The Complete Guide to Twitter Ads Manager

Twitter Ads Manager is the platform’s powerful advertising interface that enables creating, managing, and optimizing Twitter ad campaigns. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore everything brands need to know to leverage Twitter Ads Manager for marketing success effectively.

Introduction to Twitter Ads Manager

Twitter Ads Manager is the central dashboard for setting up, running, measuring, and optimizing paid Twitter advertising campaigns. Key capabilities include:

Creating campaign objectives like tweet engagements, conversions, or brand awareness.
Targeting campaigns precisely using parameters like keywords, interests, behaviors, and more.
Designing ad creative in multiple formats such as images, videos, and carousels.
Managing campaign budgets, bids, schedules, and placements.
Accessing actionable performance analytics to refine strategy.
Collaborating with team members through shared accounts and permissions.

Twitter Ads Manager provides a proprietary self-serve platform enabling brands to promote themselves among Twitter’s highly engaged audience.

Benefits of Advertising on Twitter

Here are some of the major benefits of brand advertising on Twitter:

Targeted reach – Twitter’s depth of user data enables targeting niche audiences.
Valuable audiences – Twitter users tend to be affluent with higher disposable incomes.
Engaged users – People actively engage with content and brands on Twitter.
Real-time conversations – Twitter is the place for real-time consumer connections.
Video marketing – Native video ads achieve high completion rates organically.
Lead generation – Conversions and calls-to-action can efficiently generate leads.
Brand building – Twitter provides platforms to grow brands through engagement.
Trend discovery – Viral trends provide low-cost promotion opportunities.

So Twitter offers unique advantages for reaching and engaging target demographics.

Also read: How to Create Twitter Ads

Key Features of Twitter Ads Manager

Twitter Ads Manager centralizes management of all promoted campaigns through:

Flexible campaign objectives – Awareness, engagement, conversions, etc.
Multiple ad formats – Images, videos, carousels, collections, and more.
Robust targeting – Location, interests, behaviors, keywords, and follower targeting.
Automated bidding – Aimed at maximizing results within the assigned budget.
Campaign management – Schedule, budget, place, organize, and pause campaigns.
Advanced analytics – Monitor engagement, clicks, conversions, and other metrics.
Collaboration features – Manage team access through permissions and roles.

So Twitter Ads Manager consolidates all tools required for successful Twitter advertising.

Getting Started With Twitter Ads Manager

Signing Up

To access Twitter Ads Manager, brands first need to:

Create a promoted Twitter account.
Submit required ad agreement forms.
Enable payment methods through credit cards, PayPal, etc.
Grant permissions to ad managers under account settings.

Once approved, navigating to ads.twitter.com will display the Ads Manager dashboard.

Twitter Ad Account Structure

Within Ads Manager, accounts are structured hierarchically:

Client account – Overall umbrella account
Advertiser accounts – Individual brand accounts sitting under the client
Funding sources – Payment credentials connected to advertisers
Campaigns – Individual promoted campaigns associated with advertisers

Proper structuring helps organize complex brand relationships under one parent client.

Key Interface Elements

The Twitter Ads Manager interface consists of these main elements:

Left nav menu – Quick navigation between sections
Dashboards – Overview metrics and insights
Campaigns – Manage existing campaigns
Analytics – Reporting and campaign performance data
Billing – Manage funding sources and payment info

Familiarizing yourself with the interface layout enables easy access to key features.

Campaign Creation Workflow

The typical workflow for creating a new Twitter ad campaign is as follows:

Set campaign objective and name
Establish a target audience
Set campaign dates, budget, and bid strategies
Design compelling ad creative
Place campaign and launch
Monitor performance and optimize

Following this standardized process enables the execution of effective and strategically optimized campaigns.

Setting Campaign Objectives

Choose Your Ad Objective — Image Credit Twitter for Business

The first step when creating a new campaign is choosing your objective:

Awareness Objectives

Brand awareness – General promotion to a wide audience
Brand engagement – Interactions based on interest and affinity
Post engagements – Likes, retweets, replies, etc., on organic content
Video views – Maximizing video ad views

Consideration Objectives

Website clicks/conversions – Driving site actions via clicks
App installs/engagement – Promoting mobile app adoption
Mobile app engagements – App visits, deep links, content views
Tweet engagement – Clicks, likes, retweets, replies on ads

So select based on whether you are targeting brand lift or direct response.

Advantages of Multiple Objectives

Setting multiple campaign objectives allows:

Pursuing brand and response goals simultaneously
Targeting each stage of the sales funnel
Optimizing multiple key performance indicators
Uniting top-level and granular campaign strategies
Adapting as objectives evolve over the buyer’s journey

Objective Optimization Best Practices

When setting campaign objectives:

Ensure objectives align with business goals
Set 1-2 primary goals per campaign for focus
Have distinct objectives for different audience segments
Adjust objectives based on performance data signals
Map objectives to different stages of the conversion funnel

Defining Your Target Audience

Identify Your Target Audience — Image Credit Tide

The next key campaign component is targeting your ads to your ideal audience.

