How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost?

With an advertising audience of 353 million, Twitter is an ultra-effective free advertising tool. Still, as you probably know, the social networking site also provides plenty of paid advertising opportunities that let you target your followers, automate your bids, and promote your business.

When used properly, these ads enable your brand to gain visibility and attract more followers, click-throughs, and app downloads.

But how much do Twitter ads cost? Are they worth the cost?

You’ll find it hard to find a definitive answer to this. Naturally, the cost of Twitter ads varies for every marketer. They’ll differ depending on the aims, strategies, types of ads you use, and the price you’re willing to pay per bid.

The good news is that Twitter has advertising solutions available for all business sizes and budgets.

I will explain the different Twitter advertising options below. These factors contribute to your Twitter ads costs and finish with the metrics you should track to measure your campaigns’ cost-effectiveness.

Let’s start with the factors that influence the cost of your Twitter ads.

5 Factors That Affect the Cost of Twitter Ads

Several factors contribute to the total costs of your Twitter ads. This includes the type of adverts you’re using, the billable actions, your marketing techniques, your bid amount, and of course, the budget you have available to you.

Let’s look at these elements in more detail, starting with ad type.

1. Ad Type

Twitter offers three different main types of ads: promoted tweets, trends, and accounts.

Promoted ads: if you use Twitter, then you’re likely to have noticed these. Promoted tweets appear in your timeline, and you’ll see them tagged as “promoted.” You can retweet, share, and like promoted tweets the same way you would with regular tweets.

Promoted tweets can increase visibility and engagement. These Twitter ads’ costs will depend on how much you bid, but prices vary from $0.50 to $2 per billable action.

Promoted Trends: at $200,000 a day, promoted trends aren’t for everyone, but if you’re a large corporation with established, engaged followers, these ads could prove worthwhile for you.

Twitter Promoted Trends ads combine video with Twitter’s Explore function and show on Android, iPhone, and TweetDeck, and Twitter displays these ads for 24 hours in its Trends list.

The purpose of these adverts is to spark conversations and reach Twitter’s considerable audience. Specifically, Twitter suggests using them for new launches and promotions to increase awareness.

Promoted Accounts: when you’re on Twitter, you might notice some suggestions of other accounts to follow. Typically, these ads are suitable for users who want to increase their followers or announce a product launch. Promoted accounts cost vary from $2-$4 per follower.

2. Billable Actions

When you advertise on Twitter, the ad costs will also depend on your billable actions. Naturally, every marketer will have different objectives for their campaigns, so the type of billable actions you want Twitter users to take won’t be the same as another marketer or business owner.

For instance, you may want to get more followers, encourage app installs, or get click-throughs to your website, while another business owner might want to focus on video views.

There’s no set rate for these actions. As a business, you decide how much you want to pay through Twitter’s auction model. Once a Twitter user clicks through to your website or installs an app, or takes another billable action, Twitter will charge you.

Billable actions include:

followers
installs
engagements
video views
pre-roll views

3. Auction Bids

One of the biggest influences on your Twitter ads cost is the amount you bid. As with any other auction, the highest bidder wins. Even if you’re willing to pay just a cent more than your rival, your ad will get shown.

However, if winning auctions is your goal, don’t overlook one crucial aspect of success with your bids: focus on your ads’ quality, as Twitter will pay attention to this, too. What that basically means is the higher the quality of your ads, the better the engagement, and the lower your costs.

What does Twitter mean by “ad quality?” In Twitter’s own words, it means adverts that are:

resonant
relevant
recent

In other words, make sure your ads are engaging, targeted, and up to date.

4. Bidding Types

You can choose three types of bids on Twitter: maximum, automatic, and target bidding. Each of these types can influence your total Twitter ad costs in different ways.

Maximum Bidding

With maximum bidding, you set your top bid in the same way you would for any other online auction. You won’t need to spend your maximum amount on every bid, just enough to win against your nearest competitor.

Automatic Bidding

Automatic bidding is Twitter’s default option. You decide your budget, and Twitter will make the bid for you. There’s just something to consider with automated bidding, though. Although it might seem a good idea to leave it all to Twitter, you’ll spend through your budget pretty fast this way.

