How does Snapchat ad­ver­tis­ing work?

Snapchat can be used as a marketing tool for companies. With a suitable strategy and com­pre­hen­sive mon­i­tor­ing, small and medium-sized companies can benefit from ads on Snapchat. In this article, you can learn what you need to keep in mind and the best way to go about ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat.

Who can you reach with ads on Snapchat?

Ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat can be very ben­e­fi­cial es­pe­cial­ly for companies with a modern image that want to reach a young target audience. On Snapchat, content is displayed in quick suc­ces­sion, which means that ad­ver­tis­ing messages can reach in­di­vid­ual users im­me­di­ate­ly. When ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat, the ads placed fit seam­less­ly in with other content on the platform and can therefore be optimally tailored to the desired target group. Many of the ad­ver­tis­ing methods are in­ter­ac­tive and therefore also offer certain added value to users. However, ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat is by no means suitable for every company.

Whether it makes sense for you to add Snapchat to your different marketing efforts or not depends on various factors. In addition to your target group, the ad­ver­tis­ing format you choose is par­tic­u­lar­ly important. While Snap Ads, which run as videos between regular content, are very easy to produce, the same does not apply to the Lenses formats. These are not only sig­nif­i­cant­ly more expensive, but also have to be created by Snapchat itself or its partners. This is often more expensive than many small and medium-sized companies can budget for. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the different formats, give you an initial overview of the costs and targeting options. We’ll also provide you with step-by-step in­struc­tions for ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat.

What are the different ad formats?

The first paid ad ran on Snapchat in 2014. Over time, the smart­phone app has developed other methods, in addition to video ad­ver­tis­ing, that can be used to advertise for a company or specific products on the app. In general, there are currently six different types of ad­ver­tis­ing, some of which differ sig­nif­i­cant­ly from the ad­ver­tis­ing on other social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube:

• Snap Ad: Snap Ads are ads (usually videos or an­i­ma­tions) that fill a smart­phone’s entire screen. They are shown between snaps (images and video record­ings) of other channels and are always displayed in portrait format on the user’s smart­phone screen — just like all other content on Snapchat. In addition to a standard ad­ver­tis­ing video, a Snap Ad can also have in­ter­ac­tive elements. For example, users can swipe for more in­for­ma­tion on the ad­ver­tised product or to find where an app can be down­loaded.

• Story Ad: Story Ads are similar to regular Snap Ads. However, they are placed in the Discover feed and are therefore suitable for par­tic­u­lar­ly high-quality content.

• Col­lec­tion Ad: Col­lec­tion Ads give you the op­por­tu­ni­ty to provide visitors with a direct link to various products. This then leads directly to your online store.

• Com­mer­cials: Unlike Snap Ads, com­mer­cials cannot be skipped. To avoid dis­rupt­ing the user ex­pe­ri­ence, these com­mer­cials are no more than six seconds long.

• (Sponsored) Lenses: Lenses consist of an animation with a brand reference that is placed on and around a person’s face using augmented reality. The smart­phone camera rec­og­nizes a person’s face and adapts the graphic to it. Snapchat Lenses are the app’s most creative and at the same time most expensive ad­ver­tis­ing medium.

• (Sponsored) Ge­ofil­ters: Filters are il­lus­tra­tions that relate to a brand, which Snapchat users can use to decorate their snaps. Filters can be offered based on location (for example, in a certain radius around a store or restau­rant).

How do the different Snapchat ad­ver­tis­ing options work?

If you have decided to advertise on Snapchat, you can choose one of the formats listed above or use a com­bi­na­tion of them. Below we explain how the in­di­vid­ual ad­ver­tis­ing formats work, what options they offer and how you can start your own campaign.

Snap Ads und com­mer­cials

The ad­ver­tis­ing content of these ads is displayed as a video clip, animation, slideshow or a similar ad­ver­tis­ing medium in full-screen mode on a smart­phone. Like all other Snapchat content, they are also displayed in portrait format. Each Snap Ad has a sound­track that always starts at the beginning of the ad. A small text overlay iden­ti­fies the content presented as an ad­ver­tise­ment. Snap Ads can be skipped by tapping on the display — just like all other Snaps that run in the app. Only com­mer­cials are displayed for the entire six seconds.

