X (formerly Twitter) as a traffic source for mobile applications

WakeApp is back with its “Source of the Month” – an educational guide for mobile app marketers.

According to information gleaned from Statista, app stores are currently swamped with applications: Google Play includes 2.6 million apps while there are almost 4.5 million in the Apple App Store. So, what does it take for an app to rise to popularity among its users? It surely is no longer the case of uberizing a program capable of connecting clients to a service. This is where our highlight tool of the month comes in.

At WakeApp, we’re always ready to lend a helping hand to novice marketers, partners and specialists in the mobile application promotion market to keep abreast of the latest GEO trends, traffic sources and promotion features. This time, we’re introducing our readers to the highly popular advertising platform for media buyers and app marketers, X (formerly Twitter)!

X is an American microblogging service and social network where users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. X, Inc., which is based in San Francisco, California, provides the service and has over 25 offices worldwide. Tweets were initially limited to 140 characters, but in November 2017 the limit was doubled to 280 for most languages. Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts.

Facts about X

• X has almost 368 million monthly daily active monetizable users (data for 2022), and this figure is constantly growing.
• X users are predominantly male. According to Statista data for January 2023, males account for 63% of social media users while 37% are women. Almost 40% of them are aged between 25 and 34.
• X’s audience is mainly mobile: according to X, about 80% of social network users access X from smartphones and 93% of video views on X occur on mobile devices.
• As of January 2023, X is most popular in the United States, Japan and India.

How can marketers use X?

Since there are not as many ads on X as on other social networks, users are less likely to experience banner blindness. Therefore, the likelihood that the ad will be noticed is higher.

At the same time, the majority of X users are consumers, not content creators, which means they are looking forward to the opportunity to participate in discussions, download applications, and are also ready for interactivity and a gaming format of interaction.

It was on April 13 back in 2010 that X introduced advertising. This advertising was limited only to banner advertising. Four years later, on April 17 2014, X officially announced the launch of a platform for advertising applications using the MoPub mobile traffic exchange system, having acquired this service six months earlier.

This service made it possible to install promotional applications directly from the X news feed. Ads were simultaneously shown on X  through a promotional tweet system and on users’ mobile devices through MoPub.

What does the X advertising account look like?

Level 1. Goals.

There are a total of seven goals on X: Reach, Video Views and Pre-Roll Views, App Installs, Website Transitions, Interactions, Readers, Repeat App Interactions.

Level 2. Campaign.

After selecting a goal, you need to set your settings at the campaign level, namely: give a name to the campaign, set the daily budget, total budget, start and end dates of the campaign, and the pace of impressions.

Level 3. You will be taken to the ad group settings that you will need to set: Group name, Start and end time of impressions, Total ad group budget, Bid type.

What can you target on X?

• User demographics. To target demographics, set users’ gender, age, location, and language.
• Device data. In this section, select what devices your target audience uses—desktop computers or smartphones on iOS, Android, or other operating systems. You can also specify information about the operator and device model.
• Custom audiences. On X, you can create custom audiences based on your contact list, website or app activity, and combined audiences based on app activity. In the same section, you can create look-alike segments by checking the “Include users similar to your selected custom audiences” checkbox.
• Targeting options. You can target by interests, events, conversation topics, movies and TV shows, and reach users similar to followers of a specific account. Interests and activities can be selected from a drop-down list.
• Keyword targeting is also available, allowing you to include or exclude campaign users from your advertising who enter certain words in X searches or use them in publications.
• In additional settings, you can set up retargeting for those users who interacted with or saw posts. You can enable audience expansion, or add users who are already following your account to your audience.
• Depending on the purpose you choose, impressions may be available in your home feed, profile, search results, and X Audience Platform which is a network of popular apps. Connecting the X Audience Platform allows you to expand your advertising reach. When setting up impressions in the Audience Platform, you need to add an advertising category (cars, restaurants, education, etc.), add a link to the site, and, if necessary, exclude applications in which you do not want to appear.

When choosing targeting, focus on test results and analytics. If you haven’t run X  ads before, create ad groups for each target group.

When using keyword targeting with the “Include” option, add at least 25 keywords, as per X’s recommendations. When selecting the Exclude option, remember that too many words will narrow your coverage.

Advertising formats

X advertising comes in three formats:

• Promoted Tweets. They look like regular posts but are marked as “Advertising”. Users can like, repost and comment on them just like organic posts. Promoted posts are shown in X search results, in the news feed, in the profiles of users and official partners of the site.

A promoted post can contain an image or video. The video plays automatically in the News Feed and loops if it is less than 60 seconds long. You can also insert a link to a website or application into your ad to attract traffic or motivate users to convert:

2) Promoted Accounts. This type of advertising is needed to direct traffic to a brand account, increase activity and the number of subscribers. Ads with promoted accounts are displayed in the news feed, in search results and in the “Who to Read” section. They are marked with an “Advertising” icon and contain a “Subscribe” button.

3) Promoted Trends. Promoted trends involve placement in the trend list on the side of the page. Advertising will be at the top of this list.

How do we use X at WakeApp?

X  makes up one of the 30+ sources that WakeApp uses to promote applications.

We have been using this traffic source ever since its appearance on the advertising market, and turn to X when our clients’ goal is to attract a young, but already solvent audience.

X’s main audience is 25-34 year olds who tend to be mature, progressive and technologically inclined. This audience type is especially relevant to brands with paid applications as such an audience are usually more willing to respond to and purchase an application/subscription for a service they need.

What’s more, promoting on X comes at an average market cost which allows even promoters with a tight budget to promote brands.

About our guide: Every month, we publish helpful promotion guides where we discuss promotion features in a particular region according to traffic sources and GEO traffic. We also seek to keep our readers up-to-date on tips, as well as restrictions and bans about promoting on certain sources.

Think of it as a mobile marketer’s desktop guide!

About us:  WakeApp is an international mobile marketing agency with over 9 years of experience in the market, and is leading the development and promotion of gaming and non-gaming mobile applications in the e-comm, video streaming, food delivery, sport, utilities, and finance verticals. In 2022, WakeApp received The Media Agency of the Year at the SiGMA Asia Awards, and in 2021, WakeApp placed in 5 categories in the 13th edition of the AppsFlyer Performance Index XIII.