Target Bidding

Target bidding allows you to select your target cost-per-link, but it’s not for every ad campaign. Twitter limits its target bidding for website visits and followers.

When you use target bidding, you’ll base your campaign around what you want to achieve. For example, if you’re a new business, you might choose to get clicks through to your website.

You’ll select the price you want to pay for your target bidding when you’re starting your campaign on Twitter. If you’re looking for guidance, Twitter will show you real-time pricing before you place your bid.

5. Advertising Campaign Types

Twitter gives you six campaign types to choose from. They are:

followers
websites clicks and conversions
tweet Installs
app installs and re-engagements
video views
leads on Twitter

Your Twitter ads cost will depend on which campaign you select and what you hope to achieve from your advertising. For a more precise idea, Strike Social gives an excellent example of what this could look like in practice:

website visits campaign: $1.68–$10
followers campaigns: $2.50–$3.50
tweet engagements campaigns: $1.50–$2.50
app installs or re-engagement campaigns: $1.95–$3.25.
awareness campaigns: $6.00–$8.00

Metrics

As with any other advertising campaign, measuring your key metrics lets you understand your ROI. Only then can you work out whether you’re getting fruitful results and growing your business, or whether you need to make some changes.

However, not all metrics are equal when it comes to social media.

The metrics that you’ll want to focus on most are the ones that encourage engagement, increase conversions, and how much this costs you per click. That means concentrating on metrics like your CPCs, CPFs, and CPEs.

According to WebFX, you can expect your main metrics to look something like this:

How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost - WebFX metrics

Click-through Rate

The click-through rate is at the top of the list for many marketers. It lets you measure engagement and see what’s working. According to AdStage, Twitter has an average click-through rate of 0.86.

Engagement Rates

Engagements come in many forms including, comments, retweets, follows, and replies. In case you’re wondering what your engagement rate should be, this depends on your niche, according to recently published research by Rival IQ.

How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost - 2021 benchmark study

The research shows that higher education leads the way with a 0.087 percent engagement rate. This is followed by:

0.071 percent for sport teams
0.068 percent for the food and beverage sector
0.062 percent for the alcohol industry

There are a few surprises among this data, with tech and media, fashion, and media sectors among the industries with the lowest engagement rates.

Conversion Rate

Your conversion rates show you the return you’re making on ad spend. You can track this through your Twitter account. Just go to ads.twitter.com, login, then:

Click “Tools” from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Scroll down to “conversion tracking.” If you can’t see this, it might be because you don’t have a credit card on file with Twitter.
Agree to terms and conditions.
Select the “Generate a website tag for conversion tracking.”
Copy the code into your website.

If you’re not sure how to use coding, Twitter talks you through it on its pages.

Twitter Analytics

Twitter has an analytics tool that will show you how your organic and paid-for tweets perform. Keep track of these. If your organic tweets perform better than your paid advertising, you will want to refine your campaigns.

To use Twitter analytics, just go to your Twitter account and click the “turn on analytics” option. This will show your:

mentions
new followers
impressions
profile visits

Other metrics you’ll want to concentrate on include your:

Cost per follower. Your CPF needs little explanation: it shows you how much it costs you to gain a new follower.
CPM is your cost per mile. It measures your rate per 1,000 impressions.
Cost per download (CPD) or cost per install (CPI) shows you what each install costs. On Twitter, the average per install is $2.53.
Cost Per Click /Cost Per Action: When you’re paying for billable actions like click-throughs, followers, or app downloads, you’ll want to know how much this costs you on average to manage your budget.

What Should You Spend on Twitter Ads?

There’s no set amount that you should spend on Twitter. The site offers a mix of advertising items at differing prices, and it’s all about considering which is best suited to your business.

However, before you can decide how much to spend on Twitter ads, you’ll need to consider what you’re trying to achieve with your advertising campaign.

For example, a small business trying to promote its craft products might find that promoted tweets are enough to get click-throughs and conversions. In contrast, larger companies building on their existing audience are likely to have a more significant marketing budget and want to take a different approach.

It will also depend on:

Industry: As the stats from Rival IQ shows, some sectors attract more engagement than others, meaning the types of campaigns you run may need to differ depending on what industry you’re in.

