General
What Is Dropshipping & How Do You Get Started?
Understanding dropshipping and steps to launch your own online business
May 2, 2024
16 min read
Making money on Twitter or X is possible, if only you approach your process the right way. In this article, I will discuss what it takes to advertise successfully on Twitter for your dropshipping store.
We will cover:
In the end, I am confident that you will have the right foundation for a twitter advertising campaign on X (formerly Twitter) that will help you make sales as a dropshipper. Ready? Let us start!
True enough, advertisers have been leaving Twitter ever since Elon Musk bought the platform, and the Twitter takeover took place. These advertisers are those who are heavily invested in social politics like Disney. As a dropshipper, social and political issues should not be your primary concern.
Despite all the issues, X grew to 528.3 million monetizable users. This comes from around 415 million users in 2023, the year all the backlash happened following Elon’s purchase of X in 2022.
Twitter is not dead. It is a growing platform with over 237 million active users daily.
Below are more stats on its demographics:
Note: all stats above are from Statista
As far as content goes, the three types of content that people consume on X are informative, relevant, and engaging. As such, you need to account for this in your posts if you want to get great results in your marketing and branding campaigns.
Overall, the market is big and there is money you can make here. Sure, it is smaller than Facebook, and I doubt that X will ever be as big as Facebook. Despite that, I can surmise that people on Twitter have a better likelihood of buying than those who are on Facebook—Twitter users are adults, not kids.
Now that we know the market size of Twitter, let us look into the other reasons why X is an excellent platform for dropshippers.
Yes, people use keywords to search for topics on Twitter. Take a look at this:
As you can see, there is a search box that allows users to look for either a person or a topic. As an advertiser, you can use this to your advantage.
With keywords, you can target users according to the words they type in that box the same way you would in Google Ads. You cannot do this on Facebook.
Keyword targeting is one of the oldest and most effective tactics in advertising. If you use keywords, you essentially target users according to their intent.
Twitter offers a way to retarget anybody who has engaged in your posts or tweets. There are two ways to do this:
Your decision now relies on your marketing purpose. If you want to reach out to people who already showed interest in your previous tweets or ads, choose the first option. The second option is best used when you want to “insist” to your previous viewers to take action.
For example, if your tweets or previous ad has a demographic of 67% female, and that is what you are targeting, you can re-target them to assert your “social dominance,” kind of like reminding them that your business exists and that they have to consider buying from you.
The latest stats for X user demographics from a reliable source go only as far back as 2021. Here it is:
As you can see here, most of the users are from ages 25 to 50+. All these people have money, and they can spend money on items they see in ads. The age of users of Twitter is so unlike TikTok because TikTok is mainly for Gen Z or young people, most of whom, we can assume, are teenagers who have no work.
Studies show that people on Twitter make purchases. They do not just ignore the ads. Based on this study, 76% of the people surveyed said that the conversations they had on the X platform resulted in them making a purchase.
Another research indicates that nearly 40% of X users made a purchase because of what an influencer said. In my opinion, this is expected because people on Twitter are adults—they are looking for meaningful recommendations from influencers. It is also why many day traders and crypto influencers thrive on the platform.
Twitter/X is an excellent platform to advertise, provided that your brand thrives on influencer culture. You can even target specific Twitter users based on who they are following. So, if you are selling a political shirt, you can always target influencers who have a massive following.
To run an ad on your Twitter account, start by clicking on the MORE button at the bottom left area of your twitter homepage.
Select ADS from the menu. It looks like this:
Then, you will see this:
Scroll below, and you will see this:
If you do not see these options, click on GET STARTED at the top of the page. That way you can create your Twitter ads account. Next, fill out the information required, then click on CREATE YOUR FIRST KEYWORD AD.
You will find yourself on this page:
It is on this page where you must choose your first advertising campaign goal. As a dropshipper, I recommend that you choose either website traffic or keywords. Between these two, website traffic makes much more sense.
