Twitter Unveils Ad Retargeting

Twitter is becoming a more desirable platform for advertisers, thanks to the new release of "tailored audiences".

The social network took to its blog to announce the availability of tailored audiences, which is a feature that the company has been testing for "several months". The feature essentially allows advertisers to launch retargeting campaigns, as it enables users to define their own groups of existing and potential customers. In fact, this new targeting feature enables advertisers to reach prospects who have shown interest in a certain brand or category, even if it was off of the Twitter platform.

"Let's say a hotel brand wants to advertise a promotion on Twitter and they'd prefer to show their ad to travel enthusiasts who have recently visited their website," the company blog post states. "To get the special offer to those people who are also on Twitter, the hotel brand may share with us browser-related information (browser cookie ID) through an ads partner. We can then match that information to Twitter accounts in order to show the matched users a Promoted Tweet with the travel deal."

This type of advertising strategy is not only helpful to brands, but also provides consumers with more relevant content. Data from beta testing found that tailored audiences can provide brands with a lift in engagement, increased conversion rates and a decrease in cost per acquisition. For example, early tester HubSpot saw a lift in engagement rates of 45 percent, while another early tester, New Relic, saw 195 percent higher conversion rates.

It is important to note that Twitter teamed up with a variety of companies to help brands create and transfer audiences to the social network. Partners include Adara, AdRoll, BlueKai, Chango, DataXu, Dstillery, Lotame, Quantcast, ValueClick and [x+1]. Twitter also notes that brands that are interested in leveraging tailored audiences should contact their account team for more information.