Twitter finally launched its self-service ad console in Singapore, which lets small and medium enterprises set up promoted tweets. We have been playing around with the tool quite a bit, and we like what we see. It’s clean, uncluttered, doesn’t overwhelm you with options but is not underpowered either. Here are some random takeaways from our time with it:

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Accessing your Twitter ad console[/caption]

First things first. To access the tool, just click on your profile icon on the top right to bring up the Profile and settings menu, and you should see the “Twitter Ads” option. Or, just click here. You will be asked to set a permanent country or time zone, so make sure you set it to Singapore.

What we really loved was Twitter’s pricing structure, which let us choose the interactions we wanted to pay for. So if you set your objective as “App Installs”, you will pay only for the number of app installs made through your promoted tweets. Alternatively, if you choose “Website Clicks”, you will pay for the website clicks only, and not any other clicks on your promoted Tweet. This makes much more sense compared to the simple CPC and CPM models other channels use, and shows the kind of faith Twitter has on its platform.

Targeting is easy and uncomplicated. You can target by location, gender, platform, as well as keywords, interests and similar followers. Alternatively, you can upload your email or Twitter handles lists to target a tailored audience.

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A sample Twitter card[/caption]

One great feature of Twitter ads are the Twitter cards. We used these every chance we got, and so should you. Cards let you add images, call-to-action buttons etc. in your tweet without affecting the 140-character limit, so go crazy. Unlike Facebook, there’s no limit on the amount and distribution of text in your images either, which made life SO much easier for us.

So, should you get on board? Absolutely, but only if Twitter already works for you, or is popular enough in your industry. If not, there’s nothing here to change that. Send out a set of tweets and see how they perform organically, and promote those that get the best interactions.

Check out Twitter’s own Help Centre if you want more assistance regarding promoted Tweets.