A month after introducing tailored audiences, Twitter has announced on its advertising blog the launch of new targeting options giving social media advertisers the ability to leverage CRM contacts, email addresses and Twitter IDs to create custom audiences for their advertising campaigns.

What are Twitter tailored audiences?

Twitter started experimenting tailored audiences last July with a limited group of advertisers and launched the feature on December 5th of last year. Twitter describes the targeting feature as “a new way for advertisers to define your own groups of existing and potential customers, and connect with them on Twitter with relevant messages”.

Tailored audiences give advertisers the ability to leverage information stored in cookies to define their audiences. They are able to retarget past visitors of their website by using first party data, or reach new custom audiences by leveraging third party data.

Twitter provides the following example to illustrate how tailored audiences work:

“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. 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. The end result is a highly relevant and useful message for the user. Advertisers will continue to receive the same reports that include how many users saw or clicked on an ad, without identifying who saw it or clicked on it.”



How effective are Twitter tailored audiences?

Twitter shared a few statistics of the beta test when rolling out tailored audiences:

- Hubspot saw a lift in engagement rates of 45%

- Krossover reduced cost per customer acquisition (CPA) by 74%

- New Relic saw a 195% higher conversion rate

According to Marketing Land, Delta Airlines and Digitas were also part of the beta test, and although they didn’t share any details about their campaign’s performance, Breanne Loso, media planner for Digitas shared her opinion regarding the new targeting feature: “The ability to hone in on a very specific audience segment, such as recent flight searchers or recent flight bookers, and continue a conversation with them while on the go and within the social space is a fairly unique and powerful offering.”.

More details about the beta test performances can be found on Twitter’s advertising blog.

How to start using Twitter tailored audiences?

In order to be able to use Twitter tailored audiences, advertisers must work with one of the ten vendors selected by Twitter: Adara, AdRoll, BlueKai, Chango, DataXu, Dstillery, Lotame, Quantcast, ValueClick or [x+1]. Twitter says each vendor “has completed all of the technical integrations with us and has the knowledge to guide you through the set-up process”.

What are the new tailored audiences targeting options?

Twitter now give advertisers the ability to go beyond leveraging the information provided by cookies by letting them directly target CRM contacts, email addresses and Twitter IDs.

- CRM approach

Tailored audiences can now be created from lists of email addresses, which can be exported directly from your customer relationship management tool (CRM) or a CRM database records “stored with an ad partner”. This could also apply to your newsletter emailing list if it is not already synchronized with your CRM. Twitter provides the following example to illustrate the targeting option:

“Let’s say a fashion retailer wants to advertise a spring clearance sale on Twitter, and they’d prefer to show their ad to current membership cardholders. To get the special offer to cardholders who are on Twitter, the retailer may share with us unreadable scrambles (called hashes) of the email addresses of its card members. We can then match that information to Twitter accounts in order to show the matched users a Promoted Tweet with the sale information.”



- Twitter ID Approach

Advertisers can also use Twitter IDs to create tailored audiences (either usernames or user IDs), and further the targeting by specifying audience criteria, such as the user’s bio, follower count, verified status, or even past Tweets. Twitter describes the process accordingly:

“Suppose [a] retailer wants to build relationships with new prospects on Twitter who are influencers in fashion. The retailer can use public information on Twitter […] to identify the specific accounts on Twitter which are the most appropriate potential customers. The retailer may then use this list of Twitter ID’s to create a tailored audience through an ads partner, show those fashion influencers a Promoted Account and engage them as followers.”

How Twitter addresses privacy concerns with tailored audiences

As opposed to Facebook’s controversial sponsored stories, Twitter lets users choose whether they want to be included in tailored audiences advertisements or not. Users can opt-out by simply unchecking the box next to “Tailor ads based on information shared by ads partners” in privacy settings. Twitter also requires a minimum audience size to allow tailored audiences advertisement in order to avoid “overly specific targeting”.



Let us know your opinion on Twitter new tailored audiences targeting options and share your campaign’s performance in the comment section below or on Twitter.

