Do you like to tap into the Twittersphere to follow the latest news? Twitter is one of the busiest platforms to follow when keeping tabs on news and events. That’s why it’s also one of my favorite places to advertise when I need to reach a specific audience at an event.

In this post, I will cover one of my favorite Twitter ad strategies – reaching your target market at an event.

Reach a Captive Audience of People Who Care About Your Topic

The concept is simple – people who are serious and learning about their niche go to industry events. They want to expand their knowledge, network with other professionals, or just stay in the know about industry trends. By default, this qualifies them as people who are passionate and interested about a specific topic. If your business covers that topic, your message should be in front of those people.

I’ve found it is effective to run ads to this tuned-in group while they are at their event with Twitter ads. By researching the event, you can get an idea of what trends and topics are popular, then create ads that resonate with those folks. Target your ad to people who are in the area of the event and follow the event hashtag and event account during the dates of the event.

Here’s an example: every year Social Media Marketing World is held in San Diego, California and draws thousands of people that love social media marketing. If my business sold a social media marketing tool, I’d target that event.  I would create an ad for people who follow the event producer and event hashtag and show the ads in the zip code of the convention center.

 

Here are 3 lessons I’ve learned with this ad approach.

  1. Be creative in targeting Twitter’s look-alike accounts and hashtags for the event.

In the past, the best approach for an ad of this kind was to target the people who followed a specific account. Twitter has recently made some changes, so now you can only target a look-alike audience of those who follow the account or the hashtag. It’s not quite as effective, but it still works. To extend this strategy, find out who will be speaking and sponsoring at the event and add those people in your targeting. Take the time to think through the targeting carefully and test each target audience.

 

  1. Schedule your Twitter ad right before or after the event.

Most events last just a few days so you need to have all your ad strategy and creative ready well in advance of the event. This means you will need to plan your ads ahead of time and make sure you’re hitting those event-goers when they arrive in town and before they leave. You can even tailor your ad copy to be relevant to their travel or the themes of the event. Tie your messaging in with those themes.

 

  1. Use Twitter website traffic ads and plan future retargeting.

Do you already use Google ads or Facebook ads? Make sure those retargeting pixels are in place before you run your Twitter ads so can retarget those folks after the event. This will give you additional touch points for people who visited your site during the event. Want to stick with Twitter and take this strategy a step further? After the event, Twitter will allow you to retarget the people who saw your ad campaign during the event.

But wait, you say, you only use Facebook ads?  Not a surprise. It’s true that Twitter ads have been historically clunky and a bit confusing to navigate. I think it’s time we all take another look at them. Try the strategy I’ve outlined here and if you need any help getting started, don’t miss my blog post with a Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Twitter Ads here.

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