Audience: Knowing what you want from a campaign is just one side of the story. Your audience is something else you should consider. If you already have an audience on Twitter, you’ll know the kind of content that engages them and gains you the most conversions.

Budget: How much Twitter ads cost ultimately depends on what you have available in your budget. To best plan your budget, ensure you understand all there is to know about bids, auctions, and billable actions.

Ad score: Twitter combines your bids with your ad quality to come up with your ad score. A superior ad score may reduce how much you pay.

How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost?

Ultimately, the answer is, it varies depending on your goals, strategies used, and the budget available to you. As Twitter explains:

“How much you pay in your campaigns is up to you. By setting up your budget during the campaign setup, you can control your Twitter ads costs.”

With Twitter, you can customize your adverts to suit your individual needs, and there are no minimum costs.

When you’re setting up your adverts, Twitter will ask you to set your total budget and daily maximum. Twitter’s general guidance is to set your budget at a price you’re comfortable with, but even if you don’t have the marketing budget of a multimillion corporation, a little can take you a long way.

Conclusion

Your Twitter ads costs will vary depending on several factors, including the strategy you use, the billable actions, and the type of adverts you choose.

Depending on your brand’s size, not all Twitter’s advertising options are ideal for every business.

A small business with a limited budget isn’t likely to want to spend massive amounts. In contrast, a corporation will have a significant marketing budget at its disposal and be willing to spend much more.

However, with no minimum spend and the ability to target an audience, you may find Twitter ads are a useful tool for gaining visibility and promoting your brand.

Do Twitter Ads work for you? Which strategies do you use?

How to Target Generation Z Through Paid Ads

Because the oldest Gen Zers are reaching an age where they can make their own purchasing decisions, you have a whole new audience you can target with your paid ads.

Search interest in Gen Z has climbed so high that as of March 2021, searches for Generation Z surpassed searches for baby boomers and millennials.

In order for your ads to be successful, you need to understand the demographics and characteristics of Gen Z so you can tailor your campaign accordingly.

The ages of those considered to be in Generation Z vary by source.

To add to the confusion, there’s also different terminology used to describe them. While the name “Gen Z” appears to have stuck, this generation of young consumers is sometimes also known as the Zoomers, in contrast to baby boomers.

For this article, I’m using the definition from Pew Research Center, which categorizes anyone born from 1997 to 2012 as part of Gen Z.

generation z and other generations defined

What Is Unique About Generation Z?

Just as baby boomers were defined by the postwar world, Gen Zers have their own unique characteristics tied to the age they were born.

For starters, they’re the first generation to grow up with access to technology throughout their lives. In 1995, two years before the first Zoomers were born, just 44.4 million people worldwide used the internet. By 2000, that number had climbed to 413 million, before roughly doubling every five years up until 2015.

The oldest Gen Zers turned 10 in 2007, the year Apple launched its first iPhone. They’ve pretty much always had access to social media, with the first social platforms starting to gain traction in the mid-noughties.

number of people using social media platforms - generation z

Generation Z isn’t just unique because they’re digital natives.

They’re the most diverse generation in history. Just 52 percent of US Gen Zers are white, and almost one-quarter have at least one immigrant parent (compared to one in seven Millennials).

What’s more, despite the growing cost of college tuition, Gen Z are better educated than earlier generations. Of 18 to 21-year-olds who weren’t in high school in 2018, 57 percent were in college, compared to 52 percent of Millennials in 2003, and 43 percent of Gen Xers in 1987.

Perhaps as a result of their educational exploits, they’re also less likely to work in their teens and early 20s:

Only 18 percent of Gen Zers aged 15-17 in 2018 were employed, compared to 27 percent of Millennials in 2002, and 41 percent of Gen Xers in 1986
62 percent of adult Gen Zers aged 18 to 22 were employed in 2018, compared to 71 percent of Millennials and 79 percent of Gen Xers at comparable ages

Why You Should Use Paid Ads to Target Generation Z

They might be young, but Generation Z is already impacting our economy. In the US alone, they spend an estimated $44 billion a year. Taking their influence on all household spending into account, their annual economic impact climbs to a staggering $600 billion.

