They say that “a picture paints a thousand words,” and Twitter’s recently unveiled “website cards” might just show that statement to be true.
Available on both desktop and mobile, Twitter cards allow marketers to add media to tweets – meaning businesses now have additional space to add content to. Users can attach photos, videos and media to Tweets that drive traffic to their website. Users simply have to add a few lines of HTML to their webpage, and those who Tweet links to that content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers.
The website card allows users to easily discover interesting content while giving advertisers the ability to drive a higher volume of clicks since users are able to preview an image, related content, etc.
Website cards can be used to drive traffic to your website’s homepage, a product page or a specific landing page, perhaps giving your audience a little preview, or further information about what they will find when they click through.
Business users of website cards can use a range of targeting options based on signals including keywords or tailored market segments. The website cards can also be used in conjunction with conversion tracking to measure the end-to-end conversion from a Tweet engagement / Twitter campaign through to a user making a purchase or signing up to say, a newsletter.
The main reason these cards are useful is that they can be used to create a “call to action”. If you get your content and marketing message right, you should be able to improve your click-through rates to your website.
You will need an advertiser account on Twitter to start creating website cards. Twitter has now made its advertiser platform available for businesses in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, South Africa and a few other countries. The website cards are pretty easy to create but it is worth noting that:
- Maximum image size is 1 MB
- Minimum required image height is 96 pixels
- Minimum required image width is 240 pixels
- Minimum of 5:2 aspect ratio required (An image of 640 pixels x 256 pixels).