How to Get More Clients with Twitter Ads

Twitter Ads. Twitter for business.

What comes to mind when you hear these two phrases? As a small business owner or a freelance web designer, you are always looking for ways to bring new clients on board. While there are many ways of doing so, the power of social media continues to grow with each passing day.

It goes without saying that you will spend time on a variety of social platforms. You will always have options. There will always be new ideas to consider. However, Twitter deserves your attention for a number of reasons.

Here are some statistics shared by Twitter:

• There are 288 million monthly active users on the platform
• 500 million tweets are sent per day
• Twitter supports more than 30 languages
• 80 percent of active users are on mobile

Now do you see why it makes sense to focus on Twitter as a source of new clients?

Like anything, you will find marketers who have had great success with Twitter advertising. You will also find those who feel this was (and is) a waste of money.

You can’t comment until you give it a try. And once you do, as long as you take the right approach, there is a good chance you will continue to use this advertising medium on a regular basis.

Twitter Makes it Simple

Can you think of anything worse than an advertising platform that is complex and full of challenges? This is sure to chase you away in no time at all.

Twitter has taken the opposite approach. The “Twitter Ads” webpage is laid out in a clear and concise manner, sharing all the information you need and leaving out everything else. From pricing to analytics, you won’t have to search far to find what you are looking for.

You won’t be the First (or Last) to Succeed

As you get started with Twitter ads, there are other companies that have already used this to their advantage.

Twitter doesn’t shy away from sharing success stories on its website. After you read through a few of these, your confidence will be sky high. Not to mention the fact that you will have a better feel for what you should and should not be doing. Depending on your industry and overall approach, you may be able to imitate what others before you have done.

Pingometer has enjoyed great success with Twitter ads. Here is what Twitter had to say about the company:

“After successfully connecting with a valuable audience organically, they were compelled to amplify their efforts using Twitter Ads. They created a website conversions campaign designed to drive potential clients to their site where they could then sign up for a free trial or a paid account.”

The results were astonishing: 22 percent higher conversion rate compared to other marketing channels.

The company’s founder added that after a few days, they emailed new clients asking how they heard about them. 9/10 clients said they came through the Twitter advert.

Here is an example of how Pingometer used Twitter ads to drive business:

It doesn’t matter if you are new to Twitter advertising or have tried and failed in the past, there are things you can do in the future to achieve the results you are chasing. Here are five things you should be doing:

1. Target followers of specific accounts

Just like any type of advertising campaign, you want to drill down as far as possible.

As a web designer, for example, target followers of others in your industry (as well as those that are similar, such as online marketing). This helps protect against a “scatter gun” approach. Instead, you know that the people seeing your ads are people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Sticking with the web designer theme, think about who your primary audience would be. It would make sense that people interested in online marketing could eventually require your services. In this case, check out the Twitter accounts of some of the biggest names in this space, such as Neil Patel. With a devoted audience of more than 126,000 followers, you are on the right path.

Here are some of the people you would be targeting:

This is a very (very) small snapshot of who you would be targeting, and as you can see, there is a wide variety of both individuals and businesses.

2. Select your objective wisely

The goals you have now may not be the same goals you have next year (or next month, for that matter). And your goals as an advertiser may not necessarily match others in your industry.

• One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not knowing what you want to accomplish with your Twitter ad campaign.
• This is not a one size fits all solution. Twitter wants you to have success as an advertiser, as it means more money for them in the long run.

Here are your options, as far as objectives are concerned:

Make your initial selection based on what you want to accomplish. Are you trying to reach more people and drive conversions? Are you trying to increase the number of people visiting your website? Do you want to grow your community on Twitter?

Don’t lock yourself into one strategy. You have the option to run more than one campaign at the same time. You also have the option to make changes whenever you see fit.