Why? It is because we want people to go to our website and browse what we have to offer. Keywords are effective for ads. However, Twitter is not a shopping app. When people type a keyword and your ad pops up, I don’t think they will pay attention because “shopping” is not their intent.
After clicking on WEBSITE TRAFFIC, click NEXT at the bottom right of the page, and you will see this:
This is the area where you can upload your ad media and your ad copy. If you click on AD MEDIA, you will see this:
Upload your ad creative, scroll below, and it will now look like this:
You can upload several media files. Once done, click each one until you see the green checkmark, then click on CONFIRM.
The system will take you back to the CREATE AD page. Now, type your ad copy, headline, and add the URL of your dropshipping store.
The right side of the panel is a mock-up of how your ad will look to a user. If you are not satisfied, you can always change your headline or ad copy. Once done, click on NEXT at the bottom right of the screen.
If it is your first time to advertise, you will see this:
Just click on GOT IT, then you will find yourself on this page:
This is where you have to set your budget and demographics. Unlike other social media platforms, X has no minimum cost that you must spend per day. You can replace the $100 with $5 or $1—it is up to you. A caveat, though, is that the lower your budget is, the fewer people will see your ads.
Click the DEMOGRAPHICS button and you will see this:
Choose your target gender and age range. The box is where you type a location. Once you do, you will see a dropdown. Click on the box for that dropdown if it corresponds to your target market.
The right side of this panel will show your potential audience reach based on your selections:
Below the DEMOGRAPHICS button, click on TARGETING FEATURES, and you will see this:
This is where you can type the keywords that you want to target, along with what devices you want. For FOLLOWER LOOK-ALIKE, you can type a word, and you will see a drop-down like this:
In this case, I will choose ELON MUSK PARODY. It means that I want X to show the ad to people who are like the followers of ELON MUSK PARODY. In other words, this will be a follower ads campaign.
Then, if you scroll below, you can also type a keyword for interest and choose one from the drop-down.
This is how it looks now:
If you do this, your potential reach will also change. In this example, the potential audience went down from 97 million to 11 million.
Finally, enter your payment method details, click on LAUNCH CAMPAIGN at the bottom, and you are done!
Twitter ads offers many ways by which you can analyze your ad data. In this section, we will discuss some of the most important metrics, what they mean, and what to make out of the numbers you see.
The four most important factors are:
Now, let us discuss some scenarios and how we can improve our numbers.
You want a high impression count. The higher it is, the more your ad is shown to people. A high impression rate is indicative that you have the right audience and the right budget.
If your impression is too small, the two potential reasons are:
To address the issue, I recommend that you first increase your budget. Leave it like that for a few days and see if your impression goes higher. If it doesn’t, the issue is your ad audience.
Earlier, I showed you the different types of demographics and targeting details that you can toggle. If you selected too little interest, a small age group, a small town or county, X would also have fewer people to show your ads to.
At best, I recommend that you first target as big a market or audience as you can, and then make adjustments to your ads later based on the groups who are responsive enough to your ad.
Similar to Impressions, you want high numbers for RESULTS. It is indicative that your ad is attractive enough for people to take action.
If your results are low, it can mean:
Let us say that your ad is about airsoft guns. If the results are low, you may be targeting an audience that may not be interested in guns at all.
Think about it. Let us say that your ad is about gun accessories. If you selected Iowa as a target, you cannot expect huge results because there are only 54,000 registered weapons in this state. If you targeted Texas, which has over 1 million registered firearms, then you can expect a higher result.
The other issue could be your ad itself. Targeting the right people is not enough—your ad has to be enticing and interesting.
Remember: the users of X want informative, relevant, and engaging content. As such, you need to ask yourself if your image or video meets these three criteria before you even publish it as an ad.
These two—impressions and results—are the very things that affect your CPR and engagement rate. In essence, impressions and results are the leading metrics that you need to focus on.
