New to X (Twitter) ads? This complete guide covers all the specs you need to know for 2024, plus how to start your first campaign.
Christina Newberry June 12, 2024
Did you know that X (formerly known as Twitter) ads can reach a potential audience of 535 million people? Not too shabby of a crowd.
In 2024, X is changing advertising by using AI machine learning to improve targeting. Resulting in 10% more click-throughs and 16% more conversions on average.
Keep reading to find out the newest updates in X ads for 2024. Learn how to leverage Twitter effectively and how to start your first Twitter ads campaign today.
Bonus: Download the free 30-day plan to grow your Twitter following fast, a daily workbook that will help you establish a Twitter marketing routine and track your growth, so you can show your boss real results after one month.
Twitter ads are how brands promote their products and services across Twitter. There are many types of Twitter ads with different goals and options to fit any business size and budget.
Twitter offers advertising options like sponsored content, promoted posts, trends, and multiple media formats. These formats include video, image, carousel, text, hashtag ads, and more.
Vertical video ads are full-screen videos that appear between regular vertical videos when users swipe through them, similar to TikTok.
They are currently the fastest-growing format on X and account for about 20% of all time spent on X.
You can also include a call-to-action button linking to your website or app.
Image ads are a single photo and look identical to organic posts except for the small “Ad” label at the top right. You can create an image ad from scratch or turn an existing organic image post into an ad.
Twitter video ads are videos that can be square or landscape format. Square format is 1:1 and landscape format is 16:9. This means you can use YouTube videos for Twitter ads without any issues.
Twitter carousel ads can feature up to six images, videos, or a mix of both. If desired, each slide can link to a unique URL.
Promoted Twitter text ads offer all the elements of a standard post and are the easiest way to get started with ads. For instance, you can either create text ads from scratch or promote existing organic content.
Amplify Pre-roll ads play before an organic video starts, and viewers can choose to skip after six seconds.
X’s Amplify Publisher Program matches your video with relevant creators who have a good audience fit and align with your brand.
In return, publishers who opt into the program receive a portion of ad revenue. This program is similar to the YouTube Partner Program.
Twitter Amplify Sponsorship ads represent a direct relationship between an X creator and a brand. Some examples are when a brand asks for permission to use a creator’s video in an ad. Another example is when a brand pays a creator to make a video specifically for them.
In addition, Amplify Sponsorship video ads also offer extra features to generate engagement, including an auto-reply DM, Q&A format, and the ability for brands to promote sponsored videos.
This post exemplifies how a brand could work with a publisher. (Although it doesn’t appear to be sponsored by Arc, it represents what a sponsorship could look like.)
Twitter Trend Takeover ads can be found on the X homepage in the “What’s Happening” section and on the Explore tab. Trend Takeover ads are tied to a trending hashtag and include a “Promoted by” label.
Trend Takeover ads include a hashtag, a description (up to 70 characters), and an image, video, or GIF optionally.
Brands and/or Premium subscribers must be verified to access live video capabilities through X’s Media Studio dashboard. As a result, you can also use Media Studio to cut clips from previous live videos to use in organic posts or X ads.
Thanks to X’s advanced targeting, Twitter Dynamic Product ads automatically show the product someone is most likely to buy from you. You must add a catalogue in X Shopping Manager to use Dynamic Product ads.
App cards add a clickable link to Google Play or Apple App Store pages. For instance, if a user already has your app, the button can open it on their device instead.
Similar to app cards, add a clickable button to image or video ads linking to any website or landing page.
Branded X hashtag ads consist of a hashtag plus an emoji or custom icon chosen by the advertiser. You can choose up to five emojis for a single branded hashtag. After the ad ends, the hashtag becomes text-only.
In this example, #ACMs is the branded hashtag with the award emoji.
Twitter optimizes ad campaigns around an objective. The objective also determines how you’re charged for the campaign. You only pay for actions related to the goal.
In an app install campaign, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and goes to the app store. You don’t pay for someone seeing the ad and scrolling past it.
The awareness objective is about getting the most reach, a.k.a., the most eyes on your ad. Choose this objective for brand awareness goals or as part of a larger campaign.
When to use: To reach a broad range of X users and drive discovery.
Twitter’s consideration category includes these sub-objectives:
This objective works best for an audience looking for information on a topic or a product to meet a specific need. Twitter shows consideration ads to users more likely to watch or engage with them.
When to use: Target people from a specific audience.
The conversion category has two sub-objectives:
Conversions are designed to get you more conversions (obviously), including website traffic, app installs, purchases, or leads. Thanks to conversion tracking in X Pixel, ad performance is enhanced over time from real purchase data.
