Whether recognized as Twitter or X, one consistent factor remains: the platform’s multifaceted advertising potential. Whether through text posts or videos, Twitter ads provide businesses with the opportunity to engage their target audience effortlessly.
Grasping the basics of Twitter ad setup is crucial for optimizing your campaign, ensuring maximum ad spend efficiency, attracting qualified leads, and much more!
Relax and continue scrolling through this beginner’s guide to Twitter ads, where we’ll delve into topics such as:
Why initiate a Twitter ad campaign?
Twitter ad guide
How to set up Twitter ads
Twitter ad campaign management FAQs
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With over 415 million users, Twitter sees an average of 7 billion active minutes spent on the platform daily. This equates to a vast audience — or, in marketing terms, a significant number of potential customers. Beyond sheer volume, Twitter offers additional appealing benefits that draw advertisers.
Read on to discover several key advantages of X advertising:
With a diverse user base, advertisers launching campaigns on X have robust audience targeting options. Your X ads, combined with the platform’s targeting features, enable you to connect with qualified leads that align with your ideal customer profile (ICP). This results in targeted campaigns that enhance engagement and conversion rates.
Since its inception, X has been a text-centric platform, focusing on initiating conversations rather than relying on images or videos. Therefore, it serves as an ideal platform to build stronger customer relationships. Businesses utilizing X to promote their brand can capitalize on the platform’s text-centric content to foster a loyal community of followers. Whether through initiating conversations, sharing trending content, or providing customer service, you can赋予你的品牌一个能与用户产生共鸣的声音和个性。
A strong X presence can significantly increase your brand awareness and reach. Organic posts help keep your brand top-of-mind with followers, while targeted paid advertising efforts can attract new ones through relevant content.
Before discussing how to set up Twitter ads, let’s explore the various ad types available. Each has its unique benefits, but ultimately, the choice depends on which best aligns with your X ad campaign objectives.
Explore the different X ad types below and learn how each can enhance your campaign:
Promoted ads
Vertical video ads
X Amplify
X Takeovers
X Live
Dynamic product ads
Collection ads
Additional ad features
Promoted ads are likely the most common type of X ads you’ll encounter. These ads appear as regular posts — text, photos, videos, or carousels — that are “promoted” or sponsored, reaching a targeted audience (similar to LinkedIn’s Boosted posts). Since they appear in users’ feeds and search results, promoted ads are an excellent tool for generating leads and boosting brand awareness.
Vertical video ads are full-screen video ads that appear in users’ video feeds, offering an ideal platform for B2C brands aiming to showcase their products prominently. You can even include a call to action (CTA) button that appears after viewers watch one second of your ad.
X Amplify ads allow advertisers to strategically align their ads with video content from related or relevant brands. There are two options: Amplify Pre-roll ads or Amplify Sponsorships. Pre-roll ads play before a publisher’s content starts, while Sponsorships play during a chosen moment of the publisher’s choosing.
Both types of X Amplify ads provide more targeted ad campaigns for marketers and personalized experiences for consumers, benefiting everyone involved.
With X Takeovers, advertisers can ensure their ad is the first thing users see when they log in. Advertisers can choose between Timeline Takeovers, which place their ads at the very top of users’ timelines, or Trend Takeovers, where their ad is placed above and alongside trending topics on X’s Explore tab.
X Live, Twitter’s livestreaming tool, allows people to interact with your brand in real-time. Whether it’s a product launch, company announcement, or watch party, X Live enables you to drive conversations and build meaningful connections with your audience.
Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) offer personalized, immersive ad experiences that appear precisely when users need them. Using retargeting data, advertisers can use DPAs to strategically target individuals who have previously interacted with their content on Twitter or viewed products on their website. The best part? These can be interactive, allowing for mini personalized shopping experiences before users even hit the CTA button.
Collection ads are multifunctional ads that leave room for storytelling and audience engagement. Advertisers can choose to showcase up to six products, services, or promotions, either in a single-view experience or a carousel that users can swipe through.
Collection ads also allow for multi-destination functionality, meaning you can link to various product or service destinations in the same ad, increasing conversion opportunities.
Twitter offers additional ad features that can be applied across formats, such as:
App & website cards
Branded hashtags
Branded notifications
Now that we’ve discussed the reasons for using X ads and the various types available, it’s time to learn how to set up and launch your campaign. Dive into this beginner’s guide to setting up X ads below:
Create your X Ads account
Choose your campaign objectives
Fill in your campaign details
Select your ad group and bidding information
Specify your campaign’s target audience
Upload your X ad creatives
Review and launch your campaign
Monitor your X campaign performance analytics
First, you need an X ads account to launch your campaign. If you don’t have one already, make an account. If you do, log in under the handle you’re managing your ads from. Then go to ads.x.com, where you’ll be prompted to log in and enter your time zone and country. Once you’ve done that, click “Let’s Go.”