Twitter does not have an ad library like Facebook. Although Twitter has an Ad Repository, it is not what you need as a dropshipper. It is rather political, and the only content you will get is a CSV file with some ad details.
I did my research and realized that even advertising spy tools like Anstrex, SpyFu, and PowerAdSpy do not track ads on X. So, the only course of action is to find ads on other networks. In this case, I only recommend two platforms: Facebook and TikTok.
The Facebook Ad Library is a repository of ads running on the Meta platform, which includes Instagram. Once you get to its landing page, you need to select your target country, the ad industry, and then type a keyword like this:
Wait for the system to load, and you will see something like this:
From here, you can click on the SEE SUMMARY DETAILS button to investigate further. In some ads, the button you will see is SEE AD DETAILS. Once you click that, you will see something like this:
If you click on the dropdowns on the right, you will see information such as this:
Scrolling below, you will see more information:
These numbers reflect the performance of the twitter ad, and you can gain insight as to how effective the twitter ad campaign is. If you look at the two previous screenshots, you will see the following.
If the twitter ad is a video, you can play the video to see its content. By far, this is the only data that Facebook will show. In addition, you cannot filter your search by ad performance or results. As such, it will take some time for you to find a winning ad.
Similar to Facebook, you can access the TikTok Ad Library even if you have not advertised yet. The big difference is that with TikTok, you can view ad stats.
Here is the home page where you can type keywords:
If you scroll down the results, you will see this:
To view more details about the ad, click on SEE ANALYTICS, and you will see something like this:
It is on this page where you can see the ad’s performance. Naturally, you want to imitate or get ideas from an ad that has:
You will never see the actual CTR or click-through rate of an ad. However, an ad that is in the top 3% of all ads (in terms of CTR) is a winner. From here, you can view the video to get a better grasp of how this seller got this much attention.
Advertising is a never-ending cycle of trends and strategies. What used to work in the past may no longer work now. What really matters is that you send your message across, clearly, to the right people. How do you do this?
Twitter is a place where people read and talk short messages, ideas, and opinions. Going back to its origins, Twitter only allowed 180 characters, but then they have increased this already. Despite that, the mindset of its users stays the same—they want, short, crisp, and meaningful tweets.
Your ad on X will work if you are straight to the point. People on X dislike anything that beats around the bush. If you have a sale, say so.
More importantly, your headline and ad copy should focus on value, or what the customer gets from your dropshipping store. Value does not only refer to price—you can create a clear message about the benefits that the consumer gets if they click your link and buy from your store.
When creating Twitter ads or X ads as it is now called, your words must keep up with the times. Society is fast-paced nowadays, and you have to let your target market know that you are part of that culture.
For example, if you are selling items for men, you can use terms like “soy boy” or “simp.” Just be careful how you use these words because people today are too sensitive to just about anything.
Twitter ad campaigns, on average, have a conversion rate of 0.77%, according to Yotpo. This must not discourage you, as there are platforms that have lower conversion rates than that. If anything, you should also use X as an avenue to build a brand and following, not just to advertise.
Advertising on Twitter/X is a must for a dropshipper because of its huge user base and demographics. Another reason is its users are buyers, not just viewers.
X is a conversation platform where people publish their thoughts. The people who come here do not look for entertainment. They want facts and opinions—they want knowledge and social belongingness.
Twitter offers several ad formats, and you can leverage the power of keyword targeting.
Twitter is best for businesses with social and political agendas. People who use Twitter are those who want their voices to be heard. As such, the products that will resonate with X users must be about “having a voice on social matters.”
Where do you go from here? What I recommend is that you start browsing for video ads, on both Facebook and TikTok to get ideas on how to create yours. In addition, it is a wise move to sign up for an account with Tradelle. Not only will you find winning dropshipping products, but you will also have visibility on the ad reach or audience potential of each product.
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