If you’re building your business’s visibility or trying to sell a product or service, you may wonder whether Twitter (now known as X) should be your go-to platform. Research showed that Twitter ads ROI was 40% higher than other channels(1).
Even though Twitter ads seem to develop an impressive ROI, it’s important to consider how much those social media ads cost. When you know the cost, your business can make the best decision for optimal results. We’ll let you in on Twitter ad pricing and every factor that influences it.
On average, Twitter ads cost ranges from $0.26 to $0.50 per first action. For promoted accounts, advertising costs $1.01 – $2 per follow (2).
However, this is only an initial approach. You can’t be too sure about your social media advertising cost, especially on Twitter, until you decide on your ad type–promoted ads, follower ads, or Twitter Takeover.
Promoted ads are common in the Twitter timeline because they help significantly increase visibility and engagement. Buy, they will always have the tag “Promoted,” which doesn’t exist in regular posts or tweets.
Follower ads are more subtle compared to promoted ads. They don’t have the “Promoted” tag. You can know whether an account is running a follower ad when it shows up in the “suggested” section on Twitter (now known as X).
The last ad type that determines the cost of a Twitter ad is the Twitter Takeover or “Promoted Trends.” This ad type can cost $200,000 per day and they are most suitable for very large corporations (3). We don’t advise startups or small businesses to follow this route as it may be too expensive to run.
Cost per impression on Twitter
On Twitter (now known as X), cost per impression is a key metric that measures how much it costs to reach 1,000 people. Twitter doesn’t charge by impression, but this metric is similar to the cost per first action (which costs 0.26 – $0.50).
Should you buy Twitter impressions?
Since Twitter doesn’t charge for ads by impressions, third-party websites sell impressions to users who want them. It’s advisable to only go for ad services that Twitter offers as they are more trustworthy. If you decide to buy impressions from a business, you will need to perform enough background checks to ensure you’re making the right decision.
Twitter pay-per-click
Like other social media platforms, Twitter pay-per-click (PPC) is a feature that allows businesses or individuals to pay only when someone clicks their ad. It’s very similar to pay-per-first-action and, when used correctly, it can improve your business ROI.
Average CTR Twitter ads
Tweeting is straightforward, but when you want to drive conversions, you need to be more strategic to increase clicks on your tweet. According to Hubspot, the average Twitter CTR is 1.64% (4).
How to improve your Twitter CTR
Regardless of whatever your previous CTR was on Twitter (aka X), you can take steps to improve it. Here are some guidelines:
Write clear copies
Most Twitter active users scan through their feeds at a fast pace. So, if you want to win their attention, we advise that you use clear language. Ensure your tweet contains language that is clear, concise, and easy to understand in a split second.
According to a study of two different tweets by Hubspot, the tweet with a clear and straightforward copy received 18% more clicks and 29.8% retweets compared to the ambiguous one (5). The clearer you can be in your copy, the higher your chances of increasing your CTR.
Use images to your advantage
Unlike Instagram, Twitter doesn’t require you to include images. But, doing so can improve your Twitter CTR, especially when it’s done correctly.
A report by Hubspot shows that we can recall over 65% of what we visualize and only 10% of what we listen to (6). We also know that since we live in a fast-paced society where consumers see thousands of ads daily, images can mean a lot because they are much easier to digest.
Never forget CTAs
CTAs (or calls to action) are indispensable in marketing—on or off social networks. A good CTA will help potential customers know the next step to prevent confusion in the sales funnel. On Twitter ads, you can ask them to do something that may consequentially improve conversion.
Some good examples of CTAs are:
- Grab your 30% coupon before the offer closes!
- Sign up now to enjoy features from our new product.
- It’s free! Download a copy today.
Each of those CTAs is clear and directs the consumer to make a decision. How it’s structured can also increase the possibility of getting a higher CTR.
How to promote a tweet
To promote a tweet on X (aka Twitter), you can choose two different routes—Quick Promote or Twitter’s Ad Manager.
Promoting a tweet using Quick Promote
Quick Promote is a Twitter feature that allows you to run ad campaigns on X with a few clicks. It’s an alternative to the popular ad manager and is commonly used by individuals or businesses running ads for the first time.
Here are the steps to take when using Quick Promote:
1) Visit your X (formerly Twitter) and click on the quick access menu. Select Profile from the menu.
