New Twitter Data: Optimal Link Placement for Clicks

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One of the questions that I’ve been asked the most in the years I’ve been doing Twitter data analysis is where in a Tweet is the best position (beginning, middle or end) to include a link to get the most clicks. I had always assumed the end was the best, so I never thought much about the question.

But about a month ago, I decided to actually look at the data about it and test my assumption. Over the course of the next few weeks I gathered 200,000, random, bit.ly-link-containing Tweets. I used the bit.ly API to calculate a click through rate (clicks on a link divided by number of followers of tweeter). And then I analyzed the relationship of the link’s position inside the Tweet and it’s CTR. I figured the best way to visualize this would be through a heat map.

The entire heat map symbolizes a Tweet, with areas to the left in the beginning of the Tweet and areas to the right at the end. Dark red bars represent a position with a high CTR and light-red or white bars show a position with a very low CTR.

It turns out that the best area for clicks is about 25% of the way through the Tweet. Do these findings match your experience? Will you be experimenting with this placement?