#InsiderTips: manage and optimize your Twitter advertising budget
In this month’s edition of #InsiderTips we chatted with Connor McIntire, our inside sales manager for Europe and Latin America. Connor shared his expert tips to help your business succeed with Twitter auctions and bidding. Follow his insights to manage your advertising budget and select the bidding option that best suits your goals.
Introduce yourself!
Hey, I’m Connor. Originally born in South Dakota, I’ve now lived in three different countries and love to travel. In my free time, I pursue all things cars and coffee (at the same time is always best). I used to work as a small and medium-sized business (SMB) account manager at our HQ in San Francisco. Last year I relocated to Spain to manage Twitter’s European, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America (EMEA & LATAM) sales teams.
Photo credit: Connor McIntire
Tell us a bit about Twitter auctions and bidding: how does it work?
Twitter auctions and bidding can sometimes feel like a black box, but it’s actually pretty simple. Essentially, the Twitter auction looks at a couple key factors to decide how to show your ad and what it costs. The first is the quality of the ad — how many people are engaging with it, how often are they clicking, and so on. The second is your bid, which is how much are you willing to pay for those engagements. These factors play into how likely it is you will win the auction and your ad will be displayed.
What’s the difference between automatic and target bidding?
Deciding what type of bidding to use is all about your time and goals. Automatic bidding works just like an automatic transmission in your car – the machine takes care of the heavy lifting for you. If you don’t have a lot of time to manage the campaigns, I highly recommend this bidding type.
To balance scale and costs, I highly recommend target bidding. This simply tells the system, for example, you might say ‘I want to pay 2 dollars’. With target bidding the system does its best to keep you at or around your target cost while not limiting your reach during high-value times of the day or week that may drive the cost up slightly.
Which pricing option do you recommend for SMBs? Why?
I often find smaller businesses do not have a lot of time. If that’s the case for you, I recommend Automatic bidding to save both time and effort. If you do have a little more time and want to experiment, target bidding is a great option to test.
Any advice on how businesses manage their budgets with Twitter Ads?
The one thing I’ve seen many advertisers do time and time again is put all of their budget into running ads for only a few days. Instead of allocating all your budget for a short timeframe, try approaching advertising with a curious mindset. Let your ads run for at least a few weeks and do A/B testing before deciding where to invest over the longer term.
Any final tips for SMBs on Twitter?
Be ready to test and learn! Advertising is constantly evolving and Twitter is no exception to this rule. Make sure to approach Twitter Ads with a curious mindset.
Discover more great Twitter tips and advice on business.twitter.com and stay up-to-date by following us on @TwitterSmallBiz.