With more than 145 million daily active users, Twitter is a large social network that we focus on in this article.
How to advertise on Twitter ?
Discover the right tools to make your Twitter ads profitable.
What are promoted ads?
Sponsored ads are short informative text and visual messages posted online and purchased by people who want to reach a wider audience or generate engagement from their current followers.
All sponsored ads are clearly labeled as "sponsored" when a person or organization pays for their publication on Twitter. In all other respects, sponsored ads are like regular tweets and can be retweeted, commented on, liked, and more.
Sponsored ads can be text-only or include images/videos.
Where?
There are a number of places where you might see a sponsored ad:
- At the top of relevant search results pages on the platform. Sponsored ads from our advertising partners are displayed at the top of some search and results pages.
- Your timeline. Sponsored ads may appear in your timeline if an advertiser has promoted a Tweet that concerns you.
- User profiles. Sponsored ads will appear on certain profiles that match targeting identifiers.
- Official Twitter clients. Promoted ads may also be displayed through Twitter’s official desktop and mobile clients, including Twitter for smartphones (iPhone and Android).
When?
We focus on providing an exceptional user experience above all. Therefore, we think carefully about how we publish sponsored ads.
Any sponsored ad people see in their timeline will appear only once, at the top, near the start of their timeline. After that, the sponsored ad will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet.
Don't like what you see? Remove the sponsored ad from your timeline by clicking the small triangle that appears in the upper-right corner and selecting "I don't like this ad."
How?
Promoted ads are broadcast when an advertiser pays for their placement on the Twitter platform. Anyone can start a Twitter Ads campaign.
Twitter ad specifications
Knowing the required ad specifications can help ensure you produce ad creatives that are compatible with the platform.
Although there are some variations depending on the ad type, keep in mind that the following elements apply to all relevant ads:
- Most text ads allow 280 characters, although each link reduces the character count by 23 characters.
- PNG or JPEG are the recommended file types for images.
- MOV or MP4 are the recommended file types for videos.
- Image files can be up to 5 MB.
- Video files can be up to 1 GB.
The image and video specifications for Twitter ads vary depending on the type of placement and the format you want to use. Here are the aspect ratios and dimensions you need to know:
- Banner ads for the audience network: 320 x 50 pixels
- Audience network medium rectangle ads: 300 x 250 pixels
- Full-screen ads for mobile: 320 x 480 pixels
- Full-screen ads for tablets: 768 x 1,024 pixels
- Full landscape-format ads: 480 x 320 or 1,024 x 768 pixels
- Carousel ads must have image aspect ratios of 1:1 or 1.9:1, and video aspect ratios of 1:1 or 16:9
- Carousel images must be 800 x 800 pixels or 800 x 418 pixels
- Carousel videos must be 800 x 450 pixels or 800 x 800 pixels
The good news is that when you create graphics on Twitter, you see a list of supported image options and their dimensions.
Twitter for Business
That's why Twitter has focused on how it could help businesses grow even more every day, especially given the 500 million tweets posted daily.
How? Twitter runs several types of ads, namely:
- Promoted Tweets,
- Promoted Accounts,
- Promoted Trends
Let's discover these 3 types of ads together.

Promoted tweets
Purchased by brands with the simple goal of reaching a wider audience and increasing engagement from their current followers, promoted tweets enjoy much better visibility compared with basic tweets. They appear:
- At the top of relevant search results
- Within the search results of a promoted trend
- In timelines
- On relevant user profiles

Promoted accounts
Like promoted tweets, promoted accounts are profiles that appear in the timelines of potential accounts that might be interested in the advertiser in question.

Promoted trends
For example, you can buy a promoted trend for the launch of a new product/service.

How to publish a promoted post?
Twitter supports you from A to Z in creating a promoted post. Let's look together at how to proceed.
First, you will need to determine your objective. Indeed, what impact will your advertising campaign have?
- Awareness?
- Consideration? (impressions, clicks, engagements, followers, etc.)
- Conversion?

Once you've made your choice, Twitter will ask you for details about your new advertising campaign.
Ad group details
Here, you will need to specify the name of the ad group, the start and end dates of your campaign, and your budget.
Once this information is completed, you will move on to the second step.
Demographic data
This step consists of providing all the necessary information to target the people who match your campaign:
- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Language
Devices
Which operating systems do you want to target? iOS? Android? Another mobile platform or a computer?
You even have the option to specify an exact device model as well as a particular carrier! Precise, isn’t it?

Custom audiences and targeting features
You can choose to target custom audiences and even configure your targeting:
- Keyword
- Similar subscribers
- Interests
- Movies and TV shows
- Events
- Conversation topics
Many of the requested details are optional but will help you reach your target more effectively.
Final step
The final step in creating your advertising campaign is to choose the content you want to sponsor.
You will then access a summary page and click “Launch Campaign.”
What tools to run your ads?
Buffer
Need a simple, intuitive scheduling tool? Publish your content and analyze your ad campaigns with Buffer!

Hootsuite
Plan, create and schedule the distribution of your content on your Twitter accounts and other social networks with Hootsuite.

TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a tool offered by Twitter itself to help you save time publishing your tweets, monitoring relevant keywords and trends, and tracking influencers…

Sendible
With Sensible, efficiently create tailor-made posts for each platform. You can customize your Twitter account (posting, scheduling and automating your tweets), monitor relevant keywords, trends and the reach of your ads, etc.

Sponsored Tweets
This service lets you advertise on Twitter: its price depends on the number of followers.
However, it is possible to set your own cost-per-click for the ads you tweet, with a minimum of $0.15.

You can choose the ads you tweet from a list that is regularly updated. The only requirements are to have at least 50 followers, 100 tweets, and for your account to have been open for more than 60 days.
Ad.ly
Ad.ly is another service that lets you send advertising in your tweets but with a different offer because you are not paid per click.
You must create a profile with your interests, then advertisers choose whether or not to select your account to promote one of their campaigns.

If they contact you, you must agree to send multiple messages within a set timeframe and you are paid a flat fee. The only catch is you need 150,000 followers to gain access.
Some tips to help your brand with Twitter advertising
Now that you know how to set up an advertising campaign on Twitter, here are some tips to make sure your Twitter marketing campaign delivers results.
Make your brand and business clear
Chances are you'll be targeting Twitter users who don't already follow your brand. So clearly show what your business does through the images or video you include and the copy you write.
Since users can click your ad to access your Twitter profile, make sure your bio and Twitter profile are perfect. This can help them decide to follow you and engage with your brand's posts on social media.
It's also a good idea to be verified on Twitter so users know they can trust your brand.
Write concise, engaging copy
Just because you can use 280 characters doesn't mean you should use them in your ad. Users scroll through Twitter quickly, so make sure your ad gets to the point fast.
Include a clear call to action
Don't leave your audience wondering. Good ads work thanks to a simple call to action.
Whether you want to attract new social followers, clicks to a specific landing page, or more downloads of your app, make that clear to your audience.
Use high-quality images and videos
A blurry, improperly sized image or a grainy video won't help your Twitter advertising strategy. Be sure to follow Twitter's creative ad specifications so every image and video is sharp, compelling, and eye-catching.
Also make sure everything you include is directly related to the ad. For example, if you're trying to sell a product, include an image or video of that product.
Our tip for advertising on Twitter
You've just discovered the different types of Twitter ads, how to create your very first campaign, and tips to remember when creating your Twitter ads.
And what if you outsourced the writing of your sponsored posts to professional freelance copywriters? Order your texts now on Redacteur.com and select one or more writers specialized in the topic of your choice.