So you might notice something a little different about your Twitter stream from here on out. Well, if you pay attention to the promoted tweets and accounts that is.
No ad to show here.
The social network announced that from now on its two biggest advertising streams would be tailored according to your interests. While the service has been available to a select beta group for a while, it’s now open to all advertisers.
It says that by targeting people’s topical interests, advertisers “will be able to connect with a greater number of users and deliver tailored messages to people who are more likely to engage with your Tweets”.
There are two flavors of interest targeting. For broader reach, advertisers can target more than 350 interest categories, ranging from Education to Home and Garden to Investing to Soccer. Should they want to target a more precise group of advertisers however, they can create custom segments by specifying certain @usernames that are relevant to the product, event or initiative they are looking to promote.
According to Twitter:
Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @username’s followers; they do not let you specifically target the followers of that @username. If you’re promoting your indie band’s next tour, you can create a custom audience by adding @usernames of related bands, thus targeting users with the same taste in music. This new feature will help you reach beyond your followers and users with similar interests, and target the most relevant audience for your campaign.
The social network also lowered its minimum bid to US$ 0.01, which it reckons will see advertisers get much more out of it:
As you know, our Promoted Products are auction-based, where winners are determined by engagement rate and bids. Great content matters: if you have engaging Promoted Tweet copy, you can win even if others bid higher. We believe the new lower minimum bid, in combination with interest targeting, will drive greater ROI for every campaign on Twitter.
