All About Twitter Cards

tl;dr Richly represent your content within Tweets across the web and on mobile devices with Twitter Cards Examples

Introduction

Twitter Cards is the ability to add rich media to your tweets, videos, photos, products information website logos and even description about your pages/websites. Twitter cards will help you drive traffic to your website. In this article we will walk you through the benefits of each and everyone of them and how to add them to your website.

Before we start, you should know that there are TWO sets of types for cards, one that are free and will need to be configured from your website with HTML markups and META Tags, and the others are cards that can only be created from Twitter’s Advertising Dashboard which requires you to be an advertiser. If you’re looking to advertise on Twitter in The Middle East, you can contact Connect Ads

Without any further ado, lets have a look on the cards that can be created from the dashboard

1- Twitter Website Cards

Help you showcase your website content and drive relevant traffic to your site in a single click, Website Cards are very useful for CPC campaigns as they replace normal links with stylish, rich media linked photo & description, here’s an example

Setup:

1. Navigate to the Cards dashboard on ads.twitter.com
2. Select the “Website” radio button and click to “Create your first Website Card”
3. Compose a Tweet with your Website Cards, and add them to your Promoted Tweets campaigns
HTML Markup:
As I mentioned before, that type of cards requires not HTML markups from your end, simply create it from the advertising dashboard and start promoting it.
Specification:
Website image: Max image size is 1 MB with minimum width is 240px & minimum height is 96px, At least 5:2 aspect ratio

Website title: 70 characters

on 29th of Nov 2014, Twitter allowed more Call -to-action buttons to be used in Twitter Website Cards, like “Donate”, “Bet Now”, “Order Now” and more, see list below:

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Here’s an example of the donate now Website Card (redirects to PayPal)

donate now website card
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Replace your plain URL with engaging Website Cards with Twitter Advertising

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2- Twitter Lead Generation Cards

As the name suggests Twitter LGC help you gather information about clients within twitter, meaning the clients will not have to leave Twitter application or website to submit their information to you, they can simply do it with single click from the Lead Generation Card, one click and you will have their email, @username and name of course. Once the client click on the -Call to Action- button, these information will be available for the advertisers in an excel sheet to be downloaded when they need.

Setup:

1. Navigate to the Cards dashboard on ads.twitter.com
2. Select the “Lead Generation” radio button and click to “Create your first Lead Generation Card”
3. Compose a Tweet with your Cards, and add them to your Promoted Tweets campaigns

Setup lead generation card
HTML Markup:
Same as above, that type of cards requires not HTML markups from your end, simply create it from the advertising dashboard and start promoting it.
Specification:
Description: 50 characters

Image: Minimum dimension 200x800px

Call-to-action: 20 characters

Twitter Lead Generation Cards has more advanced setup to it, but what i explained should be enough to get you started, but of course you can post in comments if you need more help with the advanced setup of data.
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Twitter Lead Generation Card explained

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3- Twitter App Card

The rich media works only on mobile view, on desktop it will show as simple link as shows below, App Cards allow you to showcase mobile applications and drive installs on within Twitter itself

On iOS, when an app is installed, users receive an inline notification to inform them the app was installed, but it only works for iOS owners so far.

It works for both App Store/Play Store
Shows on Mobile only (iOS and Android)
Displays:

  • App name
  • Icon
  • Price
  • App Store/Play Store Rating
  • Description (up to 200 characters)
  • External download link to app store

Here’ how it look on Desktop:

and here’s how it looks on Mobile:

Twitter App Card
Setup:
1. Navigate to the Cards dashboard on ads.twitter.com
2. Select the “Basic Card” Or “Image Card” radio button and click to “Create your first Basic/Image App Card”
3. Compose a Tweet with your Cards, and add them to your Promoted Tweets campaigns

Setup Twitter App Card

HTML Markup:

This type of cards if added from dashboard then it requires no HTML markups from your end, simply create it from the advertising dashboard and start promoting it. But, if also can be added from your website

Below is the code example basic setup:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="app">

<meta name="twitter:description" content="This is the example description of the application.">

<meta name="twitter:app:country" content="SA">

<meta name="twitter:app:name:iphone" content="Example App">

<meta name="twitter:app:id:iphone" content="306934135">

<meta name="twitter:app:name:ipad" content="Example App">

<meta name="twitter:app:id:ipad" content="306934135">

<meta name="twitter:app:name:googleplay" content="Example App">

<meta name="twitter:app:id:googleplay" content="com.example.app">

The above code has no deep linking, it will simply display your app for downloads and installs. if you consider doing more than just downloads, you may use deep linking feature to direct the users to certain locations of the app by using the below tags

<meta name="twitter:app:url:iphone" content="example://action/5149e249222f9e600a7540ef">

<meta name="twitter:app:url:ipad" content="example://action/5149e249222f9e600a7540ef">

<meta name="twitter:app:url:googleplay" content="http://example.com/action/5149e249222f9e600a7540ef">