Core Targeting Options

Twitter Ads Manager offers extensive targeting, including:

Locations – Countries, cities, regions, and more.
Keywords – Related terms, hashtags, handles accounts tweet about.
Interests – Stated interests, affinities, and intent signals.
Behaviors – Device usage, retweet activity, event attendance, etc.
Followers – Those who follow specific Twitter accounts.
Custom audiences – Tailored groups based on owned data.

Detailed Targeting Tips

Here are some tips for effective audience targeting:

Start broad to determine optimal demographics before narrowing further.
Layer multiple targeting dimensions for precision – don’t rely solely on one.
Tailor messaging for each distinct audience segment.
Leverage existing remarketing audiences of site visitors or app users.
Test different interest and keyword targets to gauge resonance.
Review targeting performance data and refine based on insights.
Avoid overly restrictive targeting that limits reach and signal strength.

Audience Optimization

Continuously optimizing your audience over time enables:

Expanding reach based on untapped potential suggested by Twitter.
Refining targeting as you learn more about converted segments.
Shifting budgets to better-performing targets.
Adding and removing targets based on emerging trends.
Maintaining an optimal balance between targeting precision and reach.

So regularly review audience data and refresh targeting for sustained performance.

Setting Campaign Details

Monitor Performance and Optimize — Image Credit LinkedIn

With your objective and audience defined, next, choose key campaign details:

Dates, Duration, and Budget

Set campaign dates – Start and end dates, or indefinite.
Daily budgets – Spend limits per day.
Lifetime budget – Total spend cap for the duration.
Standard or accelerated delivery – Daily budget pacing.

Bidding and Pricing

Automatic bidding – Twitter sets bid amounts based on goals.
Manual bidding is available through a support request.
Auction pricing – Only charged when users engage versus impressions.

Placements

Newsfeed – In main Twitter timeline.
Profile – On specific Twitter profiles.
Search – Against searches for keywords.
In-Stream Video – Before or during video content.

Campaign Best Practices

When managing campaign details:

Set aggressive but achievable daily budgets based on historical data.
Use lifetime budgets to prevent runaway overspend.
Schedule evergreen campaigns continuously or align with strategies like product launches or events.
Optimize automatic bidding for goal-driven performance.
Test expanded placements incrementally to gauge impact.
Monitor spending pace daily and adjust budgets to accelerate or slow as needed.

Creating Compelling Creative

Designing engaging creative is critical for driving strong campaign results.

Ad Format Options

Twitter Ads Manager supports diverse ad formats, including:

Promoted Tweets – Sponsored posts just like organic tweets.
Images – Static image ads with captions.
Video – Short-form video ads up to 30 seconds.
Carousels – Multi-image slideshows with captions.
Collections – Scrollable groupings of multiple promoted tweets.
App install cards – Promote mobile app adoption.

Creative Best Practices

Follow these tips for optimizing ad creative:

Align to audience interests and campaign goals using relevant messaging.
Ensure text communicates the core brand proposition and call-to-action.
Use visuals that make creative pop – vibrant images and video.
Limit text density to increase readability.
Showcase brand personality using the casual Twitter vibe.
Utilize emojis, tags, and characters like #hashtags for engagement.
Test different creative variants to determine optimal formats and content.
Develop both square and landscape options for flexibility across placements.

Creative Specifications

Follow Twitter’s ad creative specifications:

Image ads – 1024×512 pixels, <5MB, JPG/PNG/GIF (no animation)
Video ads – 720p, <15MB, MP4
Carousel ads – 1:1 to 16:9 aspect ratio, <5MB per image
Collection ads – Each promoted tweet follows organic tweet limits

Staying within guidelines ensures quality rendering across devices and feeds.

Monitoring Performance and Optimization

Best Practices and Optimization for Twitter Ads — Image Credit Twitter Blog

Consistently optimizing based on data is essential for driving Twitter ad results.

Key Twitter Ad Metrics

Critical metrics to track include:

Impressions – Ad views
Engagements – Likes, retweets, replies, clicks etc.
Engagement rate – Engagements divided by impressions.
Link clicks – Clicks to destination URLs.
Followers – New followers from ads.
Conversions – Desired actions like sales, sign-ups, leads etc.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) – Revenue generated per cost.

Optimization Best Practices

Follow these practices for ongoing optimization:

Review daily performance and adjust bids, budgets, and targeting accordingly.
Analyze results by audience, placement, period, and other segments.
Identify the highest converting target groups and creative for additional funding.
Prune low-performing concepts, targets, and keywords over time.
Maintain a healthy promotion mix between brand awareness and direct response.
Set clear KPIs and leverage Twitter’s campaign dashboards to monitor them.
Track ROAS over time as the key performance indicator for paid media.

Leveraging Twitter Analytics

Robust analytics capabilities help inform optimizations, including:

Engagement metrics for tweets, videos, and accounts.
Impression and profile visit tracking.
Audience composition and interest insights.
Tweet activity maps based on geography.
Real-time tweet ranking performance.

Fully harness analytics to unlock campaign performance drivers.

