Twitter adds new capabilities for ad re-targeting programme

Twitter yesterday announced new capabilities including email addresses and user ID-based targeting under its recently launched Tailored Audiences programme for ad retargeting.

Kelton Lynn, revenue product manager, in a blog post explained that the new additions would allow advertisers to target Tailored Audiences, either through the use of a customer relationship management database or using lists of Twitter usernames or user IDs.

Advertisers would also be able to exclude certain audiences from their advertising by using email addresses and user IDs, according to Lynn.

Lynn wrote, ''The combination of these tools enables a highly relevant and useful message for the user and creates the opportunity for you to reach these known audiences on Twitter with more efficient campaigns. (Advertisers) will continue to receive the same reports that include how many users saw, clicked on or converted from an ad, without identifying specific users''.

Advertisers who want only specific groups of users to be targeted for example, such as only loyalty card members or only users with 'many' followers, would now be able to use email addresses and user IDs for this purpose.

The new features could come handy for targeting existing sales leads or for targeting influential people in a specific category according to commentators.

On the privacy front, the users could opt out of the programme in their settings, and it says there was a 'minimum audience size' to avoid 'overly specific targeting,' according to a report in Tech Crunch.

Users that had concerns about their privacy could easily opt out of the programme through the settings options by unchecking a box in their privacy settings menu which would allow them to opt out of seeing tailored ads.