2) Choose the post you intend to promote and click the “Post Activity” button
3) Click “Promote this post”
4) Go ahead to define your target audience, budget, and campaign period. After doing that, you will get an estimate of the number of impressions and engagements you’ll receive from the promotion.
5) After reviewing the estimates and the entire promotion, you can click “Create Promotion”
6) Once X approves your campaign, it shows up as a promoted tweet on user timelines.
Posts promoted using the Quick Promote feature look like every other ad (including those promoted by the ads manager) on the X timeline.
If you want to edit your campaign, you have to use the X Ads Manager.
Promoting a tweet using Twitter’s Ad Manager
On X, the central workspace for planning, managing, and reporting campaigns is the ads manager. To access the Ads Manager, you need to log in to your Ads account. You can do this by visiting ads.x.com.
To promote a tweet using Twitter’s ad manager, follow these steps:
1) After visiting your ad account, add your payment method. X promises not to bill your account unless you successfully launch a campaign.
2) Click “Tweet Composer (New)” on the “Creatives” menu. Compose your tweet, but ensure you keep the “Promoted-only” box checked and click “Tweet”. Repeat this process until you’ve created all the tweets you intend to promote.
3) Click on the “Campaign” dropdown menu and select “Create campaign.” Follow the displayed prompts to choose your campaign objectives and fill in the necessary details.
4) Launch your campaign. Once your campaign is live, you can track results on the Ads Manager dashboard and can also make edits.
Promoted tweets cost
According to AdsTargets, a promoted tweet can have an advertising cost of $0.50 to $2.00 for every first action (8). However, the average cost entirely depends on the ad type you decide to opt for. You also need to carefully review your campaigns before committing to them in the long run.
Engagement rate benchmark Twitter
According to Rival IQ, the average engagement rate on Twitter is 0.035% (9). This percentage is the average across all industries from education to entertainment.
According to Hootsuite, some of the Twitter engagement rates are as follows (10):
- Agencies — 0.94%
- Media and Entertainment — 1.38%
- Financial services — 1.02%
- Food and beverage — 0.76%
- Government — 1.28%
- Healthcare and Wellness — 0.96%
- Real estate — 0.80%
- Retail — 0.87%
- Professional services and consulting — 0.89%
- Technology — 1.26%
- Travel, hospitality, and leisure — 1.20%
Ad specs Twitter
To give more insight into the different ad specs, we’ve broken down the different ad types on Twitter:
Text ads
Tweet copy — 280 characters
Image ads
Tweet copy — 280 characters
Image size — 1200 x 1200 pixels or 1200 x 628 pixels, except you add features like conversation buttons, which gives a size of 800 x 418 pixels
Aspect ratio — 1:1 or 1.91:1
File types — PNG or JPEG
Max file size — 5MB
Video ads
Tweet copy — 280 characters
Video size — 1200 x 1200 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels, except you add features like conversation buttons, which gives a size of 800 x 450 pixels
Aspect ratio — 1:1 or 16:9
Max video length — 2:20
File types — MP4 or MOV
Max file size — 30MB
Carousel ads
Number of slides — 2 – 6
Image size — 800 x 418 pixels or 800 x 800 pixels
Aspect ratio — 1:1 or 1.9:1 for images and 1:1 or 16:9 for videos
File types — PNG, JPEG, MP4, MPV
Twitter ads example
Here are some examples of different ad types based on their formats:
Barista Bar’s text ad
This text ad follows the ad spec requirements of less than 280 characters. It also clearly targets people who love coffee by informing them about their brand.
Airdrop image ad campaign
In this image ad campaign, ThomasHarris.eth is promoting an airdrop through a clear copy that uses verbs and an image that redirects people to a dedicated landing page.
Oreo Cookie’s video ad
Oreo launched this video ad to create a trend among its target audience, which was mostly females. It doesn’t exceed the maximum video length requirement of 2:20 and was also uploaded in the appropriate file type.
Barista Bar’s carousel ad
Barista uses its carousel ads to show different options of coffee available to interested customers. With only four slides and a 1.9:1 aspect ratio, it follows the appropriate ad spec and effectively increases brand awareness.
Twitter ads budget
When running ads on Twitter, you need to first understand that you don’t need a huge budget to achieve reasonable results. Twitter allows you to have complete control over your spending. To get the best out of your budget, here are some steps to follow:
Set Goals
When creating your Twitter ads budget, it’s imperative to set goals that match your campaign targets. This will help you get billed only for actions that align with your campaign targets.
