With more than 166 million daily active users watching 10 billion videos per day, Snapchat has a highly engaged audience that’s simply too big to ignore.
In this complete guide to Snapchat advertising, we’ll look at some key ways to use Snapchat ads to connect with fans and build your brand on this powerful network
Bonus: Download a free guide that reveals how to easily create and use a custom Snapchat geofilter to promote your business for as little as $5.
Why advertise on Snapchat?
Snapchat is a particularly important platform for brands whose target market aligns with Snapchat’s core demographics.
Consultancy Millward Brown found that 88 percent of the users who saw Snapchat ads from a campaign for men’s deodorant fit into the target 13- to 34-year-old demographic. That should come as no surprise as 86 percent of U.S. Snapchat users fall into that age category. The network reaches 41 percent of all 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States every single day.
And research conducted by MediaScience found that Snapchat video ads delivered more than two times the lift in purchase intent compared with TV and other popular social platforms.
The various Snapchat ad formats allow brands to place their messaging in Discover content or in between Snapchat Stories. (If you’re not sure of the difference, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Snapchat.) Interactive options like Sponsored Lenses and Geofilters become a seamless part of the Snapchat user experience, encouraging users to share branded content with their friends, and even across other social channels.
If your ads have a great audio track, there’s one additional reason to advertise on this particular network: 60 percent of video ads on Snapchat are watched with the sound on. That’s an especially impressive figure when you consider that 85 percent of videos on Facebook are watched on mute.
Types of Snapchat ads
Snap Ads
A Snap Ad is a (maximum) 10-second video ad that includes the option to provide more information to users who swipe up from the ad.
The additional information can be more in-depth content, such as longer videos (up to 10 minutes) or articles. Or it can be used as a way for Snapchatters to interact with your brand (or even buy) directly via an app install page or mobile website that users access without leaving the Snapchat app.
Snap ads can appear in between Stories from a user’s friends, or within premium content that appears within Discover, including Our Stories, Publisher Stories and Shows.
Snapchat also offers “sequenced messaging,” a bundle of 10-second Snapchat ad video segments that run back-to-back within Discover to mimic a longer video.
Sponsored Lenses
From puppy dog ears to rainbow barf, Lenses are a big part of what makes Snapchat so fun. And one-third of Snapchat’s daily users play with Lenses every day.
Sponsored Lenses show up alongside all the other Lenses in the menu, making it easy for users to share and post with.
Disappointing, but the dunk lens is live on Snapchat for a few more hours. Take matters into your own hands. pic.twitter.com/zOKdX32Ees
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) February 7, 2017
Sponsored Geofilters
A Geofilter is a graphic overlay that Snapchatters can place on their Snaps. As the name implies, Geofilters are usually tied to a specific geographic location, ranging from individual store to an entire country.
On average, Snapchatters view 1 billion filters every day, and a national Sponsored Geofilter typically reaches 40 to 60 percent of Snapchatters in the United States. That’s a lot of opportunities to reach your audience.
On-Demand Geofilters
On-Demand Geofilters are the entry-level Snapchat ads option, allowing any business to get started with Snapchat advertising for as little as $5.
Was so pumped to see this @vancanadians filter at the Jays game last night. Nicely done!
