Optimizing: followers campaigns

Followers campaigns allow you to promote your account and grow your audience on Twitter. People who follow you not only see your Tweets, they’re likely to become brand advocates and customers.

Top tips

• Create Promoted Ads specifically for followers campaigns
• Think outside the box when targeting users

The do’s and don’ts of followers campaign copy

We’ve found our advertisers have the most success using Tweets crafted specifically for followers campaigns, with short, clear, text-only copy.

• Do: Include “follow us” in your Tweet.
• Do: Let people know why they should follow you.
• Do: Craft a clear bio and use a professional background image on your profile.
• Don’t: Add extra links that distract from the “follow” button. Twitter does not expand any additional links or pictures.
• Don’t: Add excessive hashtags that may distract from the “follow” button. 

Target for reach

• Target creatively. When selecting targeting parameters, don’t limit your selections to those that directly align with your business. Think about all the interests your audience is likely to have. For example, the target audience for a bike shop might also include people who enjoy surfing, sailing, and skiing.
• Create campaigns for each of your different customer segments. Match your targeting to each segment’s interests. By tailoring your content, you can control your bids independently. We recommend creating 3-4 separate campaigns to target a range of different interests. This will allow you to more accurately monitor impressions, follows, and follow rates, which allows youto fine tune your bids from that data.
• Include 10-20 @names and interests. Keep them in tightly-grouped categories (industry influencers, competitors, etc). The People Search function on Twitter is a great way to find more @names to add.
• Target follower look-alikes. Since your followers are already interested in your account, and you are targeting users similar to them, this targeting parameter usually yields the highest follow rate and lowest CPF (cost per follow).

Where will my followers campaign show impressions?

Followers campaigns present people with ads suggesting they follow your account in several places such as home timelines, search results, and the “Who to follow” section. Tweets are not required to run a followers campaign, as it is possible to show up in other sections (such as the “Who to follow” section) without adding Tweets to your campaign.

While not required, it’s a good practice to include a Tweet to let potential followers understand your brand more clearly. You can either create a new Tweet that will describe why people should follow your account, or select an existing Tweet. Additionally, not including a Tweet for your followers campaign can limit the reach of your campaign. If you’re going to run a followers campaign, maximize the reach potential with the available features!

Why doesn’t my top-level data match the sum of all individual line items?

When advertisers run followers campaigns, the account can be displayed using Tweets (in the timeline), or it can be shown without a Tweet in the “Who to follow” sidebar. In the 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.