The next step in setting up an X ads campaign is to select your ad objective. The objective you choose will determine the actions you’ll pay for when people interact with it once it’s live, so ensure you’re choosing the right one:
Reach
Video views
Pre-roll views
App installs
Website traffic
Engagement
App re-engagements
Website conversions
Keywords (Beta)
Once you’ve chosen your X ad objective, hit “Next” to view your “Campaign Details.”
Now that you’ve identified your ad objective, fill out additional details about your campaign, including:
The name of your campaign
Campaign start and end dates
Your campaign’s daily and optional total budget
Click “Next” once you’ve filled out the required information.
Next, select your ad group.
X ad groups are individual ads that have their own budgets, audiences, and schedules but fall under the same campaign umbrella. Since this is an X ads guide for beginners, it’s best to stick with one ad group for now. Once you get comfortable with setting up X ads, start creating additional groups to maximize your campaign’s performance.
Select your bid type. The cost of X ad bids will vary based on your audience, ad type, and ad location, so keep that in mind as you choose one of three bidding options:
Automatic bid: This option auto-optimizes your bids to maximize impressions while keeping your costs down. It’s highly recommended for those just starting out with X ads.
Maximum bid: With maximum bidding, you have more control over your budget spending — you choose how much you pay for every engagement.
Target bid: Target bidding has you pay the average cost of all ad clicks in a day. This means bid costs will vary based on ad performance.
Now it’s time to zero in on who your campaign is targeting. When selecting your target audience for your campaign, you’ll specify targeting criteria like:
Gender
Age
Location
Language
Device type
To further narrow your audience, you’ll also identify unique audience features, such as keywords, conversation topics, related interests, etc. Feel free to be as specific as you’d like! Just remember — the more specific you are, the narrower your audience will be. Once you’re satisfied, click “Next.”
With all the fine details out of the way, it’s time to upload your ad. Whether you’re promoting an existing post or creating a brand-new ad, select your ad type and start composing it. Add a name for your ad and specify its destination.
As you add more information, a preview of your ad on the right side of your screen will change with it. This way, you can see what your ad will look like once it’s live. When you’re done, hit “Review Your Campaign.”
Before launching your campaign, review your ad. Ensure that all the objective, bidding, and targeting information is correct, and add additional ad groups if needed.
Happy with everything? Hit “Launch Campaign!”
Congratulations, you’ve successfully launched an X ads campaign!
But the work doesn’t stop there. Once your ads have had some time to gain momentum, be sure to monitor and review your campaign’s performance analytics. Use the data to understand how your campaign performs with your audience and apply those insights to future campaigns to maximize your results.
If you’re new to Twitter advertising and marketing, you likely have questions. Get answers below with these X advertising FAQs:
On average, Twitter ads can cost anywhere from $101-$500 per month. However, this varies widely based on numerous factors, including:
Your ad budget
Ad & bid types
Your industry
And more
Advertising on Twitter brings a lot of benefits, but there are a few pros that really stand out:
Effective lead generation
Targeted campaigns
Increased brand awareness
Community building
Twitter’s user base is incredibly vast and spans across the world. You have access to over 415 million potential leads and customers. All it takes is a great ad campaign, and you’re on your way to connecting with them.
Before you launch your first Twitter ads campaign, keep these tips and best practices in mind to help you maximize your results:
Clearly define your goals: Your campaign needs direction, so ensure you clearly define your goals and objectives for your ads to set yourself up for success.
Set your budget: Bid management is crucial with X advertising. Establish a monthly (or even weekly) ad budget to avoid breaking the bank and better manage bids.
Know your audience: Conduct in-depth research to identify your campaign’s target audience and target them accordingly.
Create engaging ads: To earn the best results possible, develop engaging ads personalized to your audience. Use eye-catching images, videos, and ad copy!
Use CTAs: Give your audience a reason to continue interacting with your brand. Create CTAs that urge users to click on your ad and explore what your brand offers.
Test your ads: Need help determining which version of an ad is best? Test them! Use A/B testing to better understand what your audience responds to and create more effective campaigns.
Yes, you can do Twitter advertising yourself! If you’re familiar with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and the nuances that come with it (managing bids, targeting audiences, running campaigns, etc.), you can start doing Twitter advertising yourself in a snap.
If you’re not familiar with PPC or even the Twitter platform in general, you can outsource your Twitter advertising to an experienced agency. Twitter ad agencies like WebFX can help you implement expert and industry insights to help you run a successful campaign that drives positive results for your bottom line.
Ready to put the info from this Twitter Advertising 101 guide into action? Start advertising on Twitter today, and get expert help from your social media-savvy friends at WebFX!
We’ve been around for 25+ years, so we’ve seen Twitter evolve and change into X. Our social media strategists have helped successfully manage over $120M in annual ad spend for clients across major social media platforms, including Twitter! Give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today to learn more about our X advertising services.
