Digital MarketingSnapchat Advertising: How to create your Snapchat Ads

Snapchat Advertising: How to create your Snapchat Ads

An estimated 94% of US young adults aged 18-24 use Snapchat, and 92% of US teens aged 12-17 are also Snapchat users. Here's a complete guide to Snapchat Ads.

Need help creating Snapchat ads? This guide will get you started!

Snapchat can be a very effective social platform, especially if you want to target a younger audience. Despite Instagram’s continuous growth, Snapchat is still having a loyal user base to keep it going.

Advertising on Snapchat is relatively new and many marketers are still curious about its performance.

It was in 2014 when Snapchat brought advertising to its platform. In 2015 there were the first sponsored geo-filters, while in 2017 we saw the introduction of a self-service manager for advertising on the platform.

Thus, the majority of advertisers have only recently started experimenting more with Snapchat and the impact of its advertising program when trying to reach your target audience.

Why should a brand advertise on Snapchat?

There are many reasons for your brand to consider placing ads on Snapchat. The main one has to do with the target audience. If you’re interested in reaching younger demographics, then Snapchat can be a great solution. It is estimated that 94% of American young adults aged 18-24 use Snapchat. Right after them, there are also 92% of American teenagers aged 12-17 who are also Snapchat users.

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This means that it’s the perfect platform to tap into this audience.

What’s interesting is that its user base is also growing among other demographics. In fact, 56% of people aged 25-34 also use Snapchat.

There are currently more than 186 million people in its daily active users and they make a very engaged audience.

Let’s have a closer look at everything we need to know and the basic steps to create your own Snapchat ads.

Pick your objective

The first step is to pick the objective for your ad.

The main objectives for Snapchat are:

AWARENESS

  • Branding: increase awareness for your brand

CONSIDERATION

  • App Installs: increase the number of app installs
  • App Traffic: bring more people to use your app
  • Website Traffic: increase the traffic to your site or a specific page
  • Engagement: boost your engagement
  • Video Views: increase the number of people who watch your video
  • Lead Generation: find new leads for your business

CONVERSIONS

  • App Conversions: track conversions and app installs
  • Website Conversions: track the number of people who complete a specific action to your site
  • Catalog Sales: track the number of sales for your products

Your objectives depend on your wider marketing goals and how you want to meet them.

For example, if you want to focus on awareness in your next campaigns and you’re just getting started with Snapchat, you might want to focus on Awareness and Branding. If you want to bring more people to your site while you’re still aiming for awareness, you can aim for Website traffic as a measurement of your success.

Ad Formats

There are many different ad formats that you can use for your Snapchat ads. Some of them are more popular and other can allow you to be more creative.

Snap Ads

One of the most popular formats on Snapchat Ads are the Snap Ads. They show up in between stories and they allow you to drive users to your site, your app, your video, or your store. They can be very effective since the action only requires a swipe. You can have an image or a video and you can be as creative as you want, depending on your campaign and your objectives.

This is probably the easiest option to get started if you want to test the grounds on Snapchat.

Collection Ads

Collection ads allow you to display multiple images and they can be ideal to tell a story or promote a product. People can discover new products that they can purchase with a few taps.

It can be a great way to measure the interest and the conversions for your products and it can also offer a useful ad to A/B test the creatives and the messaging for your products.

Story Ads

Story ads consist of a series of snaps and they show up as a sponsored Discover tile. It’s useful that they show up next to the popular content and it can be a great way to boost your brand through the Discovery feed.

AR Lenses

If you want to take your ads to the next level, then AR lenses can make a great fit for you. They allow you to use augmented reality to promote your brand and they can be really effective for awareness and engagement tapping into interactive and memorable experiences. Snapchat is a really good channel to try these types of ads and people tend to appreciate such experiences provided that they are engaging.

If you want to build an AR Lens ad, you will need to get in touch with Snapchat if it’s a large-scale campaign or you can seek help from third-party Lens Creative Partners to build your own AR experience.

Filters

Filters can provide an overlay image that people can add to photo and video messages. It’s another creative and engaging way to bring your brand closer to your target audience.

Creating a target audience

The next step is to build your target audience for your ads.

You can target people based on:

  • Demographics: age, gender, household income, parental status, and others.
  • Interests and Behaviours: reach people based on their interests, such as music, film, food, yoga fans, etc
  • Location: narrow down your audience based on their location
  • Custom Audiences: you can also create your own custom audiences using an existing database you might have (e.g newsletter subscribers, current customers, etc)
  • Lookalikes: you can expand your audience by creating lookalike audiences with people who are similar to your current audiences or customers

Six tips to consider when creating Snapchat Ads

When you’re ready to create your own Snapchat Ads, it’s useful to remember these things.

1. Learn your audience

Try to understand your audience as much as possible. If you’re not sure of their interests and demographics, create different audiences so that you find the most effective one.

2. Be engaging

Snapchat is a mobile platform so the ads have to be engaging enough to appeal to the target audience. Since it’s mostly reaching younger people, it’s not enough to create a good ad. If it’s not engaging enough, it might be ignored.

3. Have a clear call-t0-action

If you are interested in driving a specific action from your ad, then you need to create a clear CTA. Luckily, Snapchat allows you to get direct actions through simple taps and swipes so make sure you make the most of it. Whether it’s an image or a text, find a way to incorporate your ask to your ad.

4. A/B test everything

There are many different ad formats to use in Snapchat Ads. Not all of them will be equally effective for your brand so don’t be afraid to try out various ones. It’s always a good idea to A/B test the copy, the creatives, the ad formats, and the audience when you’re getting started with a new platform.

5. Treat the ad as an experience

Snapchat ads can make a great experience. They can stand out with the right use of an interactive element or even gamification. These methods can also increase the effectiveness of your campaign since Snapchat’s core audience would appreciate these. Be creative and try to tell your story and sell your product in a more unique way comparing to other channels.

6. Make the most of the data

Use all your available data to understand the performance of your ads. Since it’s a relatively new platform to advertising, benchmarking is not helpful yet so it’s up to you to start comparing the performance of your own ads. Work with your learnings and try to improve the performance of your campaigns step-by-step.

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