Learn the step-by-step process for setting up your first Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts campaign on Twitter's self-serve ad platform. We'll cover ad formats, targeting, bidding, and more.

1. Advertising on Twitter:
Your Quick-Start Guide to
the Self-Serve Platform

2. Twitter Advertising | Ad Formats
Twitter offers two basic ad formats on the self-serve platform.
Promoted Tweets
Promoted Accounts
Now that Twitter has opened their self-serve advertising platform to all
users, it’s time for brands to start taking advantage of this affordable and
highly targeted form of social ads.
Don’t worry -- they’re easier to plan, set up, and run than you might
think. Our quick-start guide will help you get going.

3. Twitter Advertising | Promoted Accounts
Purpose: Promoted Accounts is intended for follower acquisition.
How it Works: Twitter displays your brand’s handle on the left-hand column of
the site in the “Who to follow” box. Your brand appears alongside Twitter’s
other tailored recommendations, but it is denoted that your account is
promoted.
What it Costs: Advertisers are charged on a costper-follower basis. While prices will vary
depending on your brand, targeting, and
seasonality, many advertisers see a CPF of $2 $4.

4. Twitter Advertising | Promoted Tweets
Purpose: Promoted Tweets are intended for content syndication, campaign
promotion, and brand awareness.
How it Works: Brands select the Tweets they want to promote, and Twitter
displays them at or near the top of targeted users’ news feeds. They can also
appear in the search results for targeted keywords.
What it Costs: Advertisers are charged
on a cost-per-engagement basis.
Engagements are defined as retweets,
favorites, follows, or clicks anywhere on
the Tweet. Many brands see an average
CPE between $0.50 - $2.

5. Twitter Advertising | Campaign Setup
The process for setting up your campaign is very similar whether you’re
running Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts.
Start by selecting your campaign name and duration.
* Note: First-time advertisers, Twitter may put your account through a verification process before it begins
serving impressions, so allow a 24 to 48-hour time cushion for your campaign to actually launch.

6. Twitter Advertising | Targeting
When you run Promoted Tweets, Twitter gives you the option to target users by
selected keywords or by interest categories and followers that are similar to
relevant handles.

7. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Followers
Twitter’s username targeting allows you to input the handles of brands and
individuals who are likely to have a following similar to your target audience.
For instance, if you’re trying to target small business owners, you could input the
handles of small business influencers like @SmallBizTrends, @EntMagazine, @NeilPatel,
etc. You can expand your reach by adding more handles and/or handles with large
followings.

8. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Interests
In addition to targeting based on usernames, you can also target consumers
based on a set of pre-determined interest categories that Twitter has defined.

9. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Interests
Twitter allows you to choose
from 25 different broad
interest categories, each with
their own subcategories.
You can select any combination
of interests from multiple
categories.

10. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Keywords
Alternatively, you can choose to target users by the keywords they use in their
Tweets. This targeting parameter is only available for Promoted Tweets
campaigns, not Promoted Accounts.

11. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Keywords
As you input your keywords, you can select the match type you’d like, similar to
the options you have for PPC ads.
Twitter also gives you the option to avoid targeting users that have used your
keywords within the context of a negative Tweet. This can be a valuable feature
if you’re targeting a lot of brand and product keywords.

12. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Demographics
Location targeting will be key for brick-and-mortar businesses, as well as brands running
geo-specific campaigns. Don’t waste your money targeting users that can’t become
customers! You can segment within the US by State/Region, Metro Area, or Postal Code.
Gender targeting can be a valuable feature, but keep in mind that many Twitter users
have unspecified genders.

13. Twitter Advertising | Targeting Devices
Device targeting is a valuable parameter depending on your product, campaign goals,
and/or landing page.
If your product is intended to work on iOS devices, then go ahead and uncheck those
Android, Blackberry, and other boxes. Those users probably won’t become customers.
Are you driving traffic to a landing page that renders poorly on mobile devices? Preserve
your customer experience, and consider only targeting desktop and laptop users.

14. Twitter Advertising | Selecting Your Tweets
If you’re running a Promoted Tweets
campaign, then it’s time to select the
Tweets you want to include. If you’re
running a Promoted Accounts campaign,
then you’ll skip this step!
You have the option to promote a Tweet
that you’ve already published, or you
can create an original Tweet that will
only exist as part of your campaign and
won’t be published to your timeline.

15. Twitter Advertising | Selecting Your Tweets
While Twitter does give you the option to automatically promote your new
Tweets, we typically recommend taking a more controlled approach to Tweet
selection.
Select the Tweets that best represent your brand and contribute directly to
campaign goals.

16. Twitter Advertising | Selecting Your Tweets
If you want to create new Tweets that won’t be published to your timeline,
you can write them within the campaign manager. Attach a photo, your
location, a shortened URL, or a lead generation card.
Creating unpublished Tweets is ideal for campaigns where you want to test a
wide variety of copy variations, CTAs, images, or landing pages without
spamming your followers.

17. Twitter Advertising | Budget
Here’s where the money comes in. If you have a set budget that you can’t exceed,
enter it as your total budget. Once your campaign hits that number, it will
automatically shut off.
Entering a total budget is optional, but you are required to set a daily budget.
Regardless of the length of your campaign, it will turn off each day after your daily
maximum is reached.

18. Twitter Advertising | Bidding
As we mentioned in the beginning, Twitter bills for Promoted Tweets on a
cost-per-engagement basis, and for Promoted Accounts on a cost-perfollower basis.

19. Twitter Advertising | Bidding
Start off by placing your bid somewhere within
Twitter’s recommended range. As you adjust your bid
and targeting parameters, Twitter will update the
estimated reach of your campaign.
If you find that you’re spending your full budget every
day, slowly lower your bid price and monitor how it
affects performance. If you aren’t spending your daily
budget, you may need to expand your targeting or
increase your bid.

20. Twitter Advertising | Launch!
Once you’ve set up all your campaign
dates, budget, targeting, and Tweets,
you’re ready to launch!
Your live campaign will appear in
your main campaign dashboard,
where you can monitor impressions,
engagements, and spend over time.
Keep a close eye on your metrics, and
optimize the campaign as you go!

21. Twitter Advertising | RBM
Want to learn more about social campaign strategy and
management?
Drop us a line with questions or comments at www.
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