More information about deep linking can be found here

Tweetable

Learn how to drive app installs directly from twitter by using Twitter App Card

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Generic META Tags

Moving forward, will now talk about the rest of Twitter Cards that can be configured from websites. 1st lets setup the most generic HTML markups that will be used with the rest of the cards
  • twitter:card – This is the card type you will be making – required
  • twitter:site : this belongs to the @username of the site, for example here on AmgedME, we use my very own username which is @Amged
  • twitter:creator this one belongs to the person who actually wrote the article, so for example here on AmgedME we have more than one contributors, if I was the one wrote the article, then it should be set to my username -which is @Amged-
  • twitter:title – required in almost all cards, displays the title of content
  • twitter:description – the description of the content, which is 200 characters – required
  • twitter:domain this will tell twitter which text to use when its displaying the “View on ..” – Not required

The above tags are required for all Twitter Cards, here’s an example of the codes

<meta name="twitter:site" content="@Amged"/>
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@Amged"/>
<meta name="twitter:domain" content="AmgedME"/>
<meta name="twitter:title" content="An example title for twitter" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="This is a description that can be 200 characters." />

Now that we have the most common lines ready, lets see the differences between each card type. I will begin with the most common one for blogs, which is

4- Twitter Summary Card

The Summary Card is a great way to give your followers a hint about your content. The 200 characters description and boxed image attached to its right gives a preview to users to have an idea what are they about to click.

Setup:

No setup required, just tweet the link to your article or blog post, and twitter will do the magic

HTML markups:

In addition to the generic codes above, this type of cards requires certain meta tags to be added, lets have a look.

First we need to define the twitter:card and make sure to set it up as “summary”

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/>

A summary card displays Title, Description, Boxed image all which are linked, so in addition to the generic codes it requires an image and a URL

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  • twitter:image: this is the representative image that will be shown to users, this image should be 120px by 120px and must be less than 1MB in file size. For an expanded tweet and its detail page, the image will be cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio and resized to be displayed at 120px by 90px. The image will also be cropped and resized to 120px by 120px for use in embedded tweets – NOT REQUIRED
  • twitter:url: this is simply the URL to your content – required
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://url/to/image.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://url/to/content/" />

and here’s how it looks

5- Summary Card with Large Image

Basically the same as the summary, but the image is much bigger than the normal summary card, still not required though
Setup
In addition to the generic meta tags, the Twitter Summary Cards with Large Image needs the below tags to be added

  • twitter:card – This is the card type you will be making, in this case we use “summary_large_image”- not required
  • twitter:image – Images for this Card should be at least 280px in width, and at least 150px in height. Image must be less than 1MB in size – NOT REQUIRED
  • twitter:url – this is simply the URL to your content

HTML Markup

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/>
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://url/to/image.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://url/to/content/" />

Example:

Tweetable

Give your followers a preview of your content before clicking with Twitter Summery Cards

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6- Twitter Products Card

With the ability to show the Price, stock image and description of a single product, Products Card makes it a great way to showcase your products to drive sales on Twitter.

Setup

In addition to the generic meta tags, the Twitter Products Cards needs the below tags to be added.

  • twitter:card – In this case we use “product”- Required
  • twitter:image – Image must be less than 1MB in size. The image will be cropped to a 1:1 aspect ratio.- Required
  • twitter:url – this is simply the URL to your content

In addition to the above, Products cards accept to new data labels to customize your card

  • twitter:label1– Label one specifies a certain data that you need to show within the card, it can accept any string, for example you can use it as PRICE
  • twitter:data1– The data1 is the actually data of the label1, so if the label is used for price, then data would be “$10.00” for example
  • twitter:label2 – Label 2 also accepts any string (text) it can be used for the product STOCK or TYPE
  • twitter:data2 – this is the data of label 2, if we are using stock as an example it can either show “Out of stock” or “In Stock” or even the number of available products in stock “7”. If used as TYPE, then it can be “Sunglasses” or “Men Wear” or “Women Wear” etc. it also accepts any type of strings.
<meta name="twitter:card" content="product" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://url/to/image.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://url/to/content/" />
<meta name="twitter:label1" content="PRICE" />
<meta name="twitter:data1" content="$7.50" />
<meta name="twitter:label2" content="TYPE" />
<meta name="twitter:data2" content="IPB 3 Application" />
<meta name="twitter:domain" content="http://virteq.com/apps/paste" />

In the below example the label1 is “PRICE” and data1 is “$7.50”, the label2 is “TYPE” and data2 is “IPB Applications”

Tweetable

Get Twitter to work for you by using Twitter Products Cards

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7- Twitter Photo Card

Displays a large photo, that will be resized by twitter but maintains the same aspect ratio if width and height were provided

  • Web: maximum height of 375px, maximum width of 435px
  • Mobile (non-retina displays): maximum height of 375px, maximum width of 280px
  • Mobile (retina displays): maximum height of 750px, maximum width of 560px

