Twitter Expands Keyword Ad Targeting To User Timelines

Keyword targeting isn’t new for Twitter advertisers — they’ve been able to target keywords in Twitter search results since late last year.

Starting today, advertisers can also target keywords in user timelines. The new targeting is available to all advertisers in all languages and markets, the company says.

Here’s how Twitter describes the new targeting:

“…this new feature enables advertisers to reach users based on the keywords in their recent Tweets and the Tweets with which users recently engaged. This is an important new capability – especially for those advertisers looking for signals of intent – because it lets marketers reach users at the right moment, in the right context.”

The new targeting option is only available in the advanced interface; anyone still using the older/basic ad dashboard won’t be able to access this new timeline targeting. Here’s how it looks:

Twitter says its testing with several brands and agencies has shown an increase in user engagement with Promoted Tweets.

The company says users won’t see any more ads, but it thinks the overall experience will improve because the Promoted Tweets they do see should be more relevant. Users that tweet a lot about sports should see more sports-related Promoted Tweets, for example.