Twitter Launches New Ad Targeting Options, Including Advanced Website Conversion Optimization

Wait, Twitter’s still launching ad updates, despite losing thousands of staff?

Well, kind of.

So, just before Thanksgiving, Twitter announced some new ad targeting options, which look fairly similar to its existing ad goals, but with some important differences.

The first update is within its ‘Conversions’ objective, with advertisers now able to focus their promotions onto users that are more likely to take specific actions in response.

As per Twitter:

“Website Conversions Optimization (WCO) is a major rebuild of our conversion goal that will improve the way advertisers reach customers who are most likely to convert on a lower-funnel website action (e.g. add-to-cart, purchase).”

So instead of just aiming to reach people who are likely to tap on your ad, you can expand that focus to reach users that are more likely to take next-step actions beyond that, like:

• Add-to-cart
• Purchase
• Register contact info
• Subscribe

“Our user-level algorithms will then target with greater relevance, reaching people most likely to meet your specific goal – at 25% lower cost-per-conversion on average, per initial testing.”

Essentially, the process uses Pixel tracking (you need to use the Twitter Pixel or Conversion API for this campaign type) to get a measure of the types of people who are undertaking these actions on your website, then utilizes that data for targeting further audiences for your ads, based on each element.

So how is it different?

Well, it’s not a big shift.

Up till now, Twitter advertisers have been able to optimize their campaigns to focus on:

• Link clicks
• Site Visits
• Conversions  

Within the ‘Conversions’ objective, you can further optimize for specific website events:

• Page View
• Content View
• Add to Cart
• Purchase

As you can see, the only additions here are users who might leave their contact info or subscribe, which are likely not major focal points for most Twitter advertisers.

But what Twitter has done is that it’s made these options more immediately accessible within the Campaign Objectives screen.

So it looks like a significant update – and functionally, it does simplify things a bit. But it’s not a major advance in your Twitter ad targeting options.

Twitter’s also launched its ‘Dynamic Product Ads’, which enable advertisers ‘to showcase the most relevant product to the right customer at the right time’. 

“With DPA Retargeting, you can serve ads to targeted consumers, featuring products they have engaged with (e.g. added to their shopping cart) on your website but haven’t yet purchased.”

Twitter’s actually offered a variation of this ad type since 2016, but it recently updated its Dynamic Products Ads targeting to integrate a more privacy-focused approach, in order to optimize ad performance with potentially fewer signals.

Finally, Twitter’s also launching its updated Collection Ads format, which enables advertisers to share a primary hero image, along with smaller thumbnail images below it.

“The primary image remains static while people can browse through the thumbnails via horizontal scroll. When tapped, each image can drive consumers to a different landing page.”

Twitter first previewed this option back in March.

Essentially, these are not new offerings, as such, but they may be newly available to you, which could provide more considerations for your Twitter ad campaigns.

So if you’re wondering how Twitter’s able to launch new ad products despite cutting 65% of its staff – well, they’re not new, they’ve been in development for months, with Twitter just deciding to press ‘launch’ and provide them to all ad partners.

But that doesn’t lessen their potential value, and there could be various ways in which you’ll be able to use these options to boost your tweet campaigns.

Note, too, that Elon Musk has repeatedly mentioned that he wants to improve the accuracy of Twitter’s ad targeting options, which could eventually see Twitter’s automated audience tools, like Website Conversions Optimization, become a much more valuable proposition.

You can learn more about Twitter’s latest ad updates here.