Image Requirements:

  • Twitter will not create photo card unless the image is 280px width and 150px height
  • Must be less than 1mb in size

Setup

  • twitter:card – This is the card type you will be making, in this case we use “photo”- required
  • twitter:image – Images for this Card should be at least 280px in width, and at least 150px in height. Image must be less than 1MB in size – required
  • twitter:image:width – specifies a defined width to maintain certain aspect ratio – not required
  • twitter:image:height – specifies a defined height to maintain certain aspect ratio – not required
  • twitter:title – photo % gallery card is the only card that doesn’t require title tag and can be left blank – not required

HTML Markups
As usual, in addition to the main generic codes, you need to add the below codes

<meta name="twitter:card" content="photo" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://url/to/content/" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://url/to/image.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:image:width" content="640">
<meta name="twitter:image:height" content="427">
<meta name="twitter:title" content="" />

Example:

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Learn how to displays a large photo on twitter from your website

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8- Twitter Gallery Card

This card allow you to share 4 images within single tweet, very useful for sharing multiple photos for your content, a good example would be a new launch of a car, gives you a way to show several shots of the car in one tweet.
Image Requirements:

  • 4 images
  • each image must be less than 1mb in size

Setup

  • twitter:card – This is the card type you will be making, in this case we use “gallery”- required
  • twitter:image0 – URL to the 1st image. Image must be less than 1MB in size – required
  • twitter:image1 – URL to the 2nd image. Image must be less than 1MB in size – required
  • twitter:image2 – URL to the 3rd image. Image must be less than 1MB in size – required
  • twitter:image3 – URL to the 4th image. Image must be less than 1MB in size – required
  • twitter:title – photo & gallery card are the only card that doesn’t require title tag and can be left blank – not required

HTML Markups

<meta name="twitter:card" content="gallery" />
<meta name="twitter:url" content="https://url/to/content/" />
<meta name="twitter:image0" content="https://url/to/image1.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:image1" content="https://url/to/image2.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:image2" content="https://url/to/image3.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:image3" content="https://url/to/image4.jpg" />

Example:

Tweetable

share 4 images within single tweet

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8- Twitter Player Card

Allow you to play rich media within a tweet, very useful for sharing and promoting your videos or music, twitter provides a massive list of partners that support that type of cards, my personal favorite is Vine, YouTube and SoundCloud

This card is the most complicated card, but mostly its preset by twitter’s partners the following example will use vine.

Setup

  • twitter:card – In this case we use “player”- required
  • twitter:player – HTTPS URL to iframe player – required
  • twitter:player:width – width of the IFRAME that has the player (in px) – required
  • twitter:player:height – height of the IFRAME that has the player (in px) – required
  • twitter:image – URL to the image. The image should the same dimensions as your player. Images with fewer than 68,600 pixels (a 262×262 square image, or a 350×196 16:9 image) will cause the player card not to render. Image must be less than 1MB in size. The image is used as a fallback if the platform doesn’t support the player card- required
  • twitter:player:stream – direct .mp4 url to your content, it accepts both video and audio with the following codecs – not required
    • Video: H.264, Baseline Profile (BP), Level 3.0, up to 640 x 480 at 30 fps.
    • Audio: AAC, Low Complexity Profile (LC)
  • twitter:player:stream:content_type – The MIME type/subtype that describes the content – required if stream is provided

HTML Markup

<meta property="twitter:card" content="player">
<meta property="twitter:image" content="https://link/to/image/with/same/dimentions/as/video/">

<meta property="twitter:player:width" content="535">
<meta property="twitter:player:height" content="535">
<meta property="twitter:player" content="https://secured/link/to/player/">
<meta property="twitter:player:stream" content="https://secured/direct/link/to/video.mp4">
<meta property="twitter:player:stream:content_type" content="video/mp4; codecs=&quot;avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2&quot;">

<!-- app card metadata -->
<meta property="twitter:app:name:iphone" content="AppName">
<meta property="twitter:app:url:iphone" content="appName://post/1095343030891954176">
<meta property="twitter:app:id:iphone" content="592447445">

<meta property="twitter:app:name:googleplay" content="AppName">
<meta property="twitter:app:url:googleplay" content="https://app/url/in/store">
<meta property="twitter:app:id:googleplay" content="co.app.android">

Example:

Tweetale:

play rich media within a tweet with Twitter Player Card

Click To Tweet

Conclusion:

Twitter Cards help you richly represent your content within Tweets across the web and on mobile devices. This gives users greater context and insight into the URLs shared on Twitter, which in turn allows Twitter to send more engaged traffic to your site or app.

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Twitter Cards help you richly represent your content within Tweets across the web and on mobile…

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About The Author

Amged Osman Avatar

Brand Strategy - MENA I help brands excel on Twitter Speaker ( Twitter for business - Periscope for Business)

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