Twitter Now Lets Advertisers Target Users By Mobile OS Version, Mobile Device & Wi-Fi Connectivity

Twitter today expanded its ad targeting capabilities by allowing marketers to now more granularly segment audiences on mobile (iOS and Android) by operating system version, device, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Before, the company had only offered the option to identify users by operating system alone, on mobile. The change is an important one, given that 76 percent of Twitter’s install base of 230 million worldwide users access the social service using a mobile device.

The company announced the changes to the ad targeting on its company blog today, also noting that along with the additional capabilities comes an improved analytics dashboard for managing and analyzing the effects of various campaigns.

While for general purposes, knowing whether a customer is an iPhone or Android user can help those promoting mobile apps, there are also scenarios where apps won’t even run on older versions of either the Android or iOS operating system, which would make reaching those users a waste of money. Plus, users still running an outdated version of a mobile OS may not fit the demographic profile of the kind of person an app marketer may want to reach. An early adopter running the latest edition of iOS 7 or Android KitKit, for example, may be more likely to become an early adopter of a new app versus someone still rocking their iPhone 3GS with iOS 5.0.

Twitter is not the only social service to help drive mobile app installs through ads – Facebook, too, has seen its mobile ads become a major growth driver in general, and its Mobile App Ads have driven over 145 million app installs this year, the company announced last month.

Twitter also points out that app marketers aren’t necessarily the only ones who could benefit from its new capabilities, however. Telco marketers may want to reach those users on select devices, or target those who are nearing an upgrade. Other campaigns may have a need to identify users by mobile OS version, device or Wi-Fi connectivity, too.

Already the company allows advertisers to target by other metrics, including gender, interests, and location, among other things, and the updated dashboard allows for a deeper analysis across these lines, showing things like impressions, engagements (clicks, retweets, etc.), ad spend and more.

The additional targeting options are available today on ads.twitter.com, and are soon rolling out to Twitter Ads API partners, too.