Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) surely seems to be up for some major changes lately – after it has recently announced that it will bring some slight modifications to its interface in order to make it easier to use and more user-friendly, the social networking platform has now implemented a brand new feature for advertisers to make sure their ads are aimed at the right target market. Simply put, by promoting a certain product or service to a market segment that is particularly interested in acquiring it, the vendor has more chances to make a sale – this is exactly what Twitter aims to do, helping its advertisers create targeted ads.
What Does This Change Involve?
It is a known fact that some of the world’s largest companies and websites make most of their revenue from selling ad space – this is why they must provide advertisers with high-quality services. Cookies have always been the main way for websites to analyze user behavior in order to deliver targeted ads, but now Twitter wants to redefine that aspect and become even more specific in its targeting by using the lists of usernames and their email addresses. There are several other popular websites that have already implemented this method of delivering more targeted advertising messages to their users.
This significant change implemented by the Twitter team aims to offer advertisers more control over their ads, as they will be easily able to narrow down the number of users that will see the promoted tweets by only selecting the users whose usernames and email addresses are stored in the CRM (customer relationship management) database. Those particular Twitter users will be shown promoted tweets launched by advertisers through lists of IDs.
So far, digital marketers have relied heavily on internal records, but now they can easily focus on tailored audiences by simply paying attention to the information that users make publicly available on Twitter. Even so, it must be said that this change will not affect mega users in any way – the tweets can only be targeted towards those users who have chosen to make their personal information (such as their status, their biography or their total number of followers) publicly available, it will not affect celebrities who have a Twitter account.
Basically, these new algorithms will pay attention not only to the email addresses but also to the Twitter IDs or usernames that seem to be appropriate and relevant to the target. Advertisers will not be able to have a closer look at the account details of various users and after checking their public information, they can determine whether that user may or may not be interested in purchasing a specific item. For example, a fashion brand will certainly show targeted ads to those who are following a great number of fashionistas or fashion channels, or who have entered “fashion” or “design” as an interest in their public biography.
This new change will certainly make Twitter a more interesting option for advertisers, and allowing advertisers to target and customize their ads even more is certainly a very smart and strategic move in terms of business. Nevertheless, Twitter will prevent advertising from focusing their marketing efforts on popular accounts by implementing what is known as a minimum audience size.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that this is a mutually beneficial change, given the fact that it will not only benefit Twitter and its advertisers who will make more money, but also users who will be shown ads of personal interest. Besides this, the change will not interfere with the user’s privacy in any way, given the fact that Twitter users can always choose to uncheck a box in their privacy settings menu and this will automatically prevent advertisers from showing them targeted ads. This feature is enabled by default but it can be disabled within several seconds.
If you have decided that you do not want to be part of this change, then you need to go to your settings menu, where you will see a box called that would allow advertisers to tailor their ads based on the information shared by ads partners. Uncheck that feature if you want to opt out of this particular approach and you do not want to see any tailored advertising messages on your timeline.