Let’s assume for the sake of this example that you want to increase website clicks or conversions. This is what you will see after selecting this objective:

In true Twitter fashion, everything is laid out in an “easy to follow” manner. You are shown the following:

• What your audience sees
• Where they see it
• How it’s optimized

If all that looks good, and you are still interested in moving forward, you aren’t far from getting started. On the next page, you will be put to work. It is here that you name your campaign, create your tweet, choose targeting options, and set a budget.

Here is a look at a section of the targeting portion of the page:

The moral of the story: don’t choose your objective on a whim. This is an important decision that can make or break your success.

3. Don’t let your bid and budget run wild

Every online advertising platform gives you the ability to set your bid and budget. If you aren’t careful about what you do here, you could find yourself spending more money than you wanted.

If nothing else, you want to keep two details in mind:

• Total budget
• Daily maximum

As long as you are comfortable with what you are doing here, everything else will likely fall into place.

Total budget is an optional feature, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Twitter says that a business/marketer can allocate their maximum budget towards their campaign by setting a total budget. The number entered refers to the total budget for the individual campaign. In this case, the campaign will stop once the budget is reached.

If you only want to spend a particular amount of money, don’t forget to set your total budget.

Your daily maximum should be based on your goals and objectives. Twitter will automatically stop showing your ads once this amount is reached, so you don’t have to worry about manually making a change.

What does this have to do with securing more clients? On the surface, you may not see any correlation. As you dig deeper, you will find that nothing could be further from the truth. Here is how: Your budget should correspond what your conversion rate and return on investment.

For example, if you set your budget at $100 per day, you will spend roughly $3,000 per month on Twitter advertising. Sounds like a lot of money, right?

If you know you land three clients, on average, for every $3,000 spent, you can easily calculate your return on investment.

How much money, on average, is each client spending? If the answer is $2,000, for instance, you will earn $6,000 for every $3,000 spent. Not a bad deal at all.

4. Use promoted tweets to your advantage

According to Twitter’s description, promoted tweets are regular tweets with added bonus so they have the capability of reaching more people interested in your business.

Here is the key to using promoted tweets to get more clients: you should only use this strategy when you have something truly worthwhile to share.

For example, use promoted tweets to:

• Promote a sale, contest, or giveaway
• Drive leads
• Offer deals and coupons
• Drive traffic

Here is an example of a promoted tweet, from none other than Twitter Small Biz account.

There are two things to take notice of. First and foremost, the ad copy:

“Promote your business with a Website Card and start driving more traffic from Twitter. Create one today.”

It is clear why Twitter Small Biz wanted to promote this tweet. It had something important to share with its audience. Something that could help its business secure more clients (and money).

Additionally, and something you may not realize: clicking the image takes you to the appropriate page. In this case, the page that allows you to create a website card.

Check out the below screenshot for a better idea of how some of the biggest brands in the world have benefited from promoted tweets:

You may not have the same budget and initial reach, but you can definitely use this strategy to increase engagement and land more clients.

5. Test your content

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could create any type of Twitter ad and immediately reap the benefits? This isn’t something you should expect.

You need to test your content, time and time again, to decide what works best.

Here is an example of an ad that appears to be achieving solid results:

Along with the image, there are two “content” portions of the ad that are meant to generate clicks:

“Manage every aspect of your social media from a unified tool and make your social marketing run more efficiently. ”

That shows you what the company has to offer, but this is what gets people to click:

“10,000+ marketers use Falcon to manage social. Request your demo here:”

It’s likely that the Falcon advertising team experimented with several ads, tracking the results of each one.

Now it’s your Turn

There are many ways to advertise your products or services via social media. Twitter is gaining steam, as it continues to prove itself among the best of the best.

Adweek shared this image:

When comparing Twitter and Facebook ads, based on click-through rate, the 140 character social giant comes out on top.

Are you using Twitter ads to gain more clients? Feel free to share your thoughts and advice in the comment section below.

For those who are new to this advertising strategy, the tips above will get you started.

Article thumbnail image by robuart / shutterstock.com