After working at three different advertising agencies, let's just say I know how to work efficiently. Twitter has always been one of the platforms that just requires so much extra work to really be effective. I had promoted tweets and ran ads on Twitter before, and found Twitter's ad platform clunky and difficult to navigate. It didn't seem worth the effort to build separate campaigns each individual tweet.
In 2017, Twitter announced a new Promote mode feature, and it seemed like it would be the perfect solution to my Twitter woes.
What Is Twitter Promote Mode?
Promote mode is always-on advertising for your Twitter profile. Instead of having to set up and manage individual Twitter ad campaigns, Promote Mode automates the promotion of your tweets and your account. It's $99 a month, and smaller accounts with less than 2,000 followers will see the most value.
How Does It Work?
It's extremely easy to set up. It's separate from Twitter's ad platform, so you simply enter your credit card information, then select up to 5 interests or locations you want to target. Keep in mind the interests are very general, so you can't get too granular here yet. It's still great for local businesses or brands who can benefit from increasing reach in target locations with at least one general interest from the available options.
After you select your targeting, that's all you have to do. Twitter will start to automatically select tweets you send each day and push them out to your target audience. It won't promote any retweets, quote tweets or replies.
Is Promote Mode Worth the Cost?
It depends. At $99 a month, this averages spending $3-4 a day, which is pricier if you compare it to the results you'd get from using promoted posts on Facebook, which have a $1/day minimum budget.
If your brand absolutely needs to be on Twitter and you want to increase reach and engagement, definitely give it a try and see how it works for you. It requires almost no effort to set up or manage.
Twitter Promote Mode Results
According to Twitter, most accounts will reach 30,000 additional people and gain 30 followers each month.
For me, Promote Mode amplified 40 tweets each month, so about 1 tweet per day. I tested Promote Mode for two months, and my test account reached 33,000 more people than it would have reached organically, which was 100-200% more reach. Twitter has always been a challenge to get engagement, and Promote Mode really helped with that. As a small added bonus, we also gained about 30 new followers a month.
Overall, with the ease of use and the set-it-forget-it functionality, it could be extremely beneficial for newer brands to utilize. As Twitter continues to test and refine this new feature, more than likely targeting or customization options will increase or monthly cost will decrease. Just keep Twitter Promote mode in mind next time you review your Twitter analytics.