Twitter has published a new ‘playbook’ for agencies which outlines a range of Twitter ads tips and notes to help improve tweet campaigns.

And while the focus of the guide is obviously to help those dealing with a range of clients, there's a heap of key notes and stats which can help any Twitter advertiser improve their on-platform efforts.

You can download the full guide here, and it’s well worth a look, but in this post, we’ll check out some of the highlights.

First off, Twitter notes that brands should expect to ‘pay to play’ on the platform.

“…the brands who seem to be the most organically successful on Twitter actually have huge Twitter Ads budgets and are creating a mix of organic and paid content […] simply put, if your client has ambitious goals for Twitter, they have to run paid campaigns to support them.”

The shift to paid promotion has become a key area of focus for all businesses in social, especially in the age of algorithms - but really, it’s no surprise to see Twitter promoting their paid options in this way. The company makes its money from ads after all – it is possible to build an effective organic Twitter presence, but the key note Twitter’s trying to emphasize here is that those brands you see which have huge followings, and see a lot of engagement, are likely paying for it, at least in some capacity.

“Brands have to put money behind their Tweets for them to go viral. You don’t have to put money behind all of your Tweets, or necessarily for a long time. Promoting a powerful Tweet can give it the initial momentum it needs to attract a lot of organic attention.”

The main strength of Twitter is its real-time nature. People come to Twitter to see what’s happening in the moment, to get an immediate overview, and this is another element emphasized in Twitter’s guide.

“…people come to Twitter to see what’s new and discuss their interests. Therefore, timely campaigns that comment on current trends or events - anything happening now - are a better fit for Twitter than anywhere else.”

This is a valid point to keep in mind – on Facebook, real-time trends have never been able to gain any real momentum, and no other platform provides the same level of immediate, all-inclusive input the way Twitter does. As such, Twitter may be best suited to seasonal, real-time and trending campaign types – worth considering in your approach.

Twitter also notes that brands should consider how they utilize brand personality on the platform, highlighted by businesses like Wendy’s and its quick-witted replies.

“Use Twitter when your campaign has an edge to it. Agencies and brands push themselves to re-invent and evolve. Twitter is the perfect place for that creativity, especially if it has an element of wit or sass. The brands that attract the most engagement on Twitter are often the ones that were willing to take a few risks and prioritize humor, speed, or entertainment value over consistency and caution.”

There are, of course, risks to this, but it is worth noting how brands are generating best response on the platform, and whether that might fit with your own approach.

In terms of platform-specific advice and operations, Twitter also provides a listing of key tips and notes to help improve your presence.

Twitter also advises that businesses should consider who they follow on the platform, in addition to who's following them, as this can make it easier to facilitate curation content to supplement your original content:

“Investing in your timeline gives you a healthy feed of content to Retweet. Sure, publishing good Tweets fills your account with quality content — but so does Retweeting. And Retweeting is easier.”

In regards to ad campaigns, Twitter provides an overview of what each of their campaign types is best for, along with tips on how to make best use of the various ad options.

Twitter also makes a note about singular focus for each campaign, in order to ensure you get the results you want:

“Most advertisers want their accounts to grow in multiple ways — more Retweets AND more followers, or more website clicks AND more video views. This is a healthy way to approach Twitter, but advertisers need to concurrently run several different campaign objectives to achieve those different goals. If they aren’t willing to invest in multiple campaigns, then they need to de-prioritize one of their growth goals.”

In addition to this, Twitter also provides some simple engagement tips:

There are a heap more tips and stats in the full guide, which, as noted, is definitely worth a look. If you’re looking to improve your Twitter presence, and run Twitter ad campaigns, the guide will help provide some additional guidance in order to maximize your tweet performance and help you get more from the platform.

You can download the full Twitter ‘Playbook for Agencies’ here.