| Tactics | What’s that? | Why should you try? |
|---|---|---|
| Viral content distribution | “Unbelievable-but-true” and “fun fact” one-liners and threads that trigger reactions and retweets | Maximises organic reach before any ad spend |
| Boosted campaigns | Paid promotion of tweets that have already proved traction | Keeps ad spend efficient, scales winners fast |
| Partner blog swaps | Cross-promo with niche blogs that have similar content; sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee | Accesses new audiences without building them from scratch |
| Newsletter bursts | 2-3 mails/week, 25-30% open rate, revenue spike within the first hours | Drives loyal traffic, cushions social-media volatility |
How a Twitter-First Publisher Turned 1.6 M Impressions into $7.4 K with Monetag
So, Twitter (X) continues to be one of the most prominent sources of monetization for Monetag’s publishers.
Today, we want to share a story of our lifestyle blogger, who monetizes viral Twitter threads mainly with Monetag SmartLink located around his website (when users click some interesting headlines, the ad also appears). With 1.65 million ad impressions, he earned $7,449, and SmartLink alone delivered 89% of that revenue at a stellar $22.9 CPM. Below you’ll find the full workflow, stats, and actionable tips, which you are welcome to copy.
The spotlight: Meet our publisher
Before we move to the case study itself, we would like to introduce our publisher, so that you know the main hero of the story:
Niche: bite-sized lifestyle and “interesting facts” content.
Main channel: Twitter (X); rapid-fire posts + threads that hook curiosity.
Traffic mix: 80% social media, 20% newsletter or partner blogs. Twitter is the winner for speed and virality – the blogger loves the “instant feedback loop” it provides.
Our publisher is a self-taught professional, with numerous tests and effort behind his back. He says his early mistake was chasing volume over quality, later switching focus to targeted traffic and UX. Some details from the publisher himself:
“My targeted traffic primarily comes from Twitter, where I’ve built a curated audience over time. I use niche hashtags, interact with similar accounts, and test content types to refine targeting.
For user experience, I focus on mobile optimization, fast loading times, clear calls-to-action, and minimal distractions on the page. I also A/B test headlines and layouts, and occasionally use feedback tools like Hotjar or short polls to improve the experience.”
Inspiring? Well, this is just the beginning!
Publisher’s workflow
Also, our publisher kindly shared his daily routine that helps him monetize social media audiences. As he says, it takes him “a couple of hours per day”:
Step 1: Searching for trending content
He tracks trends and picks topics with high engagement potential. The sources our publisher recommends:
- Twitter Trending Topics – the “first go-to since it gives real-time feedback on what people are talking about”;
- Google Trends
- BuzzSumo
- Exploding Topics
- + Niche subreddits and Facebook groups “to catch micro-trends before they go mainstream”.
Step 2: Crafting hooks
Once the hottest topics are chosen, our publisher turns them into short, curiosity-driven tweets or threads. As he says, his main aim is “hooking attention fast”, that is why he focuses on buzzing topics and “writes tweets that spark curiosity, controversy, or surprise”.
We want to add that such an approach is great for social media because it definitely helps one break through users’ sleepy scrolling of monotonous Twitter feeds, plus whatever controversial or emotional content motivates users to react immediately.
As for the images, our publisher says that he uses “visuals like screenshots or short clips, and when relevant, they increase engagement.”
He shared an example of such a tweet:
Tweet: “Drinking water right after waking up can increase your metabolism by up to 30%. Here’s why it works (and how to do it right) [link]”
Publisher explains: “It was short, surprising, and actionable, which made people curious enough to click through. The article expanded on hydration, sleep science, and included affiliate links to related products. That post alone spiked my traffic for three days straight.”
One of the latest viral tweets created by our publisher looks like this:
Step 3: Posting, testing, and measuring results
Publisher: “Once the content is live, I monitor performance using analytics tools and adjust my promotion strategies accordingly. This cycle from content creation to performance review typically takes a few hours each day, depending on the volume and type of content I’m pushing.”
A few hours a day sounds like a dream job for many, and we bet that you are willing to try the same chill approach. If so, then here are the analytics tools our publisher recommends:
- Google Analytics
- Twitter Analytics
- Bitly to track individual link performance, especially when split-testing different headlines or tweet styles;
- Twitter Ads Manager for paid campaigns;
- Hotjar to better understand user behavior on landing pages.
Step 4: Boosting the most successful Twitter campaigns
If a tweet starts popping, our publisher moves to the next step – running a small Twitter Ads push to expand reach. He says:
“On Twitter (X), “boosted campaigns” are paid promotions (Twitter Ads) to amplify tweets that are already performing well organically. I usually test several tweets around a piece of content, and when I notice one gaining traction – likes, shares, or high click-through – I boost it to reach a larger or more targeted audience.”
As for the budget required for such a boost, “it really depends on the campaign’s goal and initial organic performance. For a typical boost, I start small – around $20-$50 to test the waters. If the tweet shows strong engagement and a good CPC, I may scale it up to $200-$300 for the full push. I keep my budget flexible so I can react based on live data.”
Not only does our publisher rely on Twitter, but he also collaborates with other bloggers on cross-promos to exchange audiences and grow performance even more. He usually finds such partners in niche communities or social media groups or reaches them directly after realizing they have “content synergies.”
He says, “Some of these partnerships are unpaid and built on mutual benefit, while others involve small promotional fees, depending on the arrangement.”
This is not all, because our publisher uses one more advertising channel – newsletter. He sends a newsletter 2-4 times a week and “the average open rate is around 25–30%, and I do see a noticeable uptick in traffic and earnings within a few hours after sending.” Also, he never forgets to keep those messages relevant, short, and focused on popular articles to boost results.
Monetag setup and statistics
Moving to numbers, we would like to start with our publisher’s setup and show how various Monetag formats performed:
Fast take-away: a low-impact Smartlink (mentioned in statistics as Onclick (Popunder), since both open the offer page and are marked in our statistics this way), timed once per session, became the clear money-maker without hurting UX.
Performance highlights by days
Now we want to share our publisher’s daily statistics that clearly show that his approach entails profit and CPM fluctuations – sometimes, it’s $31, sometimes – $74, etc.:
So, all the formats during the entire lifetime of the campaigns brought 1,652,333 impressions, $7,449 profit, and $4.5 average CPM. During the period of 31 May – 13 Jun 2025, he gained 89,900 impressions, $592 revenue, and $6.5 average CPM, whereas the best day was 1st of June (9,082 impressions, $74).
Performance by GEOs
And finally, let’s see how various GEOs performed:
Top GEOs by earnings: $4.9k with 7.15 CPM (US), $1.13k with 6.29 CPM (UK), $412 with 4.12 CPM (DE). The Philippines brings high volume but low CPM (0.49).
Lessons learned from this case study
To summarize everything said before, we’ll give you some highlights to stick to:
Why does our publisher stay with Monetag?
It’s not like we’re boasting, but we really appreciate our publisher’s loyalty to the Monetag platform and want to share his impression with you:
“I prefer Monetag because of its consistent performance, ease of integration, and reliable support. The payout rates are competitive, and the platform adapts well to different traffic types. I’ve tried other monetization platforms in the past, but Monetag has proven to be more stable and better aligned with my traffic sources.”
The real-time stats and optimization tools were also mentioned as key perks.
Future plans
Our publisher doesn’t want to stop! He is already testing SEO, paid media, and new languages to scale beyond social traffic and automate parts of content production. We wish him good luck and eagerly wait for new stellar case studies to showcase his progress.
Ready to try it yourself? Sign up for Monetag and test our formats on your traffic today!
