Twitter’s Objective-Based Ads Now Available To All

Last August, Twitter began to provide select advertisers with the ability to pay strictly for the engagement that they wanted. The beta program was called “Objective-based Campaigns,” and it allows SMBs and ad API partners to focus on specific goals, such as increasing followers, driving more clicks or pushing more app installs. By using this feature, marketers are only charged for the engagements that they target.

Now, Twitter has announced that it is rolling out the program to all advertisers globally, so that objective-based campaigns, reports and pricing are available to everyone. There are six different objectives that are available: Tweet engagements, website clicks or conversions, app installs or engagement, followers, leads and video views.

For many marketers, Twitter’s objective-based campaigns have the potential to greatly increase their ROI by allowing them to only pay for actions that are relevant to their goal.

“It’s now simpler and easier to succeed with Twitter Ads,” wrote Christine Lee, senior product manager, revenue, at Twitter. “When creating a new campaign, you can select from one of six objectives – and our customized workflow will help you choose the best ad format for your goals. For example, if you want to drive traffic to your brand’s website, you can select a website clicks or conversions campaign, which is designed to drive a higher volume of relevant URL clicks. You’ll only be charged when a user clicks on a link to your website – all other engagements, like a favorite or a Retweet, are free.”

Twitter says that many businesses that have used its objective-based campaigns have increased the efficiency of their advertising on the social media platform, experiencing better results at lower costs. One example is eBay. In the beta test, Twitter says that eBay was able to drive a 59 percent quarter-over-quarter decrease in average paid cost per link click by leveraging website Cards that featured compelling images and clear calls to action.

Data analytics company Tableau is another example of success in the beta test. “Objective-based pricing reduced our cost per link click by over 40 percent quarter-over-quarter, making our ads more efficient, driving higher lead conversions,” said James Carroll, online marketing coordinator, Tableau.

Certainly, Twitter believes that its objective-based campaigns offering will increase its ad revenue, as marketers will experience a higher ROI when only paying for the actions that are relevant to what they are trying to achieve. It’s an interesting opportunity, and it’s likely that many advertisers will try out Twitter’s new ad type.

“In adaptive marketing, it’s key to tailor messages to the users’ varying motivations by utilizing different media types that encourage them to take the next step in the funnel,” said Raunak Munot, Director of Social Strategy at Mindshare, the agency that managed Land Rover’s Twitter campaign. “With Twitter’s objective-based pricing, we only pay for actions that we care about. This has driven down costs and increased efficiencies, especially when driving shoppers to the website to take an action like filling out a request for quote form.”