Mobile Ad Management: A Comparison Between Facebook & Twitter - Turbify Resource Center - Get the information you need to succeed online

Look out social media marketers – it may not be so easy to leave your work at the office anymore.

Twitter announced the launch of its first mobile Ads Manager in July 2015, which allows advertisers to measure the performance of their campaigns using smartphones. So, that might be the end of all those nights when the clock striking five o’clock meant a surefire end to your workday. You’re now fully capable of tracking your clients and/or your own performance via the new Manager tool.

For users with an iPhone 6 and later (and, if we know our own demographic at all, we know that those working in digital marketing typically keep up to date with the latest and greatest in tech), the button will be featured prominently, directly adjacent to the gear-shaped ‘Settings’ icon. For Android users (and iPhone 5 or earlier), the ‘Ads Manager’ tool becomes visible after the drop down button is clicked, between ‘Settings’ and ‘Accounts.’

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Why is Twitter featuring the new tool so prominently in the interface?

Well, it’s likely a sign that they want to start letting the oft-discussed ‘mobile takeover’ to infiltrate every aspect of their operations and their app’s functionality. In other words, it’s not so much that there is an overpowering chorus of marketers clamoring for the ability to check ad performance on mobile. It’s just that Twitter knows that soon enough any functionality whatsoever that is available desktop-only will make your app feel dated and your brand seem out of touch. Plus, it only makes sense to allow marketers the ability to toy with their campaigns on the same platform that most of their target audience is seeing them.

A move like this falls right in line with their general trend towards seamless functionality between desktop and mobile. Only days after the announcement, for example, they also announced that application advertisers would be able to include install links directly on their mobile ads. This eliminates the process of having to move outside of the Twitter interface into the App Store to decide whether you want to complete the purchase. As with any ecommerce process, the elimination of a single step can make all the difference in the world.

Companies like Twitter are in a constant struggle to wring profits out of advertisers in creative ways. The more easily and efficiently advertisers and marketers can see ROI on their hard-earned ad dollars, the more likely they’ll be willing to buy again.

In terms of functionality, the monitoring tool will work much in the same way as Facebook’s Ads Manager. Users can see Impressions, Engagements, Total Spend, Cost per Engagement, and Engagement Rate in easy-to-read columns. In terms of doing actual work – and not just checking on the ad’s success – the tool offers an easy-to-use campaign editing program that recreates much of what you can accomplish when you’re sitting at your actual desk. Here, you can extend successful campaigns, adjust allocated budgets, edit campaign bids, reschedule posts, and pause or resume existing campaigns.

The tool also has a system of notifications (perfect for mobile, of course, because you’ll never miss one) that keeps you automatically updated with a system of alerts that you can personalize. In their words, “Let’s say you receive an email letting you know that your campaign has exhausted its budget. Simply click on the link in the email to extend your campaign, and we’ll bring you directly into the Twitter Ads companion so that you can quickly and easily add budget.”

The one function that is missing from the mobile tool is the ability to create new campaigns and get them off the ground. For now the tool is designed simply for measuring, monitoring, and tweaking campaigns that already exist. Still, though, the tool will be hugely helpful for making tweaks in real time. One of the most important elements of social media marketing is using it to stay “in the moment.” If something huge is happening in the world of sports or pop culture, you want to be able to make strategic adjustments to your ad campaigns that will achieve the most minute-to-minute success.

Facebook is two steps ahead of ya, Twitter.

In February of this year, Facebook also rolled out its own version of a mobile ads manager. They have over two million active advertisers on their platform, so it makes sense that they were a bit quicker on the trigger.

Facebook’s version of the ad manager tool differs from Twitter in one major way: they’ve elected to create an entirely separate mobile application instead of simply including the tool on their normal platform. This app has a little bit more in the way of functionality, so its own platform makes sense. For example, on Facebook’s Ads Manager you will be able to create brand new ads from scratch while on the go. It also allowed them to dream up and build an interface that is designed from the ground up with only ads in mind.

As you can see from the picture below, creating the ads in the app looks highly user-friendly and conducive to a high quality ad. You can select photos directly from your gallery or grab them from the internet, then start working on writing the ad copy, all in the same interface. Another nice feature of Facebook’s app is that if you need to press pause on a still-in-the-works ad, you can save it as a draft and return to it later.

Considering Twitter faced some (mild, but still important) backlash from users who weren’t sure why they needed to have an ads manager that they’ll never use featuring so prominently in their interface, it appears that Facebook’s strategy has paid off in the early going.

Recap

Facebook and Twitter are two completely different platforms with separate functions and strategic frameworks, so differences don’t necessarily lend themselves to “winner” and “loser” comparisons. This is one instance, however, in which it does appear Facebook has the (admittedly early) upper hand. Keeping the manager away from the app itself keeps their regular app less cluttered and improves the UX for all users who don’t happen to be mobile advertising professionals (roughly 99.9% of the population). It’s still early, though. Perhaps Twitter is smart in betting on the eventual seamlessness of mobile users’ and mobile advertisers’ experiences. They are bringing the function of advertising into direct contact with the users that those ads are targeting. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: the mobile takeover is prescient for both everyday users and the people trying to market to them.