Followers who see Promoted Tweets more likely to have a brand preference

Tuesday, 2 July 2013


One of the questions a lot of advertisers ask is how can Promoted Tweets influence a consumer’s choice of brand? Twitter has done a lot of its own research into this, highlighted further down, but don’t just take our word for it. Instead, take that of one of the UK’s biggest mobile phone companies, and first 4G mobile service, @EE.

In a recent brand survey EE found that followers exposed to Promoted Tweets were 35% more likely to have a brand preference, and 40% more likely to have a high opinion of EE versus non-followers.

EE, whose on-going ad campaign features Hollywood star Kevin Bacon, launched its brand on Twitter in September 2012. The company have been consistently active on the platform ever since, using all of the core Promoted Products and achieving strong results.

 

The results of EE’s brand survey emphasise the impact that running Promoted Tweets in the timeline can have and how it can help shift brand perception. It also echoes recent research Twitter UK (@TwitterAdsUK) carried out with Deloitte (@DeloitteUK), to quantify the potential impact Tweets have on sales performance, and with Compete (@compete) into how Tweets are playing an increasingly influential role when it comes to consumers buying tech products.

The Deloitte study found that when it comes to buying video games, for instance, Tweets generate strong word-of-mouth that directly impacts consumer demand. Furthermore, positive Tweets about a brand can influence purchase decisions.

People like to talk about what they’ve read on Twitter, and that conversation directly influences what they end up buying when they are ready to purchase.

The Tweets in Action: Mobile/Tech UK study with Compete found those shoppers who see Tweets are more likely to visit brand websites, search or hunt for product reviews to find out more about the brands they saw on Twitter.

Not only that: the research found that Twitter users visit mobile and tech brand websites at a much higher rate than general web users – 62% versus 45%. Furthermore, it revealed that exposure to brand Tweets increased the likelihood that consumers would visit third-party review sites, such as @CNETUK or @techradar, to find out more about the brands or products.

This is where the numbers really start to shoot up. While around 36% of average web users visited third-party review sites during the holiday shopping season this figure was 28% higher when it came to Twitter users.

Tips for success

1. Create engaging and shareable content – Use video and pictures and consider humour if you want to reach your audience with news of new products and brand announcements. Include links to let consumers to learn more.

2. Use promoted Tweets in search – More than others, Twitter users like to hunt down details about products, so make sure your Tweets are the ones that they are seeing.

3. Use keyword targeting in timelines – Consumers like to talk about purchases they’re planning to make on Twitter. You can target those users talking about mobile phones, for instance, directly and achieve significantly higher levels of engagement.