03 May Twitter as an Advertising Tool – Has It's Time Come?

Twitter once seemed like the child’s toy of social media, an Etch-A-Sketch in the playroom, where Facebook seemed like your older brother’s stereo system, and Linkedin your Dad’s Rolodex. But Twitter has grown up and it’s advertising model by some reports functions better than Adsense or Facebook Ads. Adsense has had a few problems lately for social media marketing in Los Angeles and elsewhere. First, even with the arrests of a number of the more egregious click bot fraudsters last year, everyone still has a weary feeling that we are all overpaying for Adsense.  Regardless, click fraud will continue. Second, until recently Adsense had been looking bland. The eyes began to more or less gloss over the Johnson boxes on a page – “oh yeah, there are the ads.” This has been helped by some recent re-design and more graphic friendly ads.
Facebook Marketing Los Angeles VS Twitter Marketing Los Angeles
 Facebook Ads can produce hit and miss results for three reasons: 
1. Sidebar ads tend to get lost. Facebook users look at the timeline only
2. Timeline promotions have a tendency graphically to look like what they are . . . promotions.
3. Facebook users are looking to interact. Ads have never had a cool factor on Facebook. . . see the movie.
That all things are equal by 140 characters plays to Twitter’s advantage right now. Twitter may have benefited from the fact they waited to be the last to put ads in their timeline as well. They don’t seem like they’re spoiling the party. Plus, users go to Twitter more for information than interaction, so Twitter lends itself to ads in a more friendly way.
When you use Twitter for promotion, your ad comes up as a Tweet.  In fact it is a Tweet and what you’re paying for is to be put into someone’s timeline that has used a keyword or phrase associated with your brand. The Tweet Ad has the same limitations as any other Tweet, 140 characters in which links count toward that number to an extent as well. The benefit of using Twitter Ads is that you’re getting placement that more eyeballs are going to see than Facebook or Adsense, at least as the stats are demonstrating currently. The ads aren’t judged as being as uncool as Facebook Ads or as “ignore worthy” as Adsense Ads. Where a few years ago the death of Twitter was being forecasted because while they had attention they couldn’t find a way to monetize it. Twitter now seems to be the one social media platform where ads have been in every sense, well-received.
For more information on Twitter Ads and the way they work, check out this article from thirdteam.org