Managing Advanced Features

Beyond the campaign basics, Twitter Ads Manager provides advanced capabilities.

Conversion Tracking

Twitter supports conversion tracking by:

Website tag – Install provided script to track on-site actions.
SDK integration – Track in-app activity through mobile software development kit implementation.
Direct data upload – Share offline conversion data through API or CSV.

Conversion tracking enables measuring real ROI from Twitter campaigns.

Custom Audiences

Build customized target groups by:

Uploading lists of existing customers.
Building lookalike audiences modelled after high-value existing segments.
Utilizing website traffic, engagement, or conversion data.
Applying CRM data like past purchase history and customer attributes.

Lead Generation Cards

Promote leads and sales by adding lead generation cards that allow:

Users to input contact details to a pre-filled form.
Pre-populating fields with existing user or CRM data.
Auto-sending follow-up messages on form submission.

Automation

Streamline optimizations using Rules to:

Automate bid adjustments based on conversions and other events.
Set triggers for pausing low-performing campaigns or ads.
Alert on budget pacing and targets.

Campaign Management

Efficiently control existing campaigns:

Organize into groups based on campaign themes.
Set user permissions and access levels by team role.
Duplicate successful campaigns quickly at scale.
Pause, resume, or delete campaigns as needed.

Evaluating Performance and Reporting

Continuous evaluation through robust Twitter ad reporting enables informed optimization.

Twitter Campaign Dashboards

Each campaign features:

Summary dashboard – Performance overview and trends.
Campaign details – Interactive charts on impressions, engagements, clicks, conversions, etc.
Ad details – Metrics for each promoted tweet and creative.
Audience details – Interests, behaviours, etc. of users reached.

Downloadable Reporting

Export the following reporting dimensions:

Campaign date range summaries by objective, ad formats, etc.
Placement performance reports.
Creative and audience segment performance.
Conversion tracking and ROAS data.

Scheduled and automated reporting is also available.

A/B Testing

Test variations of creative, audiences, and bids simultaneously through:

Headline A/B testing – Compare up to 25 combinations.
Full creative A/B testing – Test different images, videos, etc.
Audience split testing – Find best-performing targets.

Twitter Ad Costs and Billing

Twitter ads are pay-per-engagement, meaning you only pay when users click, like, retweet, etc.

Ad Cost Factors

Costs vary based on:

Targeting specificity – More niche targeting costs more.
Competition – Bids and costs increase for popular keywords and audiences.
Quality of creative – High-performing ads garner more reach cost-effectively.
Platform demand – Peak usage periods on weekdays and holidays can increase costs.

Payment Methods

Twitter ads accept payment through:

Credit cards – Visa, MasterCard, American Express
PayPal – Link your existing PayPal Business account.
Wire transfers – For high-spend advertisers; subject to credit review.

Multiple funded advertiser accounts can access centralized payments.

Billing Process

Twitter bills all charges to payment on file automatically:

Pay as you go – Charged when users engage with ads.
Invoicing is available upon request for high-volume advertisers.
No upfront costs or commitments – cancel anytime.
Changes process immediately – no waiting for next bill cycle.

Minimizing Wasted Spend

Reduce unnecessary ad costs by:

Establishing firm daily and lifetime campaign budgets.
Pausing low-performing ads and campaigns promptly.
Avoid spending inconsistency via disciplined pacing.
Optimizing targeting over time and avoiding straying into irrelevant interests.
Testing ad variations and nurturing top performers for efficiency.
Monitoring costs frequently and making adjustments to control CPA and ROAS.

Best Practices for Twitter Ad Management

Let’s summarize the top best practices for success with Twitter Ads Manager:

Clear objectives – Ensure alignment between campaign goals and business outcomes. Track real metrics versus vanity metrics alone.
Precise targeting – Combine audience signals like interests, behaviors, and demographics for ideal reach. Expand cautiously.
Compelling creative – Utilize visual storytelling with strong calls-to-action tailored to each audience.
Flexible bidding – Leverage automatic bidding for goal optimization but monitor closely.
Analysis and optimization – Track granular performance daily and refine targeting, creative, and placements based on insights.
Budget discipline – Set daily limits and pace spending to avoid waste while maximizing results.
Regular review – Report frequently, test new initiatives on a small scale, and evaluate ROAS impact.
Ongoing improvement – Incorporate learnings into sequential campaign design for increasing performance over time.

Following these guidelines will help you master Twitter ads to grow your brand and bottom line.

New and Emerging Twitter Ad Features

Twitter Ads Manager capabilities continue evolving with new features like:

Promoted live broadcasts – Sponsor live Twitter Spaces audio chats and Video broadcasts.
Promoted trends – Pay to promote trending topics aligned with your brand.
Promoted hashtag challenges – Fund sponsored hashtag campaigns.
Prompt engagements – Drive engagement through custom call-to-action buttons like Shop Now.
Conversation cards – Add info cards to amplify organic branded tweets.
Publisher network – Access premium ad placements within premium publishing partners.

Stay updated on new offerings to take advantage of early through Twitter Ads Manager.