New Twitter Study Shows How Ads Online Affect Sales Offline

A new study by Twitter and Datalogix has finally brought us data on the impact that online ads have on offline sales. The report? Ads on Twitter absolutely contribute to greater sales in the offline realm. While an internet marketing campaign primarily strives to push the consumer to the company’s website, where the potential for sales lies, this date now shows that online ads are also effective in pushing consumers toward all kinds of brands in stores. This is great news not only for Twitter, but also for marketers who have taken advantage of advertising on Twitter.

The Study

The study was put into place by both Twitter and Datalogix, a data collection company. It focused on the impact of both regular tweets (also known as organic tweets) made by various brands as well as Promoted Tweets. Twitter and Datalogix followed 35 brands for testing, and they covered categories such as wellness, food, beverages, household products, and alcohol.

Twitter also made note of the security features in place for the study. They assured users that Datalogix would not reveal information about individual purchases and that all users would remain anonymous. In addition, they stated that users would always be able to opt out of the data collection that Datalogix performs.

The Results

So, what exactly did Twitter find? Their conclusions came in three main components:

• Engagement: The study found that engaging with a Promoted Tweet led to in-store sales. Twitter users who engaged were 12% more likely than users who did not see the tweet to make a purchase, and those who saw the tweet but did not engage were still 2% more likely to make a purchase.
• Organic Tweets: They found an 8% average increase in in-store brand sales among users who saw an organic tweet compared to those who did not see an organic tweet from that brand. The percentage also increased according to the number of organic tweets that the users saw.
• Promoted Tweets: With Promoted Tweets, in-store sales grew even more. Those who saw the Promoted Tweets were 29% more likely than those who only saw organic tweets to make an in-store purchase.

What This Means For You

In short, what this means for advertisers is that promoting on Twitter is more important than ever. Even just making use of organic tweets, which are completely free, ensures that the users who see them are much more likely to come to your store and make a purchase. Paying for Promoted Tweets proves itself to be an even more worthy expense.

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