Twitter Paid Ads Convert Twice as Many Visitors as Organic Tweets

When Facebook started reducing the reach of its organic posts, us marketers grew furious. With every new algorithm update announced, it emerged that brands were being pushed closer and closer to their paid advertising platform. And in the subsequent months, as we struggled with low-impact posts that reached few fans, we finally accepted, ‘Maybe we’ll have to pay.”

According to a Q1 2014 study by Convertro and AOL Platforms, Facebook paid posts do result in 0.1% more conversions than organic posts. But do you know what’s a far more interesting finding? The same study revealed that Twitter paid ads were more than twice as likely as organic tweets to convert users. Finally – something worth investing in.

Below, we’ll show you how to make the most of your Twitter ads so you can achieve the best conversion rates possible in 140 characters or less.

Lead Generation Cards

Twitter’s lead generation cards really are a lead generator’s best friend. What’s the big advantage? They allow you to collect leads directly within the tweet without making users fill out a form (you know how annoying that can be). Your customer’s information, including their name, email address and username, are pulled into the card automatically. All they have to do is click ‘Submit’ on your card’s call-to-action. Here’s a super simple step-by-step guide by Hubspot that shows you how to begin creating your lead generation cards with ease.

An example of a lead generation card from the Twitter blog:

Jay and Kyle discuss how Twitter lead cards are an email marketer’s best friend on The Baer Facts:

Call-to-Actions

According to Convertro’s study, 87% of interactions with social content were a mere middle touch – just over one interaction in 10 was either the last or only touchpoint. Your goal? Create Twitter ads so compelling that it’s the only thing customers need to see before deciding to buy. One of the most important things to consider is your call-to-action – it needs to beg to be clicked.

If you’re using lead generation cards you can choose the text to display for your CTA button. Whether you choose lead generation cards or regular promoted tweets your call-to-action needs to be relevant and actionable, compelling people to act quickly. Action verbs like ‘Download’ work best.Twitter gives advice on selecting the best call-to-actions on their blog – definitely worth a read.

Custom Targeting

To increase your chances of maximizing your future conversions, you’ll need to take advantage of Twitter’s targeting options. This will help you ensure that you’re reaching the right people and – equally important – aren’t annoying the wrong people.

Twitter allows you to target by keywords, interests, gender, location, language and specific mobile or desktop devices. But this is my favorite one – they also allow you to target users similar to your existing followers.

Check out tailored audiences too. Tailored audiences allow you to create groups of existing and potential customers from lists of email addresses from your own customer relationship management database. Targeting existing customers is often the best ways to increase conversions as they already know, trust and hopefully like you.

Jeff Zwelling, CEO and co-founder at Convertro leaves us with one parting thought: “Social works well as the first or only touch when it’s effectively ‘reminding’ you to make an impulse purchase you already planned on making at some unspecified point in the future.”

Our online Professional Diploma in Social Media Marketing teaches you the best practices for marketing through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube. It includes 30 hours of in-depth lectures taught by industry experts and will equip you with all the skills and knowledge you need to plan, build and measure effective social media strategies. Find out more here.