Twitter Advertising: 5 Best Practices to Follow

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Twitter is a great way to connect with people, and if you have an active presence, an even better way to promote your business and reach out to potential customers and clients. But if you're not taking advantage of Twitter's paid advertising options yet, you might want to add it to your advertising arsenal. When done right, Twitter advertising can give your business a serious boost.

"As marketers still struggle to prove ROI [return on investment] with social, Twitter jumps on that problem to provide an opportunity with e-commerce solutions in its ad platform," said Daniel Lara, marketing programs and event manager at digital marketing platform Offerpop.

Lara and Mairead Ridge, Offerpop's senior manager of marketing, shared their top tips for using Twitter ads. From staying active on the social network to using visual content, here's what you need to know before you start promoting your tweets.

Keep your profile updated and active. Want to launch a successful Twitter advertising campaign? It's important that you keep your profile page up to date, aesthetically pleasing and full of fresh, relevant content and visuals, Lara said. If you don't, he noted, it can diminish the credibility of your brand, and that's the last thing you want when you're targeting prospective buyers and followers.

Take advantage of multimedia. Twitter used to be all about text, but these days visuals are just as important as what you can say in under 140 characters. This is in part, Ridge said, due to the rise of networks like Pinterest and Instagram, which focus solely on images and video content. To get the most out of your Twitter ads, Ridge said, be sure that your ad strategy includes eye-catching imagery and video.

Create compelling content. Since promoted tweets and accounts appear in your Twitter feed alongside updates from the users you follow, Twitter advertisements can be seen as invasive by others.

"Many Twitter followers still see their feeds as exclusive domains," Lara said, "so when launching ads that will permeate someone’s feed who isn’t your follower, be sure your offer is valuable."

Ensuring that your Twitter ads offer something valuable to the users who see it will help serve click-through rates (CTRs) and gain you more followers, Lara noted.

Don't be a salesman.It may be tempting to use your Twitter ads to compel customers to "buy now," but you should be wary of the hard sell, Ridge said.

"Remember to tailor the ads to [your brand's] contextual environment," Ridge said, noting that advertisers should keep the tone of their ads conversational and develop better calls to action (CTAs) that actually promise to deliver. 

Hop on the hashtag bandwagon. Twitter is all about hashtags, so when you're advertising, use them to your advantage. And if you're trying to create a multichannel hashtag campaign to promote your business or a specific event, Twitter ads can be a great way to give it a boost. Ridge noted that many leading brands have found success that way.

"Brands should consider giving their hashtags a paid boost in order to drive more conversation and sharing," Ridge said.