Twitter Advertising for B2B Marketers: Twitter Ads Campaign Types

Are your Twitter efforts paying off — or do you feel like you’re shouting into a crowded room?  

While LinkedIn is the most popular social platform for B2B marketing, it’s not the only paid social media platform that can be effective. 

In fact, 54% of B2B marketers currently use Twitter to expand brand awareness, interact with prospects, and, yes, even drive sales. 

There are two ways to use Twitter for B2B marketing — posting interesting content to grow your brand organically and leveraging Twitter Advertising, where you pay to reach a highly targeted audience. Twitter Ads lets you target users based on location, language, device, age, and gender. Twitter also offers look-alike audiences to drive demand. 

Below, I’ll cover the different types of Twitter Ad campaigns, including who can use them, and share strategies to help improve your Twitter advertising ROI. 

Twitter Ads Campaign Types

You have several options if you want to pay to reach Twitter users. Each ad format comes with various targeting and customization options. 

Some ad campaigns, such as Twitter Takeovers, are only available by reaching out to Twitter directly. Most campaign types, such as images, videos, or Twitter live ads, can be accessed via your Twitter Ads account. 

Promoted Ads

Twitter Promoted Ads are similar to boosted posts on Facebook. They look like regular tweets, show up in user’s regular Twitter feed and feature a small ‘promoted’ tag at the bottom, like this:

The best part of promoted ads on Twitter is their flexibility. Want to share a link, promote a video, or share five images of a new product? You can do that. 

There are five formats for promoted ads, including: 

1. Promoted Image Ads: Showcase your brand or product with a single image and text. 
2. Promoted Video Ads: Highlight your team or products with a short video and drive users to your site or app.  
3. Carousel Ads: Share up to six videos or images to promote multiple products, views, or offers.  
4. Promoted Moment Ads: Share a collection of Tweets to create what Twitter calls an “immersive story.” 
5. Promoted Text Ads: Increase the reach of a text-only tweet. Because they look like other Tweets (besides the promoted tag), users are more likely to engage with these ads. 

Follower Ads

Growing your Twitter followers is a great way to expand your reach — and brand awareness. Follower ads put your account front and center in the “Who to follow” section on Twitter. 

The section includes both curated follower suggestions and promoted follower suggestions:

Like other Twitter Ads, follower ads can be targeted to ensure you only pay to reach the most qualified accounts. 

Twitter Takeover

Want to go big? Twitter Takeover ads are premium ads that can drive massive results. These are targeted at enterprise brands and are not available for self-managed ad campaigns. (That means you’ll have to reach out to Twitter to run these ads!) 

Trend Takeover occupies the top spot in targeted users’ trends section on both mobile and desktop — giving your brand massive reach. There are two main types of takeovers:

• Timeline Takeover: Your ad shows up at the top of Twitter as the first ad users see when they open the app. 
• Trend Takeover: Highlight your brand alongside popular topics in the trending topics tab. 

Here’s what the trend takeover looks like:

Twitter Live

Twitter Live allows you to broadcast live video right on Twitter. Want to promote your live broadcast? You can use Twitter Live ads to reach a wider audience and drive conversations about your brand. 

Twitter Ad Features 

Want your Twitter ads to stand out even more? Twitter Ad Features are add-ons that expand the functionality of other Twitter Ad formats. Ad features include: 

• Polls: Learn more about your customers and increase engagement by asking questions. 
• Conversation Buttons (CTAs): Add a call to action button to prompt users to share your message. 
• App Buttons: Add a clickable button that links directly to your app download page on App Store or Play Store. 
• Website Buttons: Allow users to click through to a specific landing page or site page. 
• Branded Hashtags: Trigger unique emojis whenever a specific hashtag is used. These can help your brand stand out but come with a high price tag. ($1 million or more!)

• Branded Notifications: Deliver automated responses to Twitter mentions by timed triggers to engage users at just the right time. These are delivered via a third-party app.

Note: Not all features can be used with all ad formats. For example, you can’t add polls to video ads, and self-serve advertisers can’t use conversation buttons. 

Twitter Ads B2B Best Practices

According to a recent study, Twitter ads deliver a 40% higher ROI compared to other media channels. That makes it an ideal platform for businesses looking to generate demand, build awareness, and stay connected as leads move through the buying process. 

Want to make the most of Twitter Ads? These strategies will help improve your ROI. 

Use High-Quality Images / Videos In Twitter Ads 

For years, Twitter users have leveraged visual content to get around the character limit for tweets and engage with followers. According to Twitter, 97% of Twitter users focus on visuals, so clear, high-quality videos and images are a must. 

Using high-quality visuals makes it easier to catch users’ attention as they mindlessly scroll their feed and can help you highlight products or services more effectively. 

Twitter supports JPEG and PNG image file formats up to 5 MG, so aim to use an image that maximizes quality while staying within their sizing formats. If you use GIFs in an ad, they render as a static image. 

Videos may be uploaded in MP4 or MOV formats and can be up to 1GB in size. Twitter recommends keeping your file size under 30 MB for best performance.  

Add CTA’s To Tell Users What to Do Next 

Call-to-action’s are an essential component of any inbound marketing strategy, and they’re especially important for B2B organizations on Twitter. That’s because social media is a crowded space. Most users will only glance at your ad for a few seconds. A powerful, value-driven CTA helps them understand the next step in just a few seconds. 

Do you want them to download a report? Share your tweet? Sign up for a free demo? Follow your account? Whether your goal is brand awareness or conversions, make the next step clear and focus on value — will they learn a new skill, stay up to date on industry news, or get access to a few features?

Target Ads Based on Device 

Mobile and desktop users interact with Twitter in different ways. Mobile users are likely swiping quickly and may only stay on the site for a few moments. They are more likely to make spur-of-the-minute decisions, but unlikely to make large purchases. 

Running separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users allows you to show users content or promotions they are more likely to interact with. 

For example, a mobile user might watch a shorter video or download an app, while a desktop user may be more willing to fill out a lead generation form or download a white paper. 

Test different ad formats and goals to ensure your campaigns align with how users interact with the platform. 

Use Twitter’s Ad Features   

Twitter Ad Features (which we covered above) allow you to add functionality to different ad types, including polls, app downloads, conversations, and website buttons. These features make it easier to encourage users to take a specific action — and tend to be more visually appealing, like this poll example:

Twitter Ad Features can also direct users to specific landing pages, app download pages, or prompt users to share your content and expand brand awareness. These features are free, so look for ways to incorporate them into your current ads and test the results. 

Use Multiple Ad Formats 

When setting up your Twitter Ad Campaign, consider creating several ads in different formats. For example, using a video carousel in one version and an image carousel in another, or testing the effectiveness of text versus video ads for a product launch. According to Twitter, using three or more ad types increases campaign awareness by 20% and purchase intent by 7%. 

It’s also an easy way to test which ad formats and CTAs your audience is likely to respond to. 

Final Thoughts on Twitter Advertising for B2B 

As a B2B marketer, it’s easy to forget there are valuable platforms outside of LinkedIn. Twitter is a powerful social media advertising platform that can help you reach a targeted audience at just the right moment, increase brand awareness, and engage with leads in a casual setting. 

To see the best results on Twitter, use a mix of organic content to establish brand awareness and paid ads that drive action. And make sure to avoid these Twitter marketing mistakes. 

 

Have any B2B Twitter Advertising thoughts or tips you’d like to share? Reach out to us on Twitter!