Running ads on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is a powerful way to reach a highly engaged audience with a real-time mindset. For a beginner, the process can seem daunting, but it's a straightforward, step-by-step process that can be mastered with a clear understanding of the platform's features. This tutorial will walk you through how to run your first Twitter ad campaign, updated for the 2025 landscape.

Step 1: Set Up Your Ad Account
Before you can run a single ad, you need to set up your advertising account.

Go to the X Ads Manager: Log in to your X account and navigate to ads.twitter.com.

Fill in Your Details: You'll be prompted to provide your country and time zone. This is a one-time setup.

Add Payment Information: Enter your payment method to ensure you can fund your campaigns. X operates on a bidding system, so you won't be charged until your ads are live.

Step 2: Choose Your Campaign Objective
The campaign objective is the most important decision you'll make, as it tells X's algorithm what to optimize for. Choose the objective that best aligns with your business goals.

Awareness: Maximize the number of people who see your ad (impressions). This is ideal for brand building and reaching a broad audience.

Tweet Engagements: Maximize interactions with your tweets, such as likes, retweets, replies, and link clicks. This is great for fostering a community and starting conversations.

Followers: Grow your audience by driving users to follow your account. This is a strong choice for businesses focused on building a long-term presence.

Website Traffic: Drive users from your ad to a specific page on your website. This is often used for blog posts, product pages, or landing pages.

App Installs: Promote your mobile app to drive downloads.

Video Views: Maximize the number of times your video ad is viewed.

Conversions: Optimize for specific actions on your website, like a purchase or a sign-up.

For beginners, starting with a Tweet Engagements or Website Traffic campaign is often the most effective way to learn the platform and see tangible results.

Step 3: Set Your Budget and Schedule
This step defines how much you're willing to spend and when your ads will run.

Campaign Budget: You can set a Daily Budget (the maximum you'll spend per day) or a Total Campaign Budget (a set amount for the entire duration). A daily budget is a good starting point for beginners as it gives you more control.

Pacing: Choose between Standard (spreads spending evenly) and Accelerated (spends as quickly as possible). For most campaigns, Standard pacing is the best choice.

Bidding Strategy: X offers several bidding options.

Automatic Bid: The algorithm optimizes your bid to get the most results for your budget. This is the recommended option for beginners.

Maximum Bid: You set the highest amount you're willing to pay per engagement, click, or impression.

Target Cost: You set a target for the average cost you'd like to maintain per result.

Step 4: Define Your Targeting
This is where you tell X who you want to show your ads to. X's targeting options are powerful because they're based on real-time conversations.

Demographics: Target users by age, gender, and location.

Audience Features: This is where you can get really granular.

Keywords: Target people who have recently tweeted, searched for, or engaged with specific keywords.

Follower Lookalikes: Target people who have similar interests and behaviors to the followers of a specific account (e.g., a competitor or an industry leader).

Interests: Target users based on the topics they are interested in.

Custom Audiences: Upload your own customer list (e.g., email addresses) to target your existing customers or create a "lookalike" audience to find new users who are similar to them.

Placements: You can choose where your ads will appear, such as in users' timelines or on specific profiles.

Step 5: Create Your Ad Creative
Your ad creative is what the user will see. This is where you need to create a compelling, attention-grabbing message.

Write Concise Ad Copy: Keep your text short and to the point. X's 280-character limit forces you to be concise.

Use Visuals: Tweets with images, GIFs, or videos perform significantly better than text-only tweets. Make sure your visuals are high-quality and relevant to your message. Video ads are particularly effective, with best practices suggesting they should be 15 seconds or less and work with or without sound.

Include a Strong Call to Action (CTA): Tell the user what you want them to do. Use phrases like "Learn More," "Shop Now," or "Sign Up Today."

Review and Launch: Double-check all of your settings. Once you are confident, submit your ad for review. X's ad review process is typically quick, and your ad can be live within a few hours.

By following this step-by-step guide, a beginner can successfully launch an ad campaign on X, test different strategies, and start driving real results for their business.