While Twitter’s extremely broad and restrictive political ad policy means that most people reading this won’t get much use out of the platform, issue advocacy campaigns may be able to use Twitter Ads to put tweets in front of users outside their organic following through a number of objectives, including awareness, tweet engagement, video views, followers, website clicks, and conversions.
Some Expertise Required
Communications & Digital Staff, Ad Agencies
Cause-based advertisers who maintain active Twitter accounts or are working with issues that might appeal to a wonky, moderately to a highly politically engaged audience
Twitter defines political content as “content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, referendum, ballot measure, legislation, regulation, directive, or judicial outcome.” Twitter prohibits any ads that fall under this policy.
Twitter does allow “cause-based” advertisers to run ads. For example, a “cause-based ad” is one that ” educates, raises awareness, and/or calls for people to take action in connection with civic engagement, economic growth, environmental stewardship, or social equity causes.” Again, these ads cannot be tied directly to a political outcome as defined in their political ad policy, and “ads must be tied to the organization’s publicly stated values, principles, and/or beliefs.”
In order to run cause-based ads, an entity’s Twitter profile must have certain information (profile photo, header photo, website, etc.), and advertisers must apply. This process can take up to 2 weeks or longer to complete, so we recommend getting certified ASAP to prevent campaign delays.
Acquisition, including both fundraising and list building
Awareness
Mobilization
Videos (6s, 15s, 30s, 60s, 60s+)
Static Graphics
Gifs
News Articles
Typical pricing model: CPM
$10-15+ CPM
Geotargeting
Behavioral targeting
*For cause-based advertisers, geotargeting “may only happen at the state, province, or region level and above” (no ZIP targeting). Behavioral targeting (keywords that users have searched for or interests) “may not include terms associated with political content, prohibited advertisers, or political leanings or affiliations.” There are other targeting options available for the platform for advertisers who aren’t under their cause-based advertiser policy.
The Digital Ads Playbook is produced by ACRONYM+ and powered by Arena.
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