How does advertising work on Twitch? [2023 Tutorial]

Initially recognized as the favorite playground for gamers, Twitch is reinventing itself and expanding its horizons. Faced with rapid growth and a diversity of content booming, this platform has become a real land of opportunities for content creators. Logically, brands are following suit, taking advantage of interactivity and engagement offered by Twitch to promote their products and services. However, the field of Twitch ads is still too often unexplored.

In this article, we guide you through this unknown territory and give you all the keys to optimizing your ads and achieving your commercial goals thanks to your presence on Twitch.

Why advertise on Twitch?

Probably your brand does not have an unlimited advertising budget, however, ignore Twitch in your marketing strategy could be a regrettable oversight. Let us show you five major advantages that this streaming platform offers:

1. Reaching a young audience: Twitch attracts daily 30 million users, almost 50 per cent of whom are between 18 and 24 years of age. It's the perfect place to engage Gen Z and build their loyalty to your brand.
2. Engaging an active community: Twitch is the pinnacle of social interaction. The live streaming format creates a unique proximity with subscribers, allowing real-time exchange via live chat. This dynamic cocktail stimulates a remarkably high advertising engagement rate during integrated broadcasts during streaming streams.
3. Leveraging community expansion: The number of Twitch users has doubled, passing from 1.26 million users in 2019 to 2.63 million in 2022. If this growth continues, the platform will become more and more relevant for advertisers, while currently having less competition than on other social networks. So now is the perfect time to get started.
4. Explore innovative advertising formats: Twitch offers a diverse range of innovative ad formats for your brand to explore. This variety helps you reach your diverse business goals and allows you to test a multitude of marketing creations and messages.
5. Diversifying your advertising strategies: By strengthening your brand's presence on a new social platform, you are diversifying your advertising strategy. This offers an opportunity to expand into new markets and reach new targets.

How do Twitch ads work?

Twitch is undeniably popular, due in large part to its community-based model.

This philosophy is reflected as much in its approach to influencer marketing as in the implementation of its advertising campaigns, which are integrated harmoniously into the user experience.

Unlike other social platforms like TikTok or Meta, Twitch has not yet developed a specific tool for managing ads. To advertise on Twitch, you have to go through the contact box, by filling out a form available on their website. Information about your business, your budget and your sector of activity will be requested. After submission, a response from the Twitch team will be sent to you with the best recommendations to launch your advertising campaign.

The different types of Twitch ads

Before diving into the advertising world of Twitch, you'll need to figure out which ad format will be the most appropriate for your brand. Twitch mainly offers two ad formats. Video ads (or Twitch Prime Videos) are ads shown before or during livestreams, known as pre-roll or mid-roll, lasting 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

At the same time, Twitch provides six other ad formats:

1. The carousel on the home page: intended primarily for creators, this format allows them to promote their channel on the Twitch home page via a rotating carousel.
2. The banner on the home page: located behind the carousel, this ad is composed of three parts - two side images and a central section using the color code of the platform.
3. The average rectangle: This format is displayed when scrolling content on Twitch and supports animations.
4. The “Stream Display” announcement: integrated seamlessly at the bottom of the screen during a stream, it offers a more organic and attractive appearance for users.
5. The “Streamables” ads: When a user plays a Twitch partner mobile game, they can choose to watch a 30-second video ad that cannot be disabled.
6. The “Super Leaderboard” ads: Taking the form of banners at the top of the page when scrolling through Twitch content, this format does not support videos, but images, GIFs, and other animations.

Best practices for Twitch ads

The world of Twitch ads is still fairly unknown for many brands and agencies, with only a few examples to follow. Nevertheless, we are here to guide you! Below you'll find our most effective tips and best recommendations for creating great campaigns on Twitch.

Familiarize yourself To the Twitch community

An effective advertisement is one that takes into account the specificities of its target and meets its expectations. The key to success is based on your in-depth knowledge of the platform and the behavior of your audiences. For that, Take the time to navigate the platform, to watch content from different streamers, interact and be inspired by existing advertisers and your competitors.

Prioritize a quality advertising experience

To capture attention and engage viewers, your ads on Twitch must be characterized by a careful, consistent design, and in accordance with the Twitch terms of use. It's critical that your ads are creative, well-structured, and of high quality.

Create compelling advertising content

In addition, make sure that your ad delivers relevant information to your target audience. Each ad format is designed to target a specific audience and achieve a distinct objective Whether it is to promote creators, amplify your reputation or generate conversions to your site, it is crucial that your ads match. to the specific formats of the live streaming platform, whether on mobile or on computer.

Schedule your ads at optimized intervals

When you collaborate with streamers who show ads manually, it is essential to ensure that they leave intervals of at least 15 minutes between each ad. This not only ensures an optimal viewing experience, but also a better understanding of the message of your ad. Also, make sure that these creators Inform their community of the next commercial break. This approach demonstrates your respect for the creator's audience and thus reinforces the positive impact of your advertising campaign.

Take advantage of current trends and establish strategic collaborations

Content on social networks, and in particular on the streaming platform, is constantly changing. It is therefore essential to stay at the forefront of trends in order not to miss them, and to take advantage of the visibility boost that they can provide by making your ads even more engaging.

Once you're comfortable with Twitch, consider connecting with other creators. Identify streamers who align with your brand image and use their creativity as a source of inspiration to develop ads or establish partnerships that are both entertaining and authentic for the benefit of your respective targets.

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What does the future hold for Twitch advertising?

Impossible to miss the growth that Twitch is experiencing in France and abroad. With an ever growing audience and an unwavering commitment, Twitch is a more than promising platform for advertising. In fact, she recently announced that she was developing its Ads Management tool to help creators better plan and optimize their campaigns.

If your audience is already present on Twitch or starting to appear, it is high time to get started on this platform and take advantage of your status as a pioneer! Take the time to get familiar with this platform, its creators, and communities, and learn from your first campaigns in order to optimize your advertising strategy on Twitch as much as possible.