Digital advertising has grown and developed over the years to include many different channels that originally seemed like they would be untouched.
Any type of digital platform can be used as a source for digital advertisements and provide an opportunity for brands like yours to target specific audience segments and groups.
When you think of Tinder, your first thought is probably of dating profiles and pictures, not of advertising. However, Tinder Ads have grown to provide a well-rounded and interactive platform for digital advertisers who want to target the market of users that spend time on dating apps.
In this article, we’ll talk about what Tinder Ads are and how they work for brands.
We’ll also take a look at the benefits of advertising on Tinder and give you the best practices and examples that will help you take your Tinder Ads strategy to the next level.
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What are Tinder Ads & How Do They Work?
In order to understand Tinder Ads, you first need to know what Tinder is.
Tinder is a dating app that revolutionized the ways in which users view potential matches. Rather than scrolling through profiles and looking for matches out of a pool of options, Tinder users view a single profile at a time and either swipe left to deny the match or swipe right to approve.
Now nearly all dating apps follow a similar format, and even the terms “swipe right” and “swipe left” have become colloquialisms in modern language.
Tinder is also an extremely popular app, with over 69 million users. It’s by far the largest dating app on the market, and as the creator of the swiping method of viewing profiles, it has the best interface for left and right-swiping.
How Do Tinder Ads Work?
Tinder Ads can show up as a display ad on the main page of Tinder with an option to click into the advertisement, or as an interactive advertisement that requires a swipe left or right option to learn more about the advertisement or to dismiss it.
This interactive element can encourage more engagement with your audiences and get better results than a display ad.
Benefits of Advertising on Tinder
There are many benefits that come from advertising on Tinder that you don’t get from any other dating app or social media platform.
Let’s take a look at some of those benefits now.
Target a Specific Audience
Tinder users have a very similar demographic makeup, even more so than platforms like TikTok or Snapchat.
80% of Tinder users are between the ages of 18 and 34, meaning that millennials and Gen Z are the major users.
If your brand targets those age groups, Tinder provides a great opportunity without too much interference from other groups outside of your target market.
Advertise Where Your Competition Isn’t
The digital advertising space has become more and more crowded.
Every day more brands invest in digital ads, meaning that there is more competition, higher prices, and less of a chance of being seen by your audience.
Tinder Ads is a less popular platform for advertising since most brands don’t think about advertising on a dating app.
That means you can get your message to audiences with less competition.
Engaging and Entertaining
Tinder Ads rely on the same swiping interactions as profile browsing, meaning that it’s a great place for a creative advertising strategy that wouldn’t work on other advertising platforms.
Using images, fun prompts, and interesting messaging all work together to help you get more engagement out of users and encourage them to interact with your ads.
Best Practices for Tinder Ads
Just as with every form of digital advertising, there are unique best practices that should be followed in order to reach the best results for Tinder Ads and to guide your strategy and planning.
Here are a few of those best practices that you should keep in mind.
1. Keep it Simple
Tinder Ads are meant to be swiped through quickly, so creating content that can be quickly read and understood is essential.
If you have too many words or too many details in your ad, your audiences will quickly lose interest and won’t engage with your advertisements.
Save your long-form advertisements for platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, not Tinder.
2. Play Into the Dating Aspect
While people go to most social media platforms for many different reasons, users on Tinder are there for a specific purpose — dating.
That means that every user is going to be in the same mindset, rather than other social media platforms where people can have multiple end goals in mind.
If you can find opportunities to play into the dating aspect of Tinder Ads, you can find more success.
You can set up your advertisements to promote dating activities or use dating language to convince audiences to give your products a try.
For example, if you are a restaurant brand, you can focus your messaging on date night opportunities and specials.
3. Don’t Come Across as Cold
Tinder connects individuals through their dating profiles. That means that personality and personal brands have great success on Tinder Ads.
By being yourself and sharing information as your brand, you can have better success than trying to hide the fact that you are advertising.
By playing into the fine line between being personable and being honest about advertising, you can connect with audiences in an authentic way.
4. Build Urgency in Your Messaging
Tinder Ads are unique in that once a user has swiped on the advertisement, they don’t get an opportunity to revisit the ad.
Other social platforms have the option for you to scroll back up to find the ad again, but Tinder Ads don’t have that option.
By creating urgency in your messaging for one-time offers that the user won’t get the opportunity to use again, you can encourage snap swipes and emotional decisions from your audiences.
5. Use Eye-Catching Imagery
Tinder Ads are highly reliant on images and design to capture the attention of users.
After all, when swiping through profiles, many decisions are made based on the profile images, not the written descriptions.
By using eye-catching images and clever graphic designs, you can encourage swiping.
Try using clean images with plenty of saturation and color editing without a lot of distracting clutter.
Tinder Ads Examples
Now that you know what the benefits of using Tinder Ads are and how you can bring about interactions with best practices, let’s take a look at a few different Tinder Ads campaigns that can inspire your next advertising strategy.
Ex Machina
The movie Ex Machina used a fake dating profile to advertise for their movie. The profile featured a robot named Ava from the movie who looks like a real person.
Not only does this strategy play into the themes of the movie, but they were able to bring Tinder users into the experience with the fake profile.
While we generally recommend being honest and upfront about advertising, this technique worked because of the correlations to the film.
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks used Tinder Ads to create a unique experience for users who were fans of the basketball team.
The team hosted a Swipe Right Night which gave users who swiped right on other profiles the opportunity to win access to Atlanta Hawks “Love Lounges” where they could meet their recent match and watch the game.
By taking advantage of the dating app format and the end goals of users, they gained a lot of positive press and had a successful ad campaign.
Social Tees Animal Rescue
Social Tees Animal Rescue used the swiping options to match users with dogs that were available for adoption in New York City.
If you swiped right on the cute picture of an adoptable dog, you could get the chance to meet the dog in person and test to see if adoption was an option.
Swiping left resulted in a sad “Abandoned” graphic. By taking advantage of urgency in their messaging, the rescue center was able to match 1,500 dogs in the first hour.
Wrap Up
Tinder Ads provide digital marketers with a unique platform to target their younger demographics in an interactive and engaging way.
Tinder Ads are also an option that isn’t as explored as other social media platforms and apps, giving you an opportunity to stand out from your competition and advertise in a different area.
Understanding your ad performance is a key step to getting the most out of your digital advertising experience on Tinder and any other advertising platform.
To learn more about ways to monitor your ad performance, check out our resource on ad performance.
There you’ll learn actionable steps to improve your ad performance and grow your brand.
