Target Twitter Ads with Keywords

Allison Howen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:25:00 GMT

Twitter is stepping up its ad game with its latest launch of keyword targeting in timelines.

Keyword targeting allows advertisers on the micro-blogging social network to reach consumers based on the keywords in their recent tweets and the tweets that they have recently engaged with. According to Twitter’s blog, this feature is especially valuable for advertisers looking for signals of intent, because it lets them reach users at the right moment and in the right context.

“For example: let’s say a user tweets about enjoying the latest album from their favorite band, and it so happens that band is due to play a concert at a local venue,” the blog post states. “That venue could now run a geotargeted campaign using keywords for that band with a Tweet containing a link to buy the tickets. That way, the user who tweeted about the new album may soon see that Promoted Tweet in their timeline letting them know tickets are for sale in their area.”

It is important to note that this new feature won’t disrupt the user-experience on Twitter, because the social network isn’t showing ads more frequently in timelines and consumers still have the ability to dismiss Promoted Tweets that they don’t find relevant. Moreover, the Promoted Tweets that users do see should, overall, be more relevant to their topics of interest. In fact, Twitter claims that the results of its tests with a small group of advertisers show that consumers were more likely to engage with Promoted Tweets that used keyword targeting.

The feature is currently available in the full Twitter Ads UI and through the Ads API. Advertisers interested in setting up a campaign that uses target keyword simply need to enter the keywords that they want to target, choose whether they want to use phrase match or unordered keyword match, and then specify any other desired targeting options, such as location, device or gender.

Domain Names and Keywords

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:40:00 GMT

When you bought your first domain name, you probably had no idea that the inclusion or exclusion of keywords would be such a matter of hot debate, did you? There are two schools of thought when it comes to whether to include descriptive keywords (or phrases) within your domain names. Which one are you? Read below and share your thoughts with other Website Magazine readers because we really want to know!

The Keyword IN the Domain Name:
SEO's go back and forth about whether having a keyword in the domain name plays a part (even a small part) in how you rank. Over time, the rules have changed a bit - from carrying great importance years ago to carrying (arguably) little influence today. As you can imagine, if keywords in the domain name were the end all and be all of how to rank well on search result pages the cost of premium domain names would be thousands of times more expensive than they already are and the rest of the SEO community would routinely use every bit of the sixty three allowable characters in other domains. It's hard to argue that keywords in domains don't carry some weight, but not in the way that you may think. When users come across a domain name that includes keywords, I believe it's safe to assume that the website with a keyword (or two) in a domain name would perform equally on the search result pages (if not greater) than a domain name without a keyword included. There are too many factors included in ranking algorithms to insist that keywords in a domain name carry a great weight in influencing position. What may influence position however (thanks to greater personalization efforts by search engines) is how often items are clicked. If keywords in domain names do influence clicks, then that is a good reason to include it in you domain name.

The Keyword NOT IN the Domain Name:
While I was always taught to name things (domains included) exactly what they are, proponents of not including keywords in domain names reguarly cite popular services as proof that it's not neccessary to include keywords. Popular real estate site Trulia does not have keywords in its domain name and they still rank well - so you might too (see example below). But search for Chicago Real Estate as I did and you'll notice something interesting - a domain name with the exact keyword that i used to search. Conincidence? I think not. While the inclusion of search terms on your website (through titles and descriptions) that consumers use play an arguably much greater part than in the domain name itself, the proof might just be in the SERPs.

'Net Features : keywords in domains

Target Twitter Ads with Keywords

Domain Names and Keywords