Social media has a huge impact on marketing, but sometimes its still amazing to see how much. It was less than six months ago that Twitter released Promoted Tweets, their unique ad platform. Essentially, Promoted Tweets are advertisements that are placed at the top of a Twitter search with a tag underneath revealing the tweet as a promotion, but otherwise functions like a normal tweet. Users can still retweet, respond, or favorite the it. In other words, search for coffee on Twitter and you’ll see a Starbuck’s tweet on top. About three months ago, Twitter began experimenting using Promoted Tweets in trending topics, likely because of the high online traffic that trending topics bring.
Whatever the result of these Promoted Tweets, it’s certain to say that Twitter is coming out on top. Advertisers are spending “upwards of $100,000” on Promoted Tweets in trending topics, according to the Wall Street Journal. Coca-Cola, after purchasing a Promoted Tweet, had a six percent engagement rate (6% of people viewing the ad either clicked, retweeted, or replied to it). Virgin America claims that a Promoted Tweet in part led to their fifth highest sales day ever. Needless to say, Promoted Tweets have proven their worth, in part because of how they are presented to the user. Promoted Tweets don’t necessarily appear as ads, at least less so that Google’s AdWords. Part of that is due to their placement, but also because users are so used to tweets, that the Promoted Tweets aren’t perceived as ads.
Written by Brennan Mack