Twitter Introduces Carousel Ads: Just The Facts

Recently, Twitter, after a period of beta testing, announced the broad introduction of Twitter carousel ads. Although carousel ads are popular on other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, this format is a new addition for the wildly popular microblogging site. “Carousel ads are designed to help drive better performance by providing a more immersive and interactive experience for consumers to engage with, as well as to enable future opportunities within our mobile application and website performance objectives,” said Jonathan Lewis, senior director of product management at Twitter. The new Twitter carousel ads offer an opportunity for advertisers to lean into an effective and tested ad format.

What Are Carousel Ads?

Carousel ads usually feature two to six horizontally swipeable images and videos, instead of one static image. Typically, the advertising objective of carousel ads is to drive users to app downloads or specific products on websites. According to Twitter, “The [carousel] ad unit is available via the tweet composer in Ads Manager or the social network’s Ads API (application-programming interface), and they can either be deployed organically or promoted.”

Do Carousel Ads Boost Conversions And Engagement?

Yes. One of the reasons carousel ads are so popular on other social media platforms is because advertisers find them highly effective at driving traffic and conversions. According to Emma Wiltshire for Search Engine Land, “Carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram drive 10 times more web traffic for businesses than the counter single-image ads.” And, a Facebook study reports carousel ads drive a 72% higher click-through rate (CTR) than single images.

During beta testing, Twitter “saw an average increase in click-through rates of 15% compared with single-asset formats for website carousels, along with a 24% climb in installs per impression versus single-asset formats for app carousels.” Although Twitter expects some variation in those results as carousel ads launch globally, the strength of Twitter carousel ad performance is positive. 

What Are The Benefits To Digital Advertisers When They Use Twitter Carousel Ads?

In a blog touting the new ad format, Twitter explains the myriad benefits of the new Twitter carousel ad format, including the ability to:

• Engage your audience. Carousels feature an edge-to-edge design that allows people to easily transition across cards.
• Drive the right actions. Carousels are available across all Website & App objectives, as well as Video Views when using Video Carousels. Carousels can also be used in Engagement and Awareness campaigns.
• Create with ease. Carousels only have a few steps to creation, and [advertisers can] follow the same creative specifications as our other image & video formats, allowing you [advertisers] to focus on your story. 
• Test & learn. Relevant analytics and strong metric coverage are available to help you [advertisers] understand Carousel performance – including card-level & swipe reporting.

Especially for advertisers already experiencing strong results from carousel ads on other social platforms, it makes sense to test the new carousel ads on Twitter. Twitter also indicated that the launch of Twitter carousel ads is one of many early steps towards creating a better and more effective performance marketing business.

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