Week 13/14 – Targeting Twitter Ads

Targeting Twitter Ads

Successful marketing comes from precise customer targeting. Online advertising makes this even more imperative – get it wrong is a recipe for wasting money with no returns.

 

Well it certainly feels like that in the early days. At the end of Week 12, I had improved response rates on targeting Twitter ads from 0.99% to 2.49%. That felt good. It would have been better to go the next level and get those clicks to flow to email addresses handed over. Week 13 tasks I set out here were mostly about addressing that part of the problem

• Improve response rates
• Get conversions.

How did I do? As always I have made it into a video journal – this one focuses very much on targeting Twitter Ads

Also time to step back and see how I did on my main Twitter account

Tweet impressions improved 50k from 184k, of which 20k came from ads. That is a tidy increase in organic impressions. Profile visits were down  300 from 1616. Last week, I did change the links in the profile section to Plan B opt-in page – no opt-ins.

The main activity for the week included a diversion. I supported the launch of The Affiliate Oracle from my friend, Adam Payne. I used this as a forcing device to integrate some of the mailing lists and also to test some targeting Twitter ads stuff.

This is the list of Week 13 Tasks and how I went

• Twitter Ads: Run best ad for core audience; run for female audience with retirement key words
  added; test a colourful words and illustration card: Completed all of these – details below
• Video Creative: Write a Joe Fretful script: Written and tested in a Solo Ad.
• Opt-in Page: Draft a few bullet points to add to page: Drafted. I did test out two different landing pages for Twitter Ads to test a bullet point and a long form sales letter rather than test the revised opt-in page.
• Solo Ads: Add in one new lead source: Added Results Fuel, on partner recommendation. They deposited 264 emails into my autoresponder account. Then it got stuck.
• Guaranteed Solo Mails: Run 2 solo ads. I ran 2 solo ads over the two weeks – one for the Weekly Webinar and one for The Affiliate Oracle launch = got the clicks but not the opt-ins or purchases.
• Email Followups: Add in one weeks of emails. With two launches running there were a fair amount of broadcast emails. I did use the Affiliate Oracle launch as a forcing device to bring in one of my copywriting lists. Getresponse would not allow me to upload the other one. I will have to rework that list from Fusion HQ or another mailer.
• Weekly Webinar: Schedule ads. Ran ads and emails for two weeks of the webinar, the first of which was the launch of Digital Busienss Formula. Certainly got lots of clicks but no sign ups.
• Launch Pros: Check Cards and business structure situation. Not done. As each week goes past, the delays on my side work in my favour.

Targeting Twitter Ads

In week 11 and 12 I had narrowed down the targeting Twitter ads focus to one audience (people like me) – males over 50 who followed Hubspot (i.e., somewhat software aware). Next steps for Week 13 and 14 were quite wide ranging – adding and focusing

• Test targeting for Females
• Improve the age profile of respondents (Twitter does not appear to have good age data). I used TV shows for this
• Test simpler more colourful Twitter card
• Test desktop vs mobile
• Test younger audience

Rather than walk through all the tests I will summarise three elements and present key lessons.

The creative test was about going to a simple illustration backed with stronger colours but retaining a longer form call to action. I introduced Joe Fretful (on the right) and have been building a bit of a story about his worries.

First level of the test was quite conclusive with click through rates increasing 40% to 4.20% though cost per click actually went up. I went through a few iterations of testing using both The Affiliate Oracle and the New Weekly Webinar. For example, I  broke advertising for The Affiliate Oracle into stages so I could test different things.

Overall click rates improved to get close to 10%, which is a fourfold improvement from where I started this cycle. Females are proving to be more responsive than males (by about one third). The last test had one key difference in the retargeting applied – that retargeting had a dramatic effect on the males test where response rates plummeted. Younger audience was a big drag on results – I will skip them for now. Biggest lesson of all was Desktop was way worse than mobile – that contradicts the training view.

I will present results for the first round of this week’s weekly webinar ads which tested different creatives for males vs females. The test includes a change of image style and its size – Twitter supports two styles – I have a feeling one works better on mobile. The simpler image worked way better (though there is also a retargeting difference here too)

Key Lessons for Targeting Twitter Ads

• Desktop does not work – people use mobile devices
• Retargeting works
• Females more responsive than males
• Younger audience does not relate to the ads
• Still not getting conversions (3 types of landing page)

I did get a lot of other things done in the two weeks. I used the two launches (New Weekly Webinar and The Affiliate Oracle) to bring in two new mailing lists. They have received broadcast emails and will be brought into the general email series (some work to be done yet). I di bring in a new solo ad-type source of traffic (1,000 leads of which first 264 arrived and 5,000 more ordered.) I tested out hte Twitter cards on two of my other twitter profiles pushing the reach to another 19,000 Twitter followers.

Next Steps and Week 15 Tasks

• Keep working Twitter Ads
• Test Retargeting Ideas: Ad to Affiliate Oracle Page (got agreemnt to do that); Ad to Own Page (later)
• Explore Adding Twitter Pixel to Convertri
• Explore Males vs Female Mix vs Focus just on Females
• Convert Meet Joe Script to Video (for Video ad or Plan B page)
• Write a Plan B Page – Drive traffic to it: Might extend this to launch Stratocharge.com
• Add 4 bullet points to Plan B landing page: Look to add Joe Fretful video
• Integrate Autoresponder Series: Add Copywriting material to AR series; Integrate 3 mailing lists to one; Resuscitate Fusion HQ list?
• Launch Pros – Investigate company structures that will work for UK.

That is a lot for a week – feels like a fortnight of work

Resources

Twitter: Follow me on Twitter @Stratocharge

Weekly Webinar: Dean Holland runs a weekly webinar. The links go live during Friday for the Tuesday webinar (6pm EST; 3pm PST; 11pm UK; 10am AEST Wednesday). Register here whenever the link is live or email me mark@markcarrington.com.

The program walks through all the steps you need to follow to master affiliate marketing. But it also goes into detail on small things that ultimately become very important (and we have all forgotten to do). You will develop the right mindset. You will become the trusted fiduciary. You will have focus – focus on a small group of customers and focused on a few things to promote. As soon as you have focus you will get a whole lot better – growing your skills. And you will know what to outsource and that allows you to scale your affiliate marketing from a hobby to a business.

You can get The Affiliate Oracle by pressing the button below. Clear your cookies on your browser before you do it to make sure you can get access to my Copywriting bonus.