Paying for followers is a dangerous business. You may see the number of followers increase, but really, who are these individuals? A bigger concern is the lesson we just learned from Facebook – you pay for a “like,” that account becomes inactive, and Facebook took away that like you bought. Twitter will probably follow in step.
- If you want to start advertising on Twitter, paying for clicks to your website can be beneficial. Just make sure you send clickers to a highly specific page (a separate landing page) that perfectly matches you ad.
- Paying for tweet engagement through Twitter advertising is a complete waste of your money. Comments and favorites can make your tweet look better but only if someone is looking at your tweets. Retweets can be beneficial, but only if done by accounts with many followers who are in need of your particular service.
- App installment and engagement. I do recommend this but, as in step 2, only if your physical ad is very related to your app and your targeting is perfect.
- Lead Generation – this can be beneficial but again, only with a highly specialized campaign.
Twitter does give you a golden opportunity to market to a group of individuals you might not have access to on other platforms. However, you must be careful and use the right keywords, behaviors, interests, and other available demographics to best spend your advertising dollars. As I always suggest, start slow and test every part of every campaign to ensure you are maximizing the dollars you spend.