When to use: Sell more products or services and/or re-engage previous customers or visitors.
If combining images and videos in the same carousel ad, all assets must use a 1:1 aspect ratio.
Ad specs vary by format. Timeline Takeover ads can be video, image, carousel, X Live, Promoted text posts, Branded Hashtags, or Branded Notifications.
Video streaming specs may vary depending on your equipment and software, but X recommends the following X Live stream settings:
To use Twitter (X) Dynamic Product and Collection ads, you must install X Pixel or Conversion API first. Then, add your product catalog to X Shopping Manager.
Individual ad specs vary by format (e.g. image, video, carousel, etc).
Advertisers manage the setup of Branded Notification ads in Arrow, a third-party X partner. Ad sizing and other specs depend on the format chosen. You must choose a trigger to opt people in; most brands ask users to like the post or leave a specific word or emoji in a comment.
Asking how much Twitter ads cost is like asking what the currency exchange rate is: it varies.
That said, a survey by WebFX reports that the average Twitter ad costs between $0.26 and $0.50, and the average cost per follow ranges from $1.01 to $2.00.
No matter what your ads budget is, you’re always in control with three ways to manage it:
Alternatively, for a simpler experience, use X’s Campaign Budget Optimization. Just set a daily budget for your campaign and X will allocate it to the top-performing ad groups for you.
When setting your budget, remember that you only pay for actions directly related to your campaign objective. For Reach objective campaigns, you only pay for impressions. Moreover, you don’t pay any extra when someone likes, comments, or even clicks on your ad. Likewise, for a Website Traffic objective campaign, you only pay for clicks and nothing else.
Twitter ads use an auction format: you bid against other advertisers to “win” the same audience. For example, if you want to reach software developers, your ad will compete with other ads targeting software developers.
To win Twitter ad auctions, there are three bidding strategies to choose from:
Winning an auction isn’t only about price. X’s ad algorithm considers the choices you’ve made, like targeting software developers in a specific country and your ad quality score. It uses this information to optimize your ad campaign for better results.
Three factors make up your ad quality score:
Other factors contribute to the overall cost of X ads, too, such as how many other brands compete for the same audience and the size of the audience you’re trying to reach.
As for managing the size of your audience, there are two targeting options:
To succeed with X ads, start by making great content for a high-quality score. Then, try different budgets, targeting options, and settings as you go.
Eligible X users can earn a portion of ad revenue for ad impressions appearing in their posts’ comment sections.
If you haven’t already, sign up for an X Ads Account. You’ll need to fill out your country, time zone, and billing information.
In X Ads Manager, click on Create Campaign at the top right.
For beginners, we recommend the Simple mode. X’s automated ad targeting tools will likely bring you the best results.
More experienced advertisers who prefer granular targeting control should choose Advanced.
In Simple mode, you can choose from four objectives: Reach, Engagements, Traffic, or Keywords.
In Advanced mode, you can choose more refined objectives.
If you choose Simple mode, you’ll see a screen to create an ad right away. The specific options and fields will depend on the objective chosen.
For Advanced campaigns, you’ll first name the campaign and set a total spending cap optionally.
Clicking Next brings you to the ad group settings within this campaign.
There are several sections to fill out for each ad group within an Advanced campaign:
After setting up your ad group, create your ad.
The last step for both Simple and Advanced campaigns is to review everything.
In Simple mode, this page includes optional demographic and targeting options since these campaigns use X’s optimized targeting.
In Advanced mode, the review page looks like this.
Click Launch campaign to begin advertising.
It’s important to measure your ad performance and test new strategies. Regularly review your impressions, results, engagement rate, and cost-per-result (CPR) in Twitter Ads Manager:
Or, easily analyze ad performance with Advanced Analytics from Hootsuite. View organic vs. paid social media performance while accurately measuring the ROI of your social media marketing.
Watch this to learn how to track your social media analytics (plus a free template):
Fill out your campaign settings and ad copy, then publish your X ad from Hootsuite. Couldn’t be easier, mate.
Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.
Twitter allows up to 280 characters, but the best-performing ads are under 100 characters, according to Twitter.
Check out how Southern Vintage uses 72 characters and saves space by including a discount code in the call to action.
Get familiar with all the most important and up-to-date X (f.k.a. Twitter) statistics, so you can plan a strategy that works for your brand.
Twitter analytics is a powerful tool for any social media marketer. Make sure you go beyond the basics to get an edge on your competitors.
If you want to connect with your audience on social, you have to know who they are. These X (Twitter) demographics can help.
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