• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 30, 2013

According to survey results from Ask Your Target Market (AYTM), just 11% of Twitter users think that Twitter ads such as Promoted Tweets are very effective. 45% said they think Twitter ads can be somewhat effective. 32% said they don’t think Twitter ads are very effective. And 12% said that Twitter ads are not effective at all. Of those who watch videos on Twitter, 20% think Twitter ads are very effective, and 61% think they can be somewhat effective.

Overall, 13% of the Twitter users surveyed said they often watch videos within expanded tweets, with males more likely to do so than females (16.2% vs. 11.4%). Another 30% sometimes watch them, and 30% rarely do, leaving 27% who report never having done so.

While receptiveness to Twitter ads may be somewhat lukewarm, respondents still seem to be more favorable to them than video ads. Among all survey respondents (not just Twitter users who represented about half of the sample), only 5% said they believe ads before or during online videos are very effective, while 21% find them not to be effective at all. Again, though, respondents who watch videos on Twitter tend to be more receptive to these ads: 12% find online video ads to be very effective, and 47% believe them to be somewhat effective (versus 36% overall).

In recent months, Nielsen analyzed brand survey data to measure how Promoted Tweet campaigns influence the audiences that see them. Three key findings emerged among advertisers who participated in the beta study:

• Across all beta studies analyzed, exposure to a Promoted Tweet impression drove a 22% average increase in message association compared to users not exposed to Promoted Tweets. This finding demonstrates that, although Promoted Tweets are priced on a cost-per-engagement basis, advertisers don't only benefit when users engage, says the report. Even a Promoted Tweet impression can be valuable for brands
• Multiple exposures (two or three times) to a Promoted Tweet campaign lead to 10% lift, on average, in brand favorability compared to users exposed to the campaign once. This illustrates the value of an always-on Promoted Tweet strategy to continually reach interested users with brand messages
• Users who engage with a brand’s Promoted Tweet report on average 30% higher brand favorability and 53% higher purchase intent than non-engagers. This study result highlights the value of an engagement on Twitter and the importance of reaching a relevant audience with compelling Tweet copy to further drive Tweet engagement.

For additional information about the study, please visit here; For charts and graphs regarding the Nielsen Brand Effect for Twitter, please go here.