US Small Businesses Get $100 Free Ads from Twitter

In support of the Amex-backed Shop Small initiative, which encourages US consumers to opt for small business over the Black Friday weekend, Twitter is giving away $1m in free advertising to small businesses.

Up to10,000 US-based companies, who have to be new to Twitter ads but already have a presence on the site, can get $100 credit for Promoted Tweets or Promoted Accounts.

Since Twitter launched ads for small business back in February, it says that thousands of firms have used it to gain new followers, reach new customers and drive more traffic. They also expanded their inventory at this time to include ads on iPhone and Android users' timelines.

@Prefixmag, a small online music publication, saw a 49 per cent jump in visitor traffic to their site during a Twitter campaign. They also gained more than 750 new followers.

“It was a noticeable difference in traffic. The campaign performed better than I thought it would. I definitely consider it successful,” said Dave Park, publisher @Prefixmag.