Developing new leads and prospects with Twitter ads

Twitter launched a lead generation advertising service in 2013. When they did, internet marketers and brick-and-mortar businesses with a social media presence were jubilant. They finally had a vehicle on the second largest social network that gave them a wealth of information about the Twitter users who responded to these lead generation ads.

Then, in December 2016, Twitter began phasing out the lead generation ad format. The old system allowed you to request people’s names, email addresses, and Twitter handles if your ad appeared in your feed. Twitter launched this type of transparent demographic advertising system as a way to compete with Facebook ads.

However, due to user pressure over privacy concerns, Twitter did the right thing. They gave their constituents what they wanted, less access to sensitive information like zip codes, country of residence, job title, and phone numbers. Does this mean that using the current Twitter ad platform to generate leads is now a waste of time? Could not be farther from the truth.

How to use the new Twitter ads to generate leads

With the new ad platform, you have 3 different types of ads that you can use in one way or another to find new prospects.

1. promoted tweets – You pay to have your tweets shown to people who don’t follow you yet.

2. promoted accounts – Your account is promoted to specific Twitter users.

3. promoted trends – You pay to promote a hashtag.

You can build a Twitter ad campaign that uses any, some or all of the 3 ad types. The different types of campaigns are as follows.

1. tweet commitments – Your campaign is focused on generating conversations and participation about your business.

2. followers – If you want to build your list of followers, this is the campaign to use.

3. Awareness – Here you pay for impressions, instead of actions.

4. video views – This campaign is self explanatory. It works to improve the number of views your videos get.

5. Clicks or conversions on the website – If you have a great landing page to build your email list or prospect pool, this is the campaign you want to focus on. This type of campaign includes a Website Card, which allows viewers to see a preview of your site within their tweet, without having to leave Twitter.

6. Application installations or reclosings – This drives people to download your app and also reaches those who have already downloaded your app, but haven’t used it in a long time.

As you can see, the many aspects of the new Twitter Ads system can be used in a variety of ways to generate leads. While the lead generation ad campaign has been removed from Twitter, you can instead use building a campaign that focuses on website clicks or conversions to generate leads by sending Twitter users to your subscription page.

If you are focused on increasing the number of views a video gets, use that video to offer a free subscription snippet or gift in exchange for joining your newsletter. An app install campaign can also build your lead pool, as long as your app provides some value to the end user. Similarly, using a Twitter ad campaign to increase the number of followers you have broadens your reach, and the more people you engage with, the more leads you can generate.