Snap Ads are oc­ca­sion­al­ly run amongst the app’s (public) content — for example between Snapchat Stories or posts in the Discover channels. The ads can generally be up to 10 seconds long. However, users can also be offered the op­por­tu­ni­ty to find out more about the product within the app if they are in­ter­est­ed. These four Snap Ad formats are available:

• Simple Snap Ad: This format contains a video that can be no longer than 10 seconds and includes sound that starts au­to­mat­i­cal­ly. This type of ad forms the basis for the other three Snap Ad types.
• Snap Ad with web view: With this ad format, users can swipe to open a web page within the Snapchat app during the ad clip. This then usually contains further in­for­ma­tion about the ad­ver­tised product.
• Snap Ad with app in­stal­la­tion: If you want to promote an app, you can use another window to redirect straight to the cor­re­spond­ing page in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. This means that users do not have to leave Snapchat to download and install the ad­ver­tised app.
• Snap Ad with long video: You can use this Snapchat ad­ver­tis­ing format if you want to have a video that lasts longer than 10 seconds. The video can also be opened in a new window by swiping the display.

Story Ads

Story Ads work in a similar way to normal Snap Ads. However, they consist of in­di­vid­ual tiles that are displayed next to the actual content in the Discover area. When a user taps on the tile, a col­lec­tion of three to 20 in­di­vid­ual small tiles that tells a story opens up. With this option, you also have the option to include a link to your own website.

Col­lec­tion Ads

Col­lec­tion Ads are also placed between two pieces of content but are struc­tured slightly dif­fer­ent­ly. Although they also contain a video or an image, they also have up to four ad­di­tion­al small images that are displayed at the bottom. Products are shown on these small tiles. If a user clicks on a product, further in­for­ma­tion is displayed and a direct link to your store’s product page appears.

Ge­ofil­ters

A par­tic­u­lar­ly popular format with high added value for your company is the Geofilter. This is basically a sticker that users can place over their own content. Ge­ofil­ters are location-based and therefore only available in specific areas. For example, if you want to advertise your restau­rant, store or concert on Snapchat, you can create a Geofilter. Visitors then add this to their own images and share them on their account. This means your ad­ver­tis­ing is dis­trib­uted to other profiles, which au­to­mat­i­cal­ly increases your vis­i­bil­i­ty.

If you want to create Ge­ofil­ters yourself, simply go to Community Filters. There you will find the ap­pro­pri­ate templates. Then specify the ge­o­graph­i­cal area you want your filter to be available in. The area’s size can affect the cost of this type of Snap ad­ver­tis­ing.

Lenses

Lenses are another, much more complex filter option. They use augmented reality to place certain features on the user’s face. However, you cannot create these filters yourself. They need to be com­mis­sioned from Snap Inc. or a partner company and then produced there. This not only means that the pro­cess­ing time is rel­a­tive­ly long, but also that the costs are com­par­a­tive­ly high. It is not possible to create sponsored Lenses yourself.

How do you start an ad­ver­tis­ing campaign on Snapchat?

If you want to create and display a Snap Ad yourself, you have two options. You can get Snap Inc. or an agency to create one for you. If you choose this route, you’ll need to discuss the details with a content creator, who will then provide you with a finished product. However, if you want to do the planning and design yourself, you can use Snapchat’s Ads Manager tool. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. First start a new campaign via the New Campaign option.
2. Select the goals you want to pursue with the campaign. For example, if you want users to visit your website, select Website Con­ver­sions. If you want them to install your ad­ver­tised app, select App Installs, and Awareness for general vis­i­bil­i­ty. Then click on Next.

3. Now choose a name for your campaign. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly important if you want to start several campaigns.
4. The status is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly set to active. You can leave this unchanged as long as the campaign is running.
5. In the next step, you need to decide how long your campaign should go on for. For example, if you want your campaign to expire at some point, it’s a good idea to enter an end date.

6. Now, it’s time to determine the budget for your campaign.
7. Under Place­ments, select where and who your campaign should be shown to. You can either have this option de­ter­mined au­to­mat­i­cal­ly by the platform or specify how your ad­ver­tis­ing should be used. You then need to decide which countries the ad­ver­tis­ing should be shown in. It is also possible to select the target group more precisely, which is also rec­om­mend­ed. Under Devices you can specify the devices your Snap Ad should run on.
8. Now you can specify exactly how your ad should be displayed. This relates in par­tic­u­lar to the costs. We’ll explain how these are broken down below.
9. The next step is to edit the video or image that you want to use for the focus of your campaign. To do this, first select which ad­ver­tis­ing format you would like to use.

