Twitter Announces Emoji Targeting
July 5, 2016What Twitter’s Announcement About Emoji Targeting Means for eMarketers
On June 15, Twitter announced the availability of emoji keyword targeting for Twitter ads. This means that advertisers will now be able to target people based on recently tweeted or engaged tweets featuring emojis. This announcement comes just in time for World Emoji Day July 17 and the release of Unicode 9.0 on June 21. Unicode 9.0 features 72 new emoji characters, including a clown, owl, pancakes, and a selfie. These new emojis will appear on smartphones and other devices once vendors update their software, which is expected to happen this fall.
Emojis Are Extremely Popular on Twitter. But How Popular?
With over 110 billion emojis used since 2014, they’re huge. And with over 1,000 emojis available, from the most popular joy emoji to the least popular lost luggage emoji, users have plenty of options to express their feelings, wants, and desires.
So, How Does Twitter Ad Emoji Targeting Work?
For example, you can target people who tweet certain food emojis to reach people who enjoy that specific food. Users who tweet the pizza emoji can now be served ads by Domino’s Pizza or Pizza Hut. Users who tweet the donut emoji can be served an ad for Dunkin Donuts.
You can target specific emojis based on passions and interests. A music store could serve an ad for a guitar to users who tweeted the guitar emoji. A famous internet cat could serve ads featuring its newest plushy doll to users who tweet cat emojis.
Implications of Twitter Ad Emoji Targeting, and How to Get Started
This most likely won’t be a huge driver of reach initially, but as communication grows more visual, the opportunities will grow. If your brand already uses Twitter, you should consider testing this to help understand future messaging efforts.
To use emoji targeting, advertisers have to work with select Twitter Official Partners such as AdParlor, HYFN, Perion, SocialCode, and 4C.
