Twitter/X Ads Audience Targeting

Build precise audiences on X Ads for B2B SaaS campaigns. X's strength is real-time interest signals — keywords people tweet about, handles they follow, and topics they engage with.

Custom Audiences (Tailored Audiences)

Upload your own lists for targeting or exclusion.

Create a list-based custom audience

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/custom_audiences

{
  "name": "Existing Customers - Exclude",
  "list_type": "EMAIL"
}

List types: EMAIL, DEVICE_ID, TWITTER_ID, PHONE_NUMBER.

Upload users to the audience

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/custom_audiences/{audience_id}/users

{
  "operation_type": "Update",
  "users": [
    {"hashed_email": ["{SHA256_HASH_1}", "{SHA256_HASH_2}"]}
  ]
}

Emails must be lowercase and SHA-256 hashed before upload. Minimum audience size: 100 matched users.

Website activity audience

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/tailored_audience_memberships

{
  "account_id": "{ACCOUNT_ID}",
  "audience_names": ["Website Visitors 30d"],
  "js_event": "pageview"
}

Requires the X pixel installed on your site. Collects visitors automatically.

Keyword Targeting

Target users based on what they recently tweeted, searched, or engaged with.

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/targeting_criteria

{
  "line_item_id": "{LINE_ITEM_ID}",
  "targeting_type": "KEYWORD",
  "targeting_value": "devops automation"
}

Keyword strategies for solution-aware B2B:

• Problem keywords: Terms your ICP uses when describing their pain. "slow deployments", "manual QA", "onboarding bottleneck"
• Solution-category keywords: The category your product belongs to. "deployment automation", "testing platform", "onboarding software"
• Competitor brand keywords: Target people discussing competitors. Use with care — check X's policies.
• Event/conference keywords: Hashtags and names of relevant industry events.

Keywords match on exact phrase and close variants. Add 25-50 keywords per ad group. Use negative keywords via NEGATIVE_KEYWORD targeting type to exclude irrelevant matches.

Follower Lookalikes

Target users who behave like followers of specific handles. This is X's most powerful B2B signal.

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/targeting_criteria

{
  "line_item_id": "{LINE_ITEM_ID}",
  "targeting_type": "FOLLOWER_LOOKALIKES",
  "targeting_value": "{HANDLE_WITHOUT_@}"
}

Build a list of 10-20 handles:

• Direct competitors
• Industry thought leaders your ICP follows
• Media outlets / podcasts your ICP consumes
• SaaS review platforms (G2, TrustRadius handles)

Use GET /12/targeting_criteria/locations, GET /12/targeting_criteria/interests, etc. to discover valid targeting values.

Interest Targeting

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/targeting_criteria

{
  "line_item_id": "{LINE_ITEM_ID}",
  "targeting_type": "INTEREST",
  "targeting_value": "technology"
}

Fetch all interest categories:

GET /12/targeting_criteria/interests

For B2B SaaS: Technology, Business, Startups, Computer Programming, Enterprise Software, Cloud Computing, Data Science.

Conversation Topics

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/targeting_criteria

{
  "line_item_id": "{LINE_ITEM_ID}",
  "targeting_type": "CONVERSATION_TOPIC",
  "targeting_value": "{TOPIC_ID}"
}

10,000+ topics available. Fetch with:

GET /12/targeting_criteria/conversations

More granular than interests. Targets users who actively participate in conversations about specific topics.

Audience Sizing

After adding targeting criteria to a line item, estimate reach:

GET /12/accounts/{account_id}/reach_estimate?line_item_id={LINE_ITEM_ID}

Response includes count (estimated audience size). Target 50,000-500,000 for B2B campaigns. Below 50,000 limits delivery. Above 500,000 may be too broad.

Exclusions

Always exclude:

1. Existing customers (upload custom audience from CRM, set as NEGATIVE)
2. Recent converters (website custom audience filtered to conversion events)
3. Internal team members

POST /12/accounts/{account_id}/targeting_criteria

{
  "line_item_id": "{LINE_ITEM_ID}",
  "targeting_type": "TAILORED_AUDIENCE",
  "targeting_value": "{CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_ID}",
  "operator_type": "NE"
}

Error Handling

• AUDIENCE_TOO_SMALL: Custom audience has fewer than 100 matched users. Upload more records.
• INVALID_TARGETING_VALUE: The keyword, interest, or handle does not exist. Verify via the lookup endpoints.
• TOO_MANY_TARGETING_CRITERIA: Maximum 200 criteria per line item. Consolidate or split into separate line items.