Snapchat Marketing: Best Practices and Products for Success

Social media marketing has been defined by Facebook, the universal social media network with over 2 billion users. Other players have made huge impacts as well, like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr. However, there is a newcomer poised to be another giant in the social media world: Snapchat. 

Snapchat has been around for almost a decade, but not until recently have they really hit their stride with the products they offer to advertisers. What once started as a fun way to send disappearing photographs to friends has now become a complex social network with news, content, virtual experiences, and, of course, still sending those disappearing photos. 

There are plenty of broad benefits to advertising on Snapchat. Snap Inc. has over 218 million daily active users, a number that continues to rise, as Snapchat daily active users rose 17% year-over-year. Many of these users are young, with 13 to 29 year olds being Snapchat’s key demographic. And while other social networks like Facebook and Instagram have seen rising costs and an overwhelming amount of competition, Snapchat remains more affordable and has fewer brands on the platform relative to the larger networks.

In addition to these general benefits to Snapchat Marketing, they’ve released a plethora of new products that enhance their digital advertising experience. 

1. Brand Profiles: Snapchat recently released a new product, Brand Profiles, which allows brands to create a permanent home on Snapchat. Brand profiles allow brands to post content, highlights, lenses, and insights into their audience demographics. Users can subscribe to their content and purchase directly from the brand’s in-app native store.

2. Dynamic Snap Ads: Advertisers can sync their product catalog to Snapchat to create Dynamic Ads, which allows Snapchat to create advertisements for the brand in real-time using templates, instead of having advertisers manually create vertical-oriented ads.

3. Augmented Reality: Advertisers are now capable of creating lenses with Snapchat to offer AR perspectives to their buyers — users can point the camera and see what the product looks like on them or in their space. More than 75% of Snapchat users use AR daily in the app.

4. Audience Network: Snapchat has launched their own audience network, meaning advertisers can display an ad through Snapchat on a third party mobile app.

These new products are very beneficial for brands trying to capture a young audience. Adding Snapchat to your digital marketing initiatives will add a new, powerful, effective channel to your strategy. Follow these best practices and strategies to ensure that your Snapchat ads are effective:

1. Craft Engaging Content: In any of the new products above, brands still have to focus on delivering engaging digital content for it to be effective. Crafting creative, engaging content is the best way to get attention for your ad. Utilize AR filters that are now available to let users try on your clothes, see how your products fit into the room, or how a pair of sunglasses looks on their face. 

2. Utilize Templates from Snapchat: Snapchat makes it easy for advertisers to save them time by creating a streamlined process to create ads in their platform. Instead of the lengthy process of creating channel-specific content for Snapchat, simply sync your product catalog and have them do the heavy lifting.

3. Lean in to Digitally Mature Products: Snapchat users have shown clear interest in using these products. For example, Adidas saw 52% growth in return on ad spend with Snapchat using their dynamic ad product. Their AR features are used daily by the majority of their users. Brands that lean in to these products early on will see more benefits with less competition and before “everyone is doing it.” 

4. Work with your Digital Marketing Partners: Work with your digital marketing partners and guides to develop the best digital marketing strategy across all platforms, and leverage their expertise on the best content and practices on using Snapchat as your newest digital marketing channel.