So, you should be targeting them through ads, right?

Not necessarily. Generation Z isn’t the best target audience for every brand.

For instance, they don’t seem to like alcohol as much as older generations. Just 15 percent of drinking-age Gen Zers say they drink at least once a week, compared to 28 percent of Millennials and 36 percent of Baby Boomers.

They also watch less TV. They watch over 30 minutes less broadcast TV per day, and they don’t watch any more online TV than the average internet user.

While they might not be a fantastic audience for brands in the alcohol or broadcast TV spaces, there are definitely some things Generation Zers do enjoy.

For instance, they love gaming. Indeed, two-thirds of Gen Z males describe gaming as a core part of their personal identity.

More generally, they have very different ideas of “consumption” than previous generations. To them, the act of buying simply means having access to a product or service, not necessarily owning it.

Or, as consulting firm McKinsey puts it:

As access becomes the new form of consumption, unlimited access to goods and services (such as car-riding services, video streaming, and subscriptions) creates value. Products become services, and services connect consumers.

At this point, I’m going to assume your brand is relevant to Gen Z, and you’re eager to reach them.

With that in mind, here’s a word of warning: advertising to Generation Z is a double-edged sword.

They received their first smartphone at the age of 10.3 and spend an average of three hours a day on their mobile devices. As a result, many Gen Z experience ad exhaustion. They’re 12 percent more likely than average to use ad blockers, with 49 percent saying it’s because there are too many ads on the internet.

However, their buying habits suggest they’re actually extremely receptive to seeing the right sort of ads.

For starters, 44 percent describe social media as a popular source for product inspiration, while 69 percent want to buy directly via social media. What’s more, they’re more inclined than Millennials to make impulse purchases.

Strategies to Target Generation Z Through Paid Ads

It boils down to this: if you target Generation Z with the right products, they might be more likely to purchase it in-store or through social commerce (if you offer it). With that in mind, in this section, I’ll discuss how to target them effectively.

First, a quick disclaimer—you should only target the oldest members of Generation Z. Just as a millennial born in the early 1980s may not share much common ground with one born in the mid-90s, there’s likely to be a lot of disparity between young and (comparatively) old Gen Zers.

These strategies are relevant to reaching young adults right now, but trends will change by the time the youngest Zoomers come of age.

Showcase Diversity in Your Paid Ads Targeted at Generation Z

I’ve already noted that Gen Z is the most diverse US generation of all time. Zoomers recognize and champion this, with 71 percent eager to see more diversity in advertising.

While they respond positively to authentic, genuine expressions of diversity, they immediately see through ads that latch onto it as a way to sell a product. As one respondent to a Facebook survey put it: “It has to be authentic diversity, not just brand image.”

Say you’re in fashion e-commerce. You should absolutely use diverse models and messaging, but don’t latch onto Black History Month or International Women’s Day to promote your latest flash sale.

Treat Gen Z as Adults in Paid Ads

Generation Z hates being patronized.

This should be obvious—we’ve all been teenagers, after all. Yet so many articles about marketing to Gen Z talk about how they have the attention span of a goldfish.

Not only is that untrue, it’s also extremely patronizing. It suggests Gen Z are so obsessed with their phones or playing Fortnite, that they’re simply unable to focus on your brilliant ads.

In reality, Zoomers have better recollection of ads than Millennials or Gen Xers, particularly for skippable ads lasting less than two seconds.

Also, they’re the most educated generation in history and more comfortable with technology than their parents. If you don’t give them the credit they deserve, don’t expect them to buy from you.

Create Paid Ads for Multiple Social Channels to Reach Generation Z

Zoomers were raised on a diet of social media. Facebook is older than a lot of Gen Zers, so it’s hardly surprising they’re bored of it.

That’s not to say they don’t use Facebook at all; one-third check it on a daily basis. But they check lots of other channels, too. One in nine use TikTok every day, while one in ten are daily Discord users.

popular social media platforms for generation z

The lesson here is simple: to target Gen Z effectively, you need to focus on a diverse range of platforms, while keeping one eye on the “next big thing” in social media.

Take a Stance on Social Justice Issues in Your Paid Ads for Generation Z

You might think your online presence should be geared toward selling your product and building brand awareness.

