'Net Features : social advertising

Now Open: Twitter Self-Serve Ads

Allison Howen — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:30:00 GMT

After spending a year in limited release, Twitter has finally opened its self-service advertising program to the public.

This is not only big news for businesses who maintain an active presence on the micro-blogging social network, but also for businesses that are new to Twitter and professionals who are trying to grow their personal brand – as these ads improve a user’s visibility and can even help a business increase key metrics like conversions.

Twitter Self-Serve Ads 101

Twitter's self-service platform offers Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts as advertising formats. Both formats are labeled as “Promoted” when they appear on the social network so that users can easily identify them as paid advertisements. That said, all Promoted content is displayed next to regular content on a Twitter user’s newsfeed, which means that these ads don’t interrupt the user experience.

Promoted Tweets, for example, appear in the newsfeed on mobile devices, desktops, laptops and tablets, while Promoted Accounts are featured in the “Who to follow” area of the homepage.

Once you begin the ad creation process, Twitter offers a variety of targeting options, including by location, gender, interest categories, user names, device and platform. These options should be leveraged to help users reach the most relevant audience. After the campaign’s audience has been selected, creating a budget is the next step.

Twitter’s self-serve ads only require users to pay when targeted audience members engage with Promoted Tweets or Accounts. This includes interactions such as clicks, retweets, replies, favorites and follows. During the set-up process, users can select their daily maximum budget as well as maximum bid per engagement or follow. In order to make the process easier for new advertisers, Twitter even provides a recommended maximum budget for each ad type ($1.50 for Promoted Tweets and $2.50 for Promoted Accounts). Moreover, the social network provides an “Estimated Reach” graph within the self-service interface, so that users have a better understanding of how their budget and targeting options will affect their ad’s visibility.

It is also important to note that Twitter’s self-serve ad platform provides users with real-time analytics, which can be used to analyze and optimize future campaigns. For instance, the Promoted Tweets dashboard displays valuable ad metrics, such as impressions, number of clicks and click rate, while the Follower growth chart helps users keep track of their brand's growth by providing data on followers that have been gained with and without Promoted Accounts.

5 Best Practices

1. Take advantage of location targeting – Twitter’s targeting options allow users to target by location on a country, state/region and metro level. This allows users to decide if their campaign should be launched on either a very broad or a local level. Moreover, users can target numerous locations with one campaign, which is beneficial to brands that are present in a variety of areas, businesses that have storefronts in multiple locations and expanding businesses.

2. Reach relevant people/groups – Ads perform best when they are displayed to people who are interested in the advertiser and their content, which is why this targeting option can greatly influence an ad’s effectiveness. Users can target by both @username interest and interest category. The interest category option is helpful when trying to reach a specific group of people, while the @username option helps businesses make sure their ads reach specific and influential Twitter users.

3. Target based on device/platform – The device and platform targeting options allow users to focus their campaigns on their most valuable or relevant customers. For example, if you’re launching a Promoted Tweet for a new iOS app, you most certainly want to target iOS devices and probably desktop and laptop computers, however, you might want to leave Android and Blackberry users out of your campaign so that your ad dollars aren’t wasted.

4. Don’t be over-promotional – The best part of Promoted Tweets is that they are incorporated into a user’s newsfeed, which means they are not an in-your-face advertisement. That said, the best way to obtain higher engagement rates with these ads is to make sure the content appears as it would in a regular tweet. This doesn’t mean that these tweets can’t contain links or some type of promotional information, however, it’s important to stay relatable so that customers are more likely to interact with your ads.

5. Amplify existing tweets – If you have already posted an engaging tweet that contains content suitable for an advertisement (such as a white paper link, a look at a new product or info on a hot promotion), consider using it for a Promoted Tweet. Twitter allows users to promote multiple tweets, including new and existing posts. Since some content has already proved to be engaging, businesses can put it in front of a brand new audience to further increase its visibility and boost its audience interactions.

Holiday Primer: Facebook Offers

Allison Howen — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:30:00 GMT

There are 584 million-plus reasons why Facebook is a marketing hotspot. This number of active daily users makes the social network's everyday audience about three times larger than the Super Bowl’s.

To cater to the increasing number of marketers tuned into Facebook, the network offers a variety of robust advertising options, including the newest “Facebook Offers.” These Offers are essentially a form of daily deals, which are launched directly from a brand’s Facebook Page. While many businesses already leverage this ad format, there are many best practices that marketers should take into consideration in order to gain the best return on investment (ROI) from this type of promotion – especially during the holiday season.

• Create a deal that no one can refuse – When launching a Facebook Offer, marketers must create a deal that doesn’t hurt their brand's bottom line, but also entices consumers to redeem the promotion. For the best results, discounts should be at least 20 percent off regular prices, however, merchants will typically see better results with offers that include larger discounts or promotions for free items.

• Make offers easy to redeem – Before creating an offer, marketers must work with merchants to determine where the promotion will be valid – either online, in-stores or both. After this is done, marketers should take the necessary steps to make offers easy to redeem. For example, they can add a barcode for in-store offers or a redemption code for online offers. By adding these elements to offers, marketers make the redemption process hassle free for consumers and brick-and-mortar employees.

