Many small businesses have long enjoyed Twitter’s free ability to connect with customers. Now a Nielsen study shows that promoted tweets can bring social media marketing to the next level with increased engagement, brand lift and message association. But if you’re on a limited marketing budget the big question to answer is whether stretching your reach is worth stretching your dollars.
What are Promoted Tweets?
According to Twitter promoted tweets are just your everyday tweets bought with the intent to reach more users or incite engagement with current followers.
Clearly labeled as promoted, these tweets grace the top of search results or show up in home timelines if they’re relevant to users. You can harness the power of promoted tweets to get your most engaging content in front of users and encourage specific actions. Or if you want to increase the awareness of your brand these paid tweets can connect you with advocates and influencers.
Simply put, dollar-backed tweets can potentially put your brand in front of more of your target market’s eyeballs than campaigning cost free.
Are They Worth It?
Well, some data says yes. Nielsen reports a 22 percent increase in stronger message association from exposure to a promoted tweet. These particular tweets are priced on a cost-per-engagement basis, but this means your presence grows in a customer’s mind even if they just read the tweet and choose not to interact.
A reported 10 percent boost in brand lift means your service or product becomes more memorable for a customer or prospect, especially if they see the tweets more than once. And if you’re lucky enough to have engagement, that translates to a 30 percent rise in brand favorability and 53 percent spike in purchase intent.
Talk about an incentive to get those retweets, replies and favorites.
Twitter’s Suggestions For Targeted Tweets:
- Create multiple short tweets instead of one jam-packed tweet
- Use advertiser tools like Website Cards and Lead Generation Cards
- Include photos and videos
- Interact with users when they engage.
However, all this interesting news comes with one caveat: use sparingly. People can quickly become blind to what they see too often, and a quick search for ‘promoted tweets’ comes up with many users complaining about their frequency. So as long as they’re used judiciously, it looks like this relatively new tool could help your Twitter campaign gain traction.