For instance, if your business wants to create awareness about its products or services. The campaign objective that matches is a reach campaign. This will increase the number of people seeing your ad at a set period.
Create unique, high-quality ads
Ad quality is a significant factor that always affects your budget. This is because Twitter uses its auction algorithm to determine which ads should be set up for success. Here are some tips to make your ad unique and high-quality:
- Don’t rely on one tweet for your campaign: To give the Twitter algorithm enough options or ads to choose from, use multiple tweets in your campaign.
- Stay up to date: Since Twitter occurs in real-time, it’s imperative to stay up to date with relevant content that increases your chances of success. So, if your campaign isn’t getting any reasonable results, it’s important to try out new tweets.
- Keep ad copies straightforward: Restrict your ad copies to 50 – 100 characters.
- Ask questions: People love to ask questions on Twitter and engage in different conversations. So, to increase that engagement, could also need to ask questions in your ad tweet.
- Work with your campaign objectives: Choose from the variety of branded and standard ad features available.
Target your audience right
To ensure that you have the right set of people viewing your ad, it’s imperative to prioritize audience targeting. The type of targeting you choose for your campaign will determine the type and size of your campaign audience.
It’s great to have a broad audience size for your ad targeting, but quality is very important. If you intend to reach out to a large audience, using generic keywords like garden, music, and sport can be a highly competitive route as other brands may also use them.
You can consider more specific keywords that point to precise events that are relevant to your campaign objectives.
Choose a working bidding strategy
Twitter runs an auction system. So, advertisers always need to bid against each other to make their ads reach the ideal audience. The three common bidding options to choose from are:
- Automatic bidding: Choosing this helps you automatically optimize your bid for maximum results with the lowest price within your budget. The automatic bid is a great option for new or experienced advertisers trying a new type of campaign.
- Maximum bidding: The maximum bid is for experienced advertisers or marketers. You can choose how much you intend to pay for a billable action and you won’t get charged above that amount.
- Target bidding: For this bid type, you will name the amount you want to pay for a billable action. Your campaign helps to optimize your bids to achieve a daily spend that meets or beats the target.
Minimum budget for Twitter ads
According to Twitter, there’s no minimum spend for ads in a month (2). However, WebFX claims that 53% of businesses spend between $101 to $500 on Twitter advertising. They also state that most businesses allocate around 6% — 30% of their lifetime budget to Twitter ads.
Twitter ads daily budget
Since your monthly budget for Twitter ads could fall between $101 and $500, your daily budget should be a breakdown of that amount for the period you intend to run your ads in the month. So, if your ads are scheduled for 20 days a month, that gives an average cost of $5.05 — $25 daily.
Are Twitter ads worth it?
Twitter ads are worth it when done correctly. They help consumers know about your brand and build a relationship with your business. Before you begin to run ads, we advise that you review your account to ensure it’s optimized for a high conversion rate. Additionally, although it’s clear Twitter is a useful platform with good engagement, our truthful answer is that “it depends”.
X has been through some large changes recently which has impacted their target audience and can mean the platform is not always the most reliable. As a result, Twitter ads might not be as relevant as they were and whether or not they are worth it depends on each particular situation.
Based on each person’s company and goals, Twitter ads might not be the best platform for them and instead, Meta ads could be the best choice. Contact us and we’ll help you assess the best ads platform for you.
Need help running your Twitter ads or ads in general? At Nomadic Advertising, we help businesses increase their brand awareness and get consistent conversions using Twitter ads. Reach out to us today for a free consultation!
Sources
- https://marketing.twitter.com/en_gb/insights/study-offers-new-marketing-mix-modeling-insights-and-guidance
- https://www.webfx.com/social-media/pricing/how-much-does-it-cost-to-advertise-on-twitter/
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/twitter-ads-cost/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-increase-clickthrough-rate
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-tips-data?hubs_content=blog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Ftwitter-increase-clickthrough-rate&hubs_content-cta=HubSpot%20did%20a%20study
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy?hubs_content=blog.hubspot.com/marketing/images&hubs_content-cta=over%2065%25%20of%20what%20we%20see%20#general
- https://adstargets.com/blog/twitter-ads-costs-2022/
- https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/good-engagement-rate-twitter/
- https://blog.hootsuite.com/average-engagement-rate/
