Does your Twitter account qualify for a free $100 advertising credit?

American Express is offering 10,000 small and mid-sized business a free $100 credit to start using Twitter’s new self-service ad platform. The news was announced two weeks ago, and I wanted to explore the details and process.

In order to qualify for free Twitter advertising you must:

• Be a U.S. business with a U.S. billing address.
• Be an American Express Cardholder or have an American Express merchant account.
• Have a Twitter account that tweets business news and updates.
• Follow @AmericanExpress on Twitter.
• Have followers who actively engage and respond to users through @ mentions, retweets and replies. It is unclear how they will evaluate this or if it figure into actual selection.
• Be a small or mid-sized business. No definition is provided as to what businesses meet this qualification.
• Register your Twitter account at: https://ads.twitter.com/amex/

If you are selected what you should know:

• American Express will start contacting selected business in March via a direct message to your Twitter account from @AmericanExpress.
• It is likely you will be given a link to then provide more details and verification that you meet the American Express qualifications.
• The $100 Twitter advertising credit can be used to “gain more followers for your Twitter account and to extend the reach of your Tweets to find and engage new customers”. You can use the credit to bid for promoted account placement on a per-follower basis or promote tweets on a cost-per-engagement basis.
• The cost to acquire a new follower in the Twitter system generally runs between $2.50 and $4.50.
• You can’t use the credit for Promoted Trends. Since Promoted Trends start at $125,000, this shouldn’t be an issue.
• If you spend more than the $100 credit you will be charged via the credit card you register at sign-up.

Questions about the process:

When I signed-up, I wasn’t asked for my American Express credit card number, so it is unclear how and at what point American Express will do verification of eligibility.

While some reports say the first 10,000 eligible registrations will get the credit. The qualifications on the sign-up page indicate there may be some discretion on American Express’ part in terms of what accounts are eligible.

I emailed American Express to try to get additional information on the process and some idea of how many spots are left. I will update this post if I get a response.

If you have signed up for the process, have questions or know additional details, feel free to leave a comment.

A relevant, but shameless plug.

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