This article was published on June 10, 2015

Advertisers on Twitter can now target you based on the types of apps on your phone


Advertisers on Twitter can now target you based on the types of apps on your phone

Twitter is constantly trying to make making it easier for brands to cater ads to the right audience – and now it’s using the types of apps you have installed to do so.

For example, you might have a ton of productivity apps on your phone, so a brand making brand making to-do list apps.can now more easily know to target you.

IACT_Targeting_Image

The same company might also know that people who’ve downloaded a lot productivity apps tend to use finance apps as well, so they can now choose to target their finance-related software at to them as well.

It’s worth keeping in mind Twitter already uses information on your app installs to target ads – the difference now is that brands can feed you ads based on the overarching types of app installed on devices, instead of just the specific pieces of software you’ve downloaded.

In the same vein, Twitter’s adding analytics for installed app categories in the advertiser dashboard. These are provided regardless of whether a brand has previously targeted a category before, so they can note any links between the different types of apps a user has installed.

IACT_Reporting_Image (1)

The new type of targeting is now available to all Twitter advertisers around the world who are running mobile app campaigns on both iOS and Android.

Some users will surely take issue with advertisers knowing even more information about the way they use their mobile phones, but today’s update could mean the ads you see are actually more relevant to you.

Still, if you’d rather your app installs not be tracked, you can always disable the “Tailor Twitter based on my apps” option from the settings menu on iOS and Android.

Read next: Twitter now lets you share a list of blocked accounts with others

Introducing installed app category targeting: a new way to target users and gain insights into mobile app campaigns [Twitter]

Get the TNW newsletter

Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Also tagged with