10. Now give this ad­ver­tis­ing material a name.
11. Link the campaign to a brand profile under Public Profile and add this profile as the username.
12. Give your campaign a title in the Headline section.
13. Decide whether users should be given the op­por­tu­ni­ty to share your campaign.
14. Upload your image or video and edit it. Keep in mind that all content on Snapchat always has to be in portrait format. Videos also cannot exceed 10 seconds. Al­ter­na­tive­ly, you can create a new visual or search your Creative Library for content that has already been used.
15. Add a call to action.
16. When you are finished with the settings, click on Review & Publish. You’ll now have a chance to review the settings you chose.

17. If every­thing is to your sat­is­fac­tion, click on Publish Campaign to make your campaign go live.

Snapchat’s Ad Manager allows you to review your campaigns ret­ro­spec­tive­ly. The extensive mon­i­tor­ing ensures that you can plan future ad­ver­tis­ing measures in an even more targeted manner.

How much does Snapchat ad­ver­tis­ing cost?

The costs for ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat depend on the format you choose allowing you to determine the budget yourself. How the money is used depends on your ad­ver­tis­ing strategy.

The cost of Snap Ads

With regular Snap Ads (and similar ad­ver­tis­ing formats), you set a maximum budget before pub­li­ca­tion. Once this budget is used up, your ad will au­to­mat­i­cal­ly no longer be shown. The budget is allocated using goal-based bidding. The ad­ver­tis­ing slots available on Snapchat are allocated to ad­ver­tis­ers via an automated bidding system that runs in real time. This means that you do not book fixed ad­ver­tis­ing spaces, but au­to­mat­i­cal­ly bid on the ad­ver­tis­ing windows of your defined target group via the system.

As soon as a user’s profile matches your campaign and loads a Snap Ad, your maximum bid is compared with all other bids for the ad­ver­tis­ing space within a fraction of a second. The ad­ver­tis­ing campaign with the highest bid wins and the cor­re­spond­ing ad appears on the profile. Due to goal-based bidding, the costs for Snap Ads always depends on other ads that are competing with your ad for the same ad­ver­tis­ing window.

The cost of Ge­ofil­ters

The cost of a Geofilter depends not only on the selected time period, but also on the ge­o­graph­i­cal area where it is displayed. If you only want to offer the filter in your own house-sized location, the price is around $5 per day. The larger the area and the longer you offer the filter, the higher the costs will be. However, if you use a filter for certain events, you may save a lot of money by ac­ti­vat­ing the filter only at the time that the event takes place.

The cost of Lenses

Although the cost of Lenses has decreased somewhat in recent years, this is still by far the most expensive form of ad­ver­tis­ing on Snapchat. The actual amount is difficult to determine in advance, as it depends not only on the duration of the campaign, but also on the nature of the filter itself. There are no official figures, but since this type of ad­ver­tis­ing takes some time to create, you should expect to pay an amount starting at five figures. This is not an eco­nom­i­cal option for most companies.

Which targeting options are available and what can they be used for?

As already mentioned above, you have several targeting options that you can use to better tailor your Snapchat ad­ver­tis­ing to your target audience. Although the platform can undertake this task itself, it makes much more sense to do it yourself. The following options are important:

• Location: If you want to advertise a local business or restau­rant, it helps to specify where it is located. This way you will reach the people who will re­al­is­ti­cal­ly go to your business. If, for example, you offer a service ex­clu­sive­ly in your country, your ad­ver­tis­ing would be of no interest to users from other countries and would be a waste of your budget.
• De­mo­graph­ics: Although Snapchat is mainly used by younger people, further defining the de­mo­graph­ics of your target audience ensures better results. You can determine whether only people aged 18 and over should see your ads, provide a limit for the overall age range or select which genders your ads should be shown to. Defining your target audience for your Snapchat Ads will make your ad­ver­tis­ing campaigns on Snapchat more suc­cess­ful.
• Audiences: Here you can select your target group according to interests. The options should not be too narrow, but by including a few groups, you will increase your chances of the right people seeing your ad­ver­tis­ing.
• Devices: Here you specify the devices that your ad­ver­tis­ing should be displayed on. The type of con­nec­tion, as well as the operating system, is important.