Twitter Direct Message Cards

Published in

The Startup

3 min readJan 19, 2018

Twitter has made it possible for businesses to speed up customer service with the use of Direct Message bots built using the Twitter API or a third-party tool. To further more drive discovery to a Direct Message bot, Twitter also introduced the Direct Message Card. This particular card can be created in two different formats, image and video, and also contain up to 4 different CTAs. The CTAs are especially helpful in leading to different experiences an account may have within the DMs.

Note: Direct Message Cards are publicly available, but only show in the Twitter Ads UI to managed advirtisers. Anyone with Ads API access can create and use them.

Here’s how to make a Direct Message Card

Go to ads.twitter.com > Creatives > Cards > Create Card > Image or Direct Message Card

You should see a screen displaying the following…

You’ll want to add an image to your card making sure that it has a ratio of 5:2 or 1.91:1 and is less than 3 MB. If you’re using a video, make sure it has a ratio of 16:9. View all specifications HERE

Once your media is uploaded, you’ll move on to the section where you add your CTA (call-to-action) buttons. You can add up to four depending on how many experiences you have built into your DMs.

I’ll be demonstrating using all four CTA buttons for this example.

Note: You may only enter welcome message IDs for the specific account that you’re creating the DM Card for.

Add some captivating text to your CTA. These cards support up to 24 characters as well as emojis.

If I were making this DM Card for a restaurant, it would look something like this. Notice the different IDs. Each ID leads to a different scenario thus, four CTAs + text that captures the attention of a customer/user.