Should Twitter Collect More User Data?

Twitter’s ad platform is based on its resonance metric. A resonance score is computed with various factors in mind, like number of retweets, favorites, impressions and clicks.

Simply put, Twitter measures and only shows ads that resonate well with users. That’s not all. Users are targeted based on what they search on Twitter. For example, a user who searches for ‘coffee’ tweets may see a Starbucks promoted tweet.

Twitter’s resonance metric does help to make ads better for the community. But I wonder if it is helping advertisers to target the right audience. Twitter’s ad targeting works like Google’s. The ad is only shown if a relevant term is searched. Targeting is purely interest based.

However, the difference between the two is that search is Google’s core product but not Twitter’s. I believe that a larger proportion of Twitter ad’s impressions come from retweets and not through search. If that were the case, Twitter ad isn’t precise. Marketers are spending money on people who aren’t their target group. So, here’s the question: Should Twitter target ads based on users’ information?

In contrast to Facebook’s ad platform, Twitter doesn’t use users’ information for ad targeting. To me, this may be an opportunity lost. Advertisers love Facebook because they are able to target specific users within a few clicks. It’s real simple.

A previous report we wrote reflected that users are sharing a lot of information on Twitter (like location, above). The reason why users are willing to share their data isn’t because they want to give them to Twitter but it’s because they want to show them to the world. To create a real online identity, it’s only natural for users to input real data. Simplicity is beauty but if Twitter wants to become an advertising powerhouse, it has to have more user data. Data is what makes digital advertising powerful. But it will become too obvious if Twitter were to ask users to do that now. Or should they do it before it becomes too late?