Zoomers disagree.

Two-thirds say it’s no longer acceptable for companies to stay silent on social justice issues, while three-quarters believe brands have more responsibility than ever to promote social justice.

What’s more, they’re open to brands joining in the conversation via the groups and communities they’re part of.

percentage of generation z who would be open to brands commenting in their online groups

That means you should incorporate key issues like climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement into your messaging. But, don’t simply use it as a platform for selling—it has to be genuine.

Showcase Low Price Points in Your Paid Ads Targeted at Gen Z

Gen Z is just entering the workforce, so they typically don’t have a ton of money. What’s more, they were hit particularly hard by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in terms of job retention.

As a result, the older end of the Gen Z spectrum is much more financially aware. Because of this, you could get a lot of traction from targeted ads that demonstrate the affordability and value of your products.

Examples of Paid Ads Targeted at Generation Z

Advertising to Generation Z can be a real minefield. Some advertisers get it exactly right, but unsurprisingly, lots of others don’t. Here are two examples of ads that get it spot on, and two that missed the mark.

Good: Just Eat

Food delivery services saw big sales growth during the coronavirus pandemic. But with competition from the likes of Uber and Deliveroo, UK-based delivery service Just Eat needed to stand out.

Its answer? A collaboration with the rapper Snoop Dogg!

As a quick glance at the Billboard Hot 100 will tell you, Gen Z love a collaboration, and this ad certainly resonated, clocking up almost 13.5 million views on YouTube.

Take a look at the comments and you can see it’s gained the sort of response you’d typically expect from a “real” music video:

generation z responses to "just eat it" ad

Bad: The British Army

No one likes to be stereotyped, and Gen Z is no exception. Given that they make up more than one-third of the world’s population, it’s understandable they want to be seen as individuals, not all grouped in together.

Despite this, the British Army launched a recruitment campaign aimed at young adults, branding them “Phone Zombies” and “Selfie Addicts”.

That’s a tough sell. If a brand insulted me, I wouldn’t buy a pair of socks from them, let alone potentially lay down my life for them!

As an aside, 61 percent of Gen Zers describe themselves as “global citizens,” which suggests a career in the armed forces might not be a natural fit for them anyway, regardless of the advertising.

Good: ASOS

Fashion retailer ASOS launched a whole range targeted at Gen Z in which all the clothes are animal-free, sustainable, and gender-fluid.

As part of this, the brand ran a poll through Instagram Stories to ask whether clothes should be gendered, with two-thirds of respondents insisting they shouldn’t be.

This was effectively a double win. Not only did the campaign raise awareness of the Collusion line, but it also proved ASOS cares about the same issues as its audience, and understands the importance of expressing your identity.

Bad: Thortful

Here’s an ad found on the subreddit /r/FellowKid, which is dedicated to naming and shaming terrible examples of Gen Z-focused marketing.

To be fair, Thortful does a lot of good advertising. It has a huge inventory of greetings cards, many of which are actually funny, but this ad is objectively pretty bad.

thortful bad example of ad for generation z

It smacks of an advertiser desperately trying to link their product to something that’s popular with a young audience.

Also, while the Fortnite bubble hasn’t burst yet, interest in the online shooter game was at its peak in October 2019. Thortful missed the boat on this one.

Conclusion

The word “authenticity” is horrendously overused in marketing, but it’s absolutely crucial to targeting Generation Z effectively.

Remember, Gen Zers expect you to weigh in on social justice issues, and they want you to promote diversity. But if you do it inauthentically, they’ll run.

If issues like these aren’t central to your branding, it’ll be obvious you don’t practice what you preach—and that will drive away these young, savvy, conscious consumers. For help creating your Gen Z marketing strategy, reach out to our top-rated agency.

What are you doing to reach Generation Z through your advertising?

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How to Target Generation X Through Paid Ads

Finding new audiences to target is a constant challenge for marketers. If you’ve never tried marketing for Generation X, you could be missing out on a valuable group of consumers. Why should you customize ads for a Generation X target market? Your customers are individuals, but they also belong to a group based on what … Continue reading How to Target Generation X Through Paid Ads

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How Much Do Twitter Ads Cost?