Understanding Snapchat Advertising: How It Works and Its Impact

For marketers looking to reach the millennial demographic, Snapchat has become an increasingly valuable platform. With over 41% of 18-34 year-olds in the United States using the app, Snapchat presents a significant opportunity to engage with a highly targeted audience. This article delves into the process of creating and managing Snapchat advertising campaigns and explores the benefits and potential challenges of this platform.

Getting Started with Snapchat Advertising

To begin, you'll need to log in to Snapchat's Ad Manager if you are new to the platform. This intuitive interface allows you to start building your campaign right away. Once logged in, you can either create a new campaign via a pop-up or proceed to the campaign creation section by clicking on 'New Campaign.'

Choosing Your Advertising Objective

The first step in creating a successful Snapchat advertising campaign is to select your objective. Snapchatters can be encouraged to engage with your ad in one of four ways: increasing app installs, driving website traffic, boosting social media mentions, or driving in-app purchases. Each objective is tailored to achieve specific business goals.

Create and Manage Your Campaign with Ease

Snapchat's Ad Manager is designed to streamline the entire process of creating, launching, monitoring, and optimizing campaigns. With just a daily budget of $5, you can start testing and learning about your campaign's performance. Here’s a breakdown of how to use the platform:

Create Ads: Use the platform to design and schedule your ads. Launch Campaigns: Start your campaign with just a $5 daily budget. Monitor Performance: Track the performance of your ads and measure results. Optimize for Goals: Adjust your campaign based on performance data to ensure optimal results.

Targeting the Right Audience

One of the key strengths of Snapchat advertising is its ability to target the right audience. You can target users based on their interests, behaviors, location, and more. This precision targeting ensures that your ads are seen by the most relevant people, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

Partnerships and Campaign Development

Snapchat works with two types of partners who can develop and place ads on the platform:

Investors: These partners focus on developing Sponsored Geofilters and Lenses. Geofilters are location-based filters that appear on Snapchat lenses when users are in a specific physical location. Lenses are interactive media that users can apply to their photos and