How to Advertise on Snapchat
Looking to reach a younger target market? Time to forget about advertising on Facebook.
Yes, really! It’s an overcrowded marketplace for advertisers, and it’s not the only place to find customers. Millions of Millennials and Zoomers actually spend their time scrolling on Snapchat.
As one of the world’s most popular apps, Snapchat’s global daily user base stands at 265 million. Meanwhile, over six million Australians use the platform, including an astounding 90% of the 18-24 age bracket and 85% of 13-24 bracket.
Featuring an extremely active user base, Snapchatters offer a combined spending power of $4.4 trillion – much of which is spent on retail and service brands.
A Snapchat Ads campaign can make your brand pop and bring lucrative results within your grasp.
The Business Benefit of Snapchat Ads
Almost any business can successfully grow its following on Snapchat – but there are clearly some types of brands that benefit more than others.
The winners? Snapchat Ads deliver excellent results for direct-to-consumer brands that can convert leads straight to their e-commerce store.
With research finding that Snapchat users are 60% more likely to impulse buy products they discover via the app, an eye-catching marketing campaign can skyrocket your sales.
Supported by data-driven audience targeting and immersive ad formats, running ads on Snapchat is a great way to market your business online.
The Six Formats of Snapchat Ads
Brands have plenty of choices in reaching their target market on Snapchat. With six different formats to choose from, it’s entirely feasible to attract an engaged and profitable audience.
Snap Ads
Snap Ads are designed to get users to take action. This flexible format prompts Snapchatters to swipe up from a Snap Story or the Discover Tab – linking users directly to an e-commerce store, download page, long-form video or something else.
Appearing full-screen and vertical on the user’s device, immersive Snap Ads run for between 3 and 10 seconds. This gives savvy brands plenty of time to highlight their product and drive users to check out what’s in the link.
Story Ads
Make sure Snapchatters get to know your brand’s product and values, by creating dynamic Story Ads. Appearing in the Discover tab, this type of Snapchat Ad uses a personalised cover photo and headline to convince people to check out your message.
If the user happens to do so, they’ll be presented with a series of quick-fire Snap Ads that can be used to explain your offer in more detail. Although Snapchatters have to tap to see these ads, anyone that completes this action can be considered to be more engaged.
Collection Ads
Boost product sales with Snapchat Collection Ads. This ad format includes four clickable tiles within one main ad, so brands can feature a series of complementary products together.
In addition, Collection Ads allows links to external websites, apps, videos and AR lenses, so businesses can encourage their target market to complete a range of actions.
For example, a fashion label using Collection Ads could showcase four different garments worn by a model, with a direct link to the product page where Snapchatters can purchase.
Lens AR Experience
Snapchat was one of the first social media apps to embrace augmented reality (AR) and bring this technology to businesses.
With millions of interactive in-app lenses creating fun-loving experiences for users, brands can leverage this feature by highlighting their creativity and promoting specific products.
If you want to experiment with Lens AR Experience advertising, there are two distinct types to consider: Face Lenses and World Lenses.
As you might expect, the former transforms a user’s appearance while the latter is designed to detect and alter surfaces.
With Snapchat’s own Lens Web Builder making it easy to get started, this unique Snapchat Ad format is where you can truly showcase your brand’s personality.
Filter Ads
Snapchat Filter Ads are an interactive way for brands to engage with users in specific locations.
If a Snapchatter happens to take a photo in the area you select for your Filter Ad, they’ll be able to apply it when sending snaps to their friends.
If you decide to design a Filter Ad, remember that users need to find it attractive enough to overlay on their photo. Avoid gaudy branding and focus on creating something entertaining or visually compelling.
Commercial Ads
Displayed within Snapchat’s specially curated content, such as Partner Curated Stories, Our Stories and Games, businesses can access two types of Commercial Ads.
These include non-skippable Standard Commercials, which run for 3 to 6 seconds, and Extended Play Commercials, which run for up to 3 minutes.
These ads allow brands to present lengthy messages within premium sections of Snapchat. This is your chance to express your values and explore your product’s best features.
The curation is the cherry on top. With these ads appearing within hand-picked content, there’s no chance of them being served next to risky pics and videos.
Are Snapchat Ads Targeted?
As Snapchat Ads continue to improve, brands now have numerous ways to target their ideal customer base.
Whether you want to reach consumers based on their real-world habits, geography or device, wonderfully detailed targeting is built into the Snapchat for Business platform.
Demographics
If you’re looking to attract a specific audience based on their demographics, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to Snapchat Ads. In fact, you can reach your target audience based on their age, gender, language, income and even parental status.
Geography
Like most other social media platforms, Snapchat allows brands to include or exclude certain countries from their advertising campaigns.
However, the platform takes things to the next level with Radius Targeting. Perfect for reaching local customers, you can drop a pin on a place of interest and serve ads to users nearby.
Audiences
Many brands have found massive success with Snapchat’s audience targeting. This helps businesses to convert certain users based on their interests, previous purchases and known locations.
Snapchat also has a range of tools designed to reach custom audiences. Snap Audience Match helps drive repeat sales and customer loyalty, while Lookalike Audiences attracts Snapchat users similar to your existing audience.
What Do
If you’re wondering how much it costs to advertise on Snapchat, the good news is that your budget can be as little as $5 per day.
With the cost of Snapchat Ads estimated at $4.10 per thousand impressions, this is a lot lower than the pricetag many brands see from running Facebook or Instagram ads.
Alongside the ability to set daily and lifetime budgets, Snapchat also makes it incredibly easy to adjust spending as your campaign progresses.
Goal-based Bidding
With goal-based bidding, brands can optimise their spending according to what actions have been completed by the user.
Specifying your cost-per-action means the platform will create impressions that work towards your outcomes – whether you want a Snapchatter to install an app or visit your e-commerce store.
Automated Bidding
Snapchat has a range of automated bidding strategies for brands to streamline their advertising campaigns.
For example, Auto-Bidding takes charge of your bid amount, to deliver the most number of actions based on your budget and target audience.
Target Cost is another automated strategy where Snapchat aims for a cost-per-action at or below the target amount. The algorithm will reach users who are the most likely to convert for that price.
Can You Monitor Your Campaign?
Keeping tabs on the performance of your Snapchat Ads is never an issue, thanks to the platform’s comprehensive dashboard.
Advertisers can view a range of delivery metrics, including impressions, swipes and installs. There are also useful breakdowns of your audience’s interests and demographics.
Brands that use Snapchat’s mobile measurement partners will also receive valuable data that matches website conversions to Snapchat Ad exposures.
This helps brands to reflect on their campaign’s implementation and highlights how minor adjustments might deliver even better sales in the future.
Dominate Snapchat Ads with First Page Australia
Snapchat is a top-notch advertising platform for Australian businesses wanting to make an impact with a younger audience. But you can’t just rush into a campaign and expect to generate a decent ROI.
With the experts at First Page Australia having led incredibly cost-effective social media marketing strategies for hundreds of international companies, we’ll work closely with your business to deliver unbeatable sales and profit.
Ready to find out more? Get in touch with our talented team to level up your approach to Snapchat Ads.
Also, don’t forget to check out our 9 Ways To Build a Social Media Content Calendar