• Attract attention with the headline and image – Most people browse their newsfeeds multiple times a day, which is why the headline and image of an offer need to stand out from the rest of the day’s Facebook posts. Marketers should use a headline that prominently displays the offer's value so that customers know exactly what they are redeeming. Additionally, the Offer’s image should showcase the product or service being promoted, and shouldn’t be too complex for consumers to identify on a small screen since offers are also displayed on mobile devices.

• Make it clear and concise – Merchants must customize the terms and conditions for their offers, and it is best to keep this section as simple as possible. While it is important to clearly outline what products an offer can be used on, a complex or long terms-and-conditions statement may end up turning customers away from the promotion.

• Set an expiration date – While limited-time offers create a sense of urgency among consumers, it is important for merchants to allow their offers to be valid for at least a few days. In fact, the longer an offer is valid for, the more free word-of-mouth advertising it receives through the newsfeed.

• Determine a budget and start promoting – The amount that is paid to launch a Facebook Offer is based on the number of people that the offer will reach, which is why it is important to set a budget before creating an offer. Furthermore, marketers should share their existing offers instead of creating new offers, so they can easily keep track of the offer’s analytics. Lastly, merchants should promote their offers by pinning them to the top of their Facebook Page.

Launching a Facebook Offer is a quick and easy way for merchants to attract consumers both online and in-stores, especially during the holiday season. While the offer may only reach a segment of your Facebook fans, the interactions that fans have with the offer are shared onto those users newsfeeds. This means that even though the initial reach of an offer may not be huge, the word-of-mouth advertising of the offer through the newsfeed may result in a much larger audience and new customer opportunities.

However, it is important to note that testing different variations of offers will provide marketers with information that can help to optimize future campaigns. Thus, marketers should try a few different discount options, image alternatives and versions of headline text before deciding what works best.

Facebook Social Ads Booming

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

There are some naysayers when it comes to social advertising on Facebook, but advertisers investment in the channel seems to be paying off, at least according to research from ad management platform Marin Software.

According to Marin, Facebook social ad budgets in the U.S. increase from 5 percent to 23 percent in the last 12 months (Editors note: Facebook introduced social ad units such as Sponsored Stories in February 2011). Marin's research suggests that by the end of 2012, social ads will account for nearly 50 percent of Facebook ad budgets.

"With Facebook's introduction of Sponsored Stories last year, two questions arose -- will advertisers adopt the new ads and will the new ads produce revenue results?" said Matt Lawson, vice president of marketing and partnerships at Marin Software. "Marin Software's research confirms that answer is an emphatic 'Yes,' as budgets continue to increase and will soon represent 50 percent of Facebook ad investments."

What is appealing about Facebook's social ads is that they work - and I say that from experience. Consumer engagement with Facebook ads, as measured by click through rates, has increased 50 percent over thee last 12 months.

"In the last year advertisers have directed more budgets to social ads and Facebook users have responded by clicking more often," said Lawson. "This trend is not only positive for Facebook from a revenue standpoint, but also provides important validation of the opportunity advertisers have to drive revenues from word of mouth marketing efforts."

OneRiot Introduces Social Targeting for Mobile

Linc Wonham — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Online advertising marketplace OneRiot has launched a social targeting service in which advertisers can reach mobile users through interest profiles, demographics, social influence and real-time conversations.

Audience profiles are created via social streams such as Twitter, using relevant mobile content such as status updates, tweets, photos, advertising and more. OneRiot implemented the service for Chevrolet during the Super Bowl, trying to gain additional exposure for Chevy’s television ad during the game.

The campaign was targeted to male sports fans and car enthusiasts who were talking about “football” across a network of mobile Twitter apps. When they checked their apps, users would see an ad for Chevy that prompted them to watch the car manufacturer’s Super Bowl video on YouTube.

OneRiot explains that mobile targeting today is typically based on location and platform, as opposed to how targeting is done on the desktop Web – where granular audience segments can be identified based on interests, demographics, etc. As a result, mobile campaign performance tends to be much lower than those found on the desktop Web.

Until now. OneRiot’s targeting service is based on the fundamental belief that mobile is inherently social, and that user behavior on mobile is social. Users engage with content on their mobile devices that is relevant to their current social activity – whether it be status updates, tweets, photos or advertising.

Based on the company’s track record for innovation, this will be worth watching closely.

Online Ad Market Looks Healthy

Mike Phillips — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:00:00 GMT

A study released by ZenithOptimedia shows that global ad spend is bouncing back from 2009 lulls, particularly on the online medium.

The forecast predicts online to account for 17 percent of total ad spend by 2012 - just two percentage points behind steadily-declining newspaper ad spend. The main driver remains paid search (50.2 percent of all online ad spend) but ZenithOptimedia predicts that emerging formats like video, mobile and social media will "...help display stablize its share."

The most rapid ad growth is taking place with mobile. They predict an average growth rate of 43.2 percent per year until 2012. Social media advertising is predicted to grow 30.2 percent during the same period. Growth rate for Internet advertising as a whole is predicted at 15.6 percent.