Twitter Launches Performance-Based Ad Tool For SMBs

Twitter has confessed that while it has innovated its advertising offering at a “fantastic” rate, the company may have left some small business (SMB) marketers uncertain about how to best meet their campaign objectives on the platform.  Twitter plans to rectify this with the launch of a performance-based tool that makes it easier for advertisers to create and optimize marketing campaigns while only paying for actions that meet their particular objectives.

Barry Collins, director SMB, EMEA at Twitter, explained that the company has been focused for the past eight months on increasing its capabilities and functionalities on Twitter Ads.  “We felt the rate of innovation was fantastic but we needed to align that to advertisers and how they are thinking rather than just presenting all of our innovations to them and asking them to figure it out,” said Collins.

Collins continued by explaining that the majority of SMB marketers on Twitter have smaller budgets and are primarily interested in direct response.  “For every pound they spend, they want to know the return,” he said.  “Knowing that’s the way they think, we’ve tried to change or enhance our ad product to objective-based campaigns.”

The new tool is built into the Twitter Ad platform and allows SMB marketers to select from a wide range of key objectives, including driving followers, website clicks or conversions, tweet engagements, app installs or engagements, or leads.  Twitter is also making it simple to customize ads by adding other tools such as an image cropper with drag-and-drop functionality.

A key component of the new tool is that brands will only pay when a user takes an action that is properly aligned with the company’s objectives.  “You’ll get more of what you want.  Because you’re only paying for a specific type of engagement, we believe that you’ll get more for your investment,” explained Collins.  Twitter will also provide marketers with reports that display metrics that are most relevant to their campaign goals.  While Collins stated that this will initially only be offered to SMBs, he explained that it will roll out to the larger brand advertisers over the coming months.

Forrester analyst Anthony Mullens has suggested that research shows that only 44 percent of marketers are satisfied with Twitter as a platform, and that 50 percent are not confident that they can accurately measure their marketing efforts on the site.  Mullens said that, “It could probably provide more guidance and education, supporting marketers a bit more.”

Collins actually agrees with Mullens in that marketers require further assistance to fully capitalize on their use of Twitter, and the latest performance-based tools are intended to help.  “Yes, they still need a lot of guidance and education,” Collins said.  “We have a vast amount of capabilities on Twitter from marketers who are really advanced to those just starting out.  We recognize that but we have a range of educational services for all of those people.”