This story originally appeared on Buffer
Late last October, we received an email from Twitter with the subject line, “@buffer, you’re invited to our beta program.” We were lucky to be the few selected for Twitter’s new automated ads beta program, Promote Mode.
The idea is simple:
At Buffer, we are always excited to experiment with new things, especially around social media marketing. So we jumped right in! We paid $99 upfront and tested the Promote Mode for 30 days.
In this post, you’ll learn about how Twitter Promote Mode works, and we’ll share our results from the 30-day experiment.
What is Twitter Promote Mode?
The official name for Twitter’s automated ads program is Twitter Promote Mode. Here’s how it works:
This program is great for people who want to promote their brand or products on Twitter and want to save time and hassle from running Twitter ads manually.
According to Twitter, “accounts with up to 2,000 followers will see the most value,” and Twitter is working on higher price plans for accounts with larger following.
Here are more details on how the Twitter Promote Mode works, according to Twitter:
- All you have to do is tweet as per usual.
- Each day, Twitter will select up to your first 10 tweets that meet its quality requirement and promote them to your selected audience.
- Retweets, Quote Tweets or replies will not be promoted.
- The ad creation is automated. You don’t have to create the ads yourself but you don’t get to choose the tweets to promote, too.
- You can still run Twitter ad campaigns alongside your Promote Mode subscription.
- On average, accounts will reach 30,000 additional people and gain 30 followers each month. (But performance may vary.)
How to set it up
It’s super easy to set up the Twitter Promote Mode; it takes only four quick steps. If you want to follow along, you might be able to find the “Promote Mode” option when you click on your profile image on twitter.com.
Otherwise, you can try this direct link: https://ads.twitter.com/subscriptions/mobile/intro
1. Select your country and timezone
The Twitter Promote Mode is currently only available in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. As I was able to subscribe to the program from Singapore, it’s likely that the program is available outside of the three countries stated.
But you will have to pay in one of the three countries’ currency and have to pay any applicable taxes of your selected country. Also, Twitter will only promote your tweets to people in either of these three countries.
Note that you will not be able to change your country and time zone once you start the subscription.
2. Pick your targeting
You can have your tweets promoted to either people who like certain categories, such as “Pets” or “Travel” (i.e. “Interests”), or people in specific locations (i.e. “Locations”).
3. Refine your target audience
Then, you can choose up to five interests or five areas in your selected country, depending on your selected targeting option in the previous step.
4. Enter your credit card details
Finally, once you’ve checked your settings and checked the agreement at the bottom of the page, click on “Proceed.” You will be prompted to enter your credit card details. Twitter will review your account before it starts your subscription.
When Twitter approves your subscription, you can sit back, tweet (or Buffer your tweets) and enjoy automated promotion of your tweets.
Checking your results
The easiest way to see your results is through the Twitter mobile app. Tap on your profile photo, and then tap on “Promote Mode 2.” These are the data you can see on your dashboard:
- A progress bar for the 30-day period
- The number of people your promoted tweets have reached
- The number of followers you’ve gained through the promoted tweets
- The…
