Twitter boosts ad features with “interest targeting”

Twitter is now allowing businesses to target users based on interests, releasing guidelines on how small businesses can better utilise their Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts campaigns.

The new feature, dubbed “interest targeting”, is designed to help businesses connect with more users and deliver tailored messages to people who are more likely to engage with their tweets.

According to Kevin Weil, director of product management at Twitter, there are two “flavours” of interest targeting.

“For broader reach, you can target more than 350 interest categories, ranging from education to home and garden to investing to soccer,” Weil wrote in Twitter’s advertising blog.

“If you were promoting a new animated film about dogs, you could select animation (under movies and television), cartoons (under hobbies and interests), and dogs (under pets).”

Weil said if you want to target a more precise set of users, you can create customer segments by specifying certain usernames that are relevant to your product, event or initiative.

“This new feature will help you reach beyond your followers and users with similar interests, and target the most relevant audience for your campaign,” he said.

According to Weil, Twitter has been testing interest targeting with a select group of beta advertisers, many of whom “have seen significantly increased audience reach”.

“Others have creatively defined custom audiences to reach a very specific set of users… We’re excited to make interest targeting available today to all of our advertising partners,” he said.

In a how-to video specifically for small businesses, Twitter explains the concept of Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets.

“With Promoted Accounts, Twitter looks at your current followers and then searches for people with similar interests,” it said.

“When it finds a match, Twitter recommends you in the ‘Who to follow’ section. You’ll gain new followers who can spread the word about your business.”

“With Promoted Tweets, Twitter constantly monitors your engagement and automatically promotes your best tweets.”

“That’s why Promoted Tweets and Accounts aren’t like traditional ads. You don’t write anything new. Twitter simply puts your best tweets in front of more of the right people at the right time.”

According to Twitter, you only have to pay when someone follows your account or engages with your Promoted Tweet.

“You determine the limit of how much you want to spend per day and how much you want to spend per new follower or engagement,” it said.

“You can also decide geographically where you want your content to be promoted.”

“You’ll be promoted both on the web and on mobile, so you can even reach potential customers on the go.”