Create a followers campaign

Setting up your followers campaign

1. Log into your Twitter Ads account
2. Click “Create campaign” in the top right corner of your Ads Manager
3. Choose “Followers” from the list of campaign objectives
4. You’ll be brought to the “Details” tab the campaign setup form. Here you will name your campaign, choose your funding source, and set campaign dates and budget
5. Next, you’ll setup your first ad group. You can also set ad group start and end time
6. For Followers campaigns, your Ad group goal will default to optimizing towards gaining Followers.
7. Select the bid type you’d like to use in your Ad group: 
   • Target cost (recommended): you can name the bid you’d like to pay per follow. Your campaign will then auto-optimize your bids to achieve a daily average cost that meets or beats your target. You will pay the actual average cost for all follows during the day. If you change your bid over the course of a day, it will average to the highest target cost you set
   • Automatic bid: your bid will auto-optimize to get the best results at the lowest price (within your budget). Automatic bid is the easiest way to quickly get your campaigns live and serving impressions on the platform
8. For Follower campaigns, your ‘Pay by’ metric will default to “Follower”.
9. Select the audience you’d like your ads to serve to in the “Targeting” tab. 
10. Choose the Tweets you’d like in your campaign. We recommend choosing text-only Tweets for followers campaigns
11. Review your final campaign setup on the “Review & Complete” tab. If you’d like to add additional ad groups to your campaign, you can do so here
12. Launch your followers campaign!

Serving your followers campaign

Follower campaign impressions are displayed in multiple locations across the Twitter platform, including home timelines, Who to follow, and search results. They’re automatically distributed across these locations to users who fit the targeting you’ve specified in campaign setup. You cannot customize where you’d like your follower campaign impressions to show. As with Takeover products and Promoted Ads, the impression is labeled as “Promoted” to distinguish it from other recommended accounts.

The Tweets you choose to add to your followers campaign will automatically render the follower card shown in the bottom left picture. For this reason, we recommend you use text only Tweets in your followers campaigns. If you do use Tweets with images or videos in your followers campaign, the image or video will not render media forward and the follower card will show in its place.

Other impressions will be served in the “Who to follow” section in the top right of a user’s Twitter home timeline, as shown in the bottom right. 

Viewing your results

Navigate to your Ads Manager to see your results. Filter the date range in the top right corner to see key metrics such as total spend, results (follows), cost per result (cost per follow), and result rate. 

When you run followers campaigns, the account can be displayed using Tweets in the timeline or it can be shown without a Tweet in “Who to follow” sidebar. In Ads Manager, there are no spaces to show non-Tweet display locations, so the sum of the campaign or ad group level spend can appear to be higher than the ad level spend, as ad level spend only counts spend (and impressions, etc) on Tweets. Any “missing” impressions or spend were served to users on the platform in the “Who to follow” location.

Frequently asked questions

Why should I use a followers campaign?

When someone decides to follow you on Twitter, you gain a chance to engage with that person over time. Each time you engage with your followers, you create new opportunities for them to share content, make purchases or tell others about their positive experiences.

Below are a few simple questions you’ll want to ask yourself when getting started:

1. Who do I want to follow my business? Think about the different groups of customers that you would like to purchase your product or service. Make sure your targeting selections line up with these groups.
2. How much am I willing to pay for each new follower? The cost per follower on Twitter is not fixed – it depends on the size of the audience you’re targeting, your bid, and other advertisers’ demand for that audience. A bid of $2.50 – $3.50 is recommended based on historical averages, but you’ll receive real-time bid guidance in your campaign setup. 
3. How many new followers do I want to gain? Set a goal to help you decide on a budget. This might be a regular daily gain or a specific number by a certain date. For example, if you want to gain at least 10 followers a day, then you would set your daily budget to $30 and your bid to $3.00.

When should I use a followers campaign?

Because follower campaigns boost your follower growth, they’re best used when you’re more likely to be discoverable to people who are existing or prospective customers on Twitter. A robust follower base amplifies the performance when you run other goal-based campaigns.

• Drive purchases, leads, downloads, and signups. By choosing to follow you, people are demonstrating an interest in your product. You have an opportunity to connect with them in meaningful ways and drive actions.
• Increase brand awareness and word of mouth sharing. When you Tweet valuable content, Twitter makes it easy for your followers to share it with their friends through Retweets, driving increase reach and awareness.
• Drive web traffic. Once you acquire a paid follower you have the opportunity to engage with them every day, for free, with your organic Tweets. Your followers are mostly like to see your Tweets and spend time on your website.

How much do followers campaigns cost?

Twitter’s cost-per-action pricing ensures you only pay for the specific actions you are looking to drive. 

When you run a followers campaign, you will only be charged for the follows you acquire from that campaign. All other actions and engagements (impressions, replies, and Retweets for example) are free.

The cost you pay per follower in your followers campaign will depend on the budget and bid you set for your campaign, as well as the targeting you select. A bid of $2.50 – $3.50 is recommended based on historical averages, but you’ll receive real-time bid guidance in your campaign setup. More on Twitter Ads pricing.

Details:

When setting up your followers campaign, you can select between automatic or target bidding as your bid type. We suggest selecting the target bid option since this will give you the flexibility to successfully bid on follows from users who are especially likely to follow your account, while staying near or below your target costs per follow. When you set up your campaign and input your bid, think of your target bid as how much you’re willing to pay per follow.

It’s important to think carefully about the value each follow brings to your business. The recommended bid is a good indicator of the amount you will need to bid for your campaign to reach its goal. You will never be charged more than your bid and advertisers are often charged less. However if your bid is not competitive relative to other advertisers, your campaign may not serve.

In addition to controlling the amount you pay per action, you also have complete control over the amount you spend overall. After setting your bid, you are prompted to enter a total budget for the campaign and an optional daily budget. When your overall budget is reached, your campaign will stop serving until you increase the budget. When your daily budget is reached, your campaign will stop serving until the next day. 

What types of Tweets can I use in my followers campaigns? 

We highly recommend you use text-only Tweets in your followers campaigns. When Tweets are serving to users, the follower card will automatically render. This card will display your Twitter profile background header image, bio, and a “Follow” button, allowing users to follow your account with one click. 

If you add a Tweet containing an image or video to your followers campaign, the image or video will not display media forward. Instead, it will show as a pic.twitter URL link.