While Facebook and Instagram might be the first platforms brands think of for paid social advertising, Snapchat advertising can energize a diverse marketing mix with unique, engaged audiences and high conversion rates. Launched in 2011, Snapchat is one of the top ten social platforms by usage, but its users aren’t always on other social apps. Snap ads create an opportunity to reach untapped audiences with a higher propensity to convert.
Is advertising on Snapchat worth it?
Snapchat’s audiences offer benefits some of the other top social platforms can’t. Snapchat reaches 75% of millennials and Gen Z, with 319 million people using the app for an average of over 30 minutes every single day. Snapchat is a thriving social platform hosting users not found on other apps with over five billion snaps sent per day. Over one-third of Snapchat users aren’t on Instagram, indicating that Snapchat users, with 9.1 trillion in North American spending power, shouldn’t be pigeonholed with other social app users.
Snapchat is a fast-paced and interactive app where users tend to be more impulsive than other social platforms. Snap ads are full-screen, immersive, and quickly engage and inspire action. Unlike some other social apps, Snap ads, while interruptive, are still playful. With many options for customization, such as filters and inventive ad formats, it’s simple to create a branded ad that fits seamlessly into users’ Snapchat experience.
Snap ads are great for helping younger customers interact with your brand through a fun and immersive experience. Advertising on Snapchat is tailored to business goals such as expanding your brand to younger markets or building brand awareness and loyalty with younger generations. Incorporating Snapchat into your paid social media mix enables you to create audience-driven content built to perform well on the platform.
Snapchat offers granular audience insights that can optimize campaign performance through targeting. Being able to reach your business’s target audience by interest, customer lists, geotargeting, demographics, and more means you can pinpoint your best audience on the platform.
How to start advertising on Snapchat
Like most publishers, Snapchat offers one centralized dashboard with real-time reporting. Within Snapchat’s ads manager, you can create, update, and view performance for all campaigns, ad sets, and ads. To manage ads, the default view of ads manager is where you can track performance information and metrics for all your campaigns. The reports section allows you to schedule reports, track performance, draw conclusions, and share results. Snapchat also offers a campaign lab to discover effective strategies and maximize return with features such as split testing and more.
Snapchat has many targeting options, including:
- Snap Audience Match
- Lookalike Audiences
- Pixel Custom Audiences
- Ad Engagement Audiences
- Third-party Custom Audiences
- Saved Audiences
Once you’ve started running campaigns, you’ll be able to harness granular insights such as location breakdowns, DMAs, demographic breakdowns, and more while collecting learnings about user interest with first and third-party audience information. Acting on these insights allows you to create relevant audiences that you can activate, save, and learn even more about. It’s then simple to optimize based on your campaign objectives to better achieve overall business goals. Some examples of optimization include adjusting bids by device, expanding campaign reach through segmented lookalike audiences, better understanding the behaviors and preferences of your target audience, and more.
Best practices for Snapchat ads in 2022
When building Snap ads, Snapchat offers its own best practices. Experienced in working within a larger social marketing mix, our team recommends the following best practices that have maximized our client returns and achieved optimal performance.
Focus on the first two seconds.
The very beginning of your ad, the first two seconds, can make or break performance. Optimal results are achieved when the promotion pop-up appears immediately in the ad. Ads that have followed this recommendation have immensely outperformed ads with the promotion in the final end card.
Lead with your brand and value proposition.
Introduce your brand in the first two seconds of the ad to maximize awareness. Allow viewers to immediately see your brand and understand your value proposition. Avoid opening on a solid frame of your logo or product only, instead create a dynamic intro that hooks views, sharing your brand and its benefits.
Open with a visual call to action.
Drive users’ conversions with a dynamic CTA in the opening frame. A strong visual can propel Snapchat users, who are inclined to impulsivity, to quickly act.
Mirror organic content with a short, simple message.
Be sure to keep ad creative simple and concise with a clear message. Snapchat users share small, linear communication across the app, and ads should mirror this type of messaging. 60% of Snapchat users have their audio on, so ads should also use music or voiceover to further drive engagement.
Keep ad creative fresh.
Our team recommends refreshing creative biweekly, or at the very least monthly to ensure strong ad performance. This doesn’t mean you have to completely rebuild your current ads, but small changes do better within the app algorithm.
Snapchat advertising can be a powerful tool within your social media mix, reminding marketers that there are many strategic ways to meet campaign objectives and business goals. Snap ads can help introduce your brand to an untapped market and unique audience that can’t be found on other social apps. Powerful paid media strategies include this diversity of apps, campaigns, and platforms to ensure your brand is present right when customers or target audiences are primed to be interested in or need them most.
To learn more insights about social advertising, read 4 New Ways to Use YouTube Ad Metrics in 2022.
