The Direct Message Card is an ad format with a video or image and customizable buttons (i.e. call-to-actions). It is the best way to promote your brand’s chatbot in Direct Messages to a broad audience on Twitter.

Currently, Direct Message Cards can be used in Promoted Tweet and Video Views objectives.

A Direct Message Card can have up to four buttons, each of which directs users to a different part of your chatbot via different welcome messages. A welcome message is an entry point into a Direct Message conversation with a pre-set message that people see and can respond to, even when you may not have the ability to send a Direct Message to that person. This first message should greet them and guide them to the best ways to interact with the chatbot. Your chatbot developer will create the welcome messages for your chatbot.

Before you can create a Direct Message Card, you must have a chatbot in Twitter Direct Messages. See the How to build a Direct Message chatbot below for more information.

1. Log in to ads.twitter.com and select Cards under the Creatives menu.

2. Click the Create Card button and select either image or video Direct Message Card

3. Upload or select your media — image or video

4. Indicate the number of buttons (i.e. calls-to-action) you want; you can have up to four.

5. Enter the text for each button. Emojis are supported.

6. Enter the Welcome Message ID for each button. If you don't know your welcome message ID(s), you can get them from your chatbot developer

7. Enter your card name and create the Direct message Card.

Note: Welcome Message IDs are required to create Direct Message Cards. If you don’t have one, you first need to create a chatbot on Twitter; your chatbot partner will generate a Welcome Message ID for each button.

For more information on the creative specifications of the image and video Direct Message Card, click here.

Twitter provides free APIs for all of the Direct Messaging features that enable you to build chatbots in Direct Messages.

There are two paths for creating a chatbot:

• Use a vendor - these range from self-service chatbot creation tools to full-service chatbot agencies. You can ask your Twitter sales representative for a list of companies who can build Direct Message chatbots on Twitter as well as a recommendation.

• Build in-house - if you have internal development resources, you can find how to get started and the necessary technical resources in our developer documentation. For technical assistance, refer to the developer forum.