Hyper-targeted Ads Audiences
The high throughput auditing system developed here allowed us to construct affinity groups based on profile keywords as well as follower & engagement patterns. This culminated in a targeted ads service for Twitter, as the internal tools available often left advertisers unsatisfied with both the relevancy of results as well as the high volume of negative engagement.
The Problem
Internal targeting tools left much to be desired and often resulted in negative engagement as typified by the image on the right. Contrary to the adage of "all press is good press," it can be a real killer for emerging brands on aggressive opinion platforms like Twitter.
The Solution
Custom audiences are specific lists of accounts that can be targeted with content. They are typically reserved for established companies with large existing customer lists. Requirements to upload these audiences are email addresses, mobile advertising IDs, or phone numbers. However, I established an ads API partnership with Twitter which allowed us to upload lists of screen names and user IDs.
The Results
Mainline audiences have driven 2-10x increases in engagements and concurrent decreases in costs for promoting posts. Typical engagement rates for promoted posts using Twitter’s native targeting is ~1% and between $0.25 - $2.00 per action.
