Twitter keeps pressing monetizable users in goal to double revenues

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Twitter (TWTR -1.2%) Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal says the company is working hard on steps to convert paying users as it pursues some aggressive two-year user goals.

"Lots of people come to Twitter every day to find out what's happening in the world and what people are talking about," Segal said at Tuesday's J.P. Morgan conference. "Historically, we've done okay, but not as good of a job as we would have liked converting those people into (monetizable Daily Active Users)."

Part of the company's new measures focus on a more extensive onboarding process, including asking users about their interests. "If we know your interest, we're going to do a much better job helping you find the things that you care about most." It's worth the "trade-off" of more friction on sign-up, because of the better experience, he says. "We can show them more relevant tweets, and we can show them relevant ads once they've logged in."

The company in its last earnings report had affirmed some lofty 2023 goals that it had set out a year ago - to double annual revenue and hit at least 315 million users.

Segal notes in lapping tough comparisons, mDAU growth would be in low double digits in the quarters of 2021, and that coming out of that the company would need to accelerate growth to hit the 315-million target.

"Through our product work and the people who come to Twitter every day, we think we can hit that goal," Segal says.

The company is now a year into its new version of MAP, its app install ad format - and in Q4, MAP led performance advertising that grew faster than brand advertising (ad engagements had fallen in Q4 amid a mix shift to direct response ads).

MAP has "done very well in sports betting, investing and a handful of other verticals as well, and we're looking to continue to improve that over time," Segal says.

Approaches like testing shop modules in Twitter business profiles should start to bring a mix of 85% brand/15% performance ads closer to 50/50 over time, he says - and "Twitter is going to continue to be a great place for brand ads," so it won't be because brand advertising is shrinking, but that DR grows faster.

Automotive is another vertical seeing strength, where people come to Twitter in "discovery mode," Segal says. Ford, for example, got 1.5 billion ad impressions on Twitter when they launched an electric F-150 in Q2 of 2021.

Why so successful? "One, they ran a lot of ads. But two, we had a big group of people who are interested in learning about cars, who are interested in the environment, who are interested in Ford, who are interested in pickup trucks.

"When you can deliver a large, global audience, advertisers who are launching a new product or service want to be where people are forming public opinion. They want to be on Twitter," he says.

Total addressable market, meanwhile, is still large, he says - a $150 billion and growing market for digital ads outside of search, outside of China, "and we have less than 3% market share today."

On Monday, Twitter had said it was labeling and limiting tweets linked to Russian state media.