Twitter’s fairly modest but popular ad service is set to gain a performance feel as the site leans towards meeting targets with its latest tool.
A blog post from Christine Lee, the network’s senior product manager, has divulged a significant change to the current ad line-up, making room for ‘objective-based campaigns’.
This data-driven system means that brands only have to pay for the actions they want people to take when interacting with their social ads. Lee insists that paying for performance will deliver the highest possible ROI on ad spend while allowing brands to focus solely on metrics that align with their unique goals.
Objective-based campaigns are now in their beta stage and available to SMBs and APIs around the world. There are plans to have the service rolled out to some of the site’s managed clients, but this will be done through a gradual process, by invitation only.
Paying for performance
In showcasing an example of the system at work, Lee’s post explained that a brand could use Twitter’s Lead Generation Card within a Promoted Tweet in order to track how many new customers came forward.
In another, it was claimed that app developers could embed a link to download their program inside a paid ad, with the company paying out on a cost-per-click (CPC) model.
There are also options to have campaigns measured on their ability to drive traffic or conversions. Given the pressure on social media managers to prove a return on their campaign spend, a goals-based system could help these individuals ascertain how ads on Twitter contribute to the bottom line.
As for the reporting of this data, Twitter’s ad tracking interface can be customised to only display metrics that are relevant to campaign goals such as traffic, conversions and downloads.
Twitter states that early tests for its new tool have been carried out with great success. One reviewer – Conor McAdam, who manages social for movie streaming site Popcornflix.com – said it made tracking conversions easier to do while eradicating unnecessary spend.
Advertisers can learn more about Twitter’s new goal-based tool via guidelines listed on the site’s online help center.