Twitter Launches Conversational Ads To Get People Tweeting About Brands

Twitter’s new Conversational Ads mix polls with custom hashtags and rich media with the aim of getting users to share their responses with their own followers.

With Conversational Ads, brands can pose a question with two answers to choose from, each incorporating custom hashtags that show up in the ad copy and in the call-to-action buttons. 

When someone takes the poll or votes from an ad, like the example above, they are given the opportunity to tailor the response crafted by the brand and share it with their followers. It looks something like this:

Notice the share above displays as an organic tweet. Advertisers only pay for clicks on the original Promoted Tweet.

When users engage with a Conversational Ad, a thank-you message from the brand appears in place of the call-to-action buttons.

The ads have been running in beta for a few months, with brands like Samsung Canada and Lifetime participating. Lifetime tested the ads to promote the premier of a new series. Marissa Vinciguerra, Director of Social Strategy for Lifetime, said in the announcement, “The Tweet features voting buttons encouraging fans to engage with our creative and is a perfect match for this campaign.”

Reporting is available via Twitter’s TrueVoice metric in Brand Hub, which debuted in October. TrueVoice provides share of voice measurement from organic tweets derived from ad campaigns on and off of Twitter. Managed accounts can contact their reps to ask about joining the expanded beta.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.