Before we dive into how you can improve your Twitter Ads to better target your audience, it’s important to note that your ad goals play a crucial role in any strategies you develop.

As with all marketing campaigns, whether offline or online, defining what you want to achieve is vital to attaining them. On Twitter, this will also help you decide what kind of campaign targeting you’ll do or what ad format you’re going to use.

So here are some Twitter Ad strategies to refine your targeting approaches, helping you focus on your goals and reach your market more effectively.

1. Target Audience of Your Competitors

Target the Followers of brands you share customer demographics with. Create a Followers campaign and look for brands with a bigger following than you have. Twitter recommends adding 10-20 usernames.

To find out if your competitor is on Twitter, use the Twitter Search function. You can also use it to find more businesses in your field.

You can actually boost your Twitter Followers campaign by buying Twitter Followers and other social signals that cue search engines of your page’s importance. Bought Followers will help you become more visible, which will help attract an organic following more quickly, as well as garnering more Likes and Retweets.

Don’t run both campaigns at the same time so you can measure the results of each accurately. Some providers of Followers will do not provide refunds if you run other campaigns simultaneously. Read our reviews to learn more about the companies that can help you get the most out of your Twitter Followers campaigns.

2. Target Followers of Niche Influencers

Similar to targeting the Followers of your competitors, targeting the Followers of thought leaders in your niche will also bring great results. Targeting influencers will also increase engagement on your tweets.

This is because Followers of these influencers generally have a genuine interest in the topics being tweeted. Why else would they follow an influencer who tweets niche topics, if they aren’t really interested in the subject?

Of course, it goes without saying that you should only target those within your niche, and preferably those who do not tweet about a wide range of other topics. This is so you can be sure you aren’t accidentally targeting users who are interested in those “other” topics, rather than the ones that are important to your brand.

Some tools you can use to find the right niche influencers are Keyhole, Simply Measured, and other free Twitter tools.

3. Use Handles As Keywords

Increase engagement, leads, and conversions of your ads by using handles as keywords for keyword targeting campaigns. Twitter’s keyword targeting tool aims to reach users who have used those words in searches and tweets, and includes those they engaged with.

So when you create a Keyword campaign, try using handles of top posters as keywords.

4. Combine Keywords with Interests

This a retargeting strategy that combines two campaigns: Interest and username, and Keyword. So, to capture the audience who engages in your Interest campaign, use a unique hashtag keyword. As in the above example of using handles as keywords, this time you’ll be using hashtags for keywords.

On Twitter, there are over 350 categories for Interest that you can choose from. Pick the one most relevant to your business and stick to 2-3 sub-categories only. Then, in your ad copy, choose a unique hashtag that you can also use in a follow-up keyword campaign.

In the promoted tweet below, what Glamour Mag could have done to leverage Keywords with Interest targeting is use a unique hashtag keyword, like maybe #MileyOnGlamourMag or #MadonnaOnGlamourMag, and add it to the copy.

5. Offer Freebies in Your CTA

It’s standard practice to add Calls-To-Action in promoted tweets. They are effective but they can be even more so when they include freebies and discounts that benefit the audience.

So add a free download of an app, e-book, or audio lesson, or give away discount coupons and other similar products that will motivate your audience to click on your ads. Your tweets will have a higher engagement rate that could lead to conversions and sales.

Take a look at how Apple convinces its customers to click on the link promo below.

You’ll be happy to know that from a psychology standpoint, giving away something for free to your customers is a good move on the whole because the people on the receiving end will often reciprocate in kind.

6. Refine Your Targeting Using Audience Insights

This seems obvious enough, but those who are jumping on Twitter Ads for the first time often forget. If you aren’t checking Audience Insights, then you aren’t maximizing your Twitter reach. Whether it’s a tweet or a Twitter ad, learning how each performs will help you in creating your next post.

So, for a simple example, if your Twitter analytics reveal that there are more women than men who are engaging in your posts, then you’ll know who to target in your ad.

Another useful tactic that you can use is to work on the social proof of your brand. Social proof is a behavioral phenomenon wherein people assume the behavior, actions, and decisions of others when they are unsure of what the appropriate behavior, actions, and decisions should be in any given situation.

In social media, a high number of Followers, Retweets, and Likes can serve as social proof because they tell people that many others have already Followed, Retweeted and Liked you and your posts.

This is why your business will benefit from buying Twitter Followers and other social signals, because when you have tons of Followers you’ll be seen as an authority in your niche. You’ll attract more Followers and the more Followers you have, the stronger your business’ social proof will be.

7. Retarget Using Tailored Audience Segment

Retarget people who have shown interest in your brand, even off Twitter or on your website, by using the Tailored Audience segment. What ad campaigns could have better results than the ones shown to people who already are interested in your brand, those qualified leads that everyone wants so badly?

So, start your campaign by targeting and remarketing to tailored audiences. Log into Twitter Ads, click the “Tools” link on the top, select “Audience Manager,” and then click on “Create new list audience.”

You can upload your own list of usernames, email addresses, or mobile numbers, and you can also use third-party Twitter partners in deriving cookie IDs. Once your audience is created, you can begin your campaign. Check out this detailed guide to making your first Tailored Audience campaign for more.

Connect with the Right Audience

Ads are only useful when they actually reach your market. Otherwise, they’re nothing but a demonstration of your ability to make ads, and they do nothing to bring in money to your business.

Targeting campaigns on Twitter help you get your content in front of the right audience. You can pick the kind of Twitter campaign to focus on and let it work towards your goals, but improving your ad targeting will be left mostly to you.

Refine your ads and target your market better. If you do, not only will your ad be more impactful, but you’ll also be halfway to achieving success on Twitter. And isn’t that your ultimate goal for having Twitter Ads?