Why Advertising on Twitter pays: Because of You!

A recent study by the Pivot Conference reported that 87% of brand managers surveyed intend to run a twitter advertising campaign in the next 12 months. 

While it’s always easier for brand managers to give an ‘indication’ of where upcoming advertising budgets will be allocated, new research by eMarketer has forecast Twitter ad revenue to approach £100m in 2011, a significant increase on the £28 it made in 2010.

It’s tempting to attribute this growth purely to twitter’s audience size, but in reality a number additional of factors need to be taken into account – and one of these is more important than any other:

Twitter users are much more influential and tend to Amplify more than users on other platforms.

At first this might seem to be simply down to the way the platform works and the functionality offered: Retweeting can be as simple as one click on a mouse button. However, research shows that there is more to it than that.

But first a recap on the various advertising options that Twitter offers advertisers and brand managers:

Promoted accounts 

• Promoted accounts were first introduced in October 2010 and highlight a brand/company or personal account to users most likely to find it interesting. Promoted accounts are displayed as part of the Who to Follow widget in the side panel on the right side of your Twitter homepage and on the Who to Follow page.
• Promoted accounts are only charged on a cost per follower (CPF) basis. They carry a minimum CPF of $0.50 and a suggested CPF of $2, but on the whole advertisers seem to be paying between $1 and $3 for every new follower.

Promoted Tweets

• Promoted Tweets aren’t ads in a traditional sense. They’re regular Tweets that are amplified to a broader audience.  Promoted Tweets are offered on a Cost-Per-Engagement (CPE) basis, i.e when a user re-tweets, replies to, clicks, or favourites a Promoted Tweet. Promoted Tweets carry a minimum CPE of $0.10 and a suggested CPE of $0.50.
• Twitter users have been seeing sponsored tweets in their timelines from accounts they follow since July 2011. However Twitter has recently extended promoted tweets by allowing brands to advertise in a person’s timeline, whether the user follows that company or not.

Promoted trends 

• Promoted trends are the most visible and currently most popular of all of Twitter’s advertising options. Promoted trends cost around $120K per day, up from $70K, and are usually sold out.
• When a user clicks on the Trend, they are taken to the conversation for that trend – with Promoted Tweets pegged to the top of the timeline.

So Why Are Twitter Users In Particular So Appealing To Brands And Advertisers? 

The short answer is influence and amplification. Twitter users are more likely to impact a brand than any other social network.

While Facebook (at 750 million) has considerably more users than Twitter (175 million), daily twitter users are a different breed, and need to be treated and communicated with accordingly.

A recent report from Exact Target suggested that daily Twitter users are three times more likely to amplify the influence of a brand than a Facebook user would.

Active Twitter Users Want To Influence Others

• Active Twitter users readily admit that their primary reason for being on Twitter is to influence others.
• According to the report 73% of daily Twitter users have said that it is their goal to accumulate larger audiences and that they are continually looking at ways in which they can grow their influence.
• A brand’s Twitter followers represent the most influential and often most vocal consumers and their twitter use is growing.

What Goes on Twitter Doesn’t stay on Twitter!

• Twitter’s ability to influence a brand’s reputation extends far beyond the Twitter website.
• The conversations that take place on Twitter fuel discussions across all areas of the internet—from blogs and forums to product reviews and coupon sites—which influence both Twitter and non-Twitter users alike.

Of the users who are active on Twitter daily:

• 72% publish blog posts at least once a month
• 70% comment on others’ blog posts
• 61% write at least one product review a month
• 61% comment on news sites
• 56% write articles for third-party sites
• 53% post videos online
• 50% make contributions to wiki sites
• 48% share deals found through coupon forums

So in summary Advertising to Twitter users is important because the types of users that are on Twitter tend to be influencers themselves.

5 Tips to help you get more from your Twitter Branding

With that in mind we have written a follow up post here providing 5 ‘best practice tips’ on how brands should engage on Twitter.  We hope you find it useful – and if you do, please share it with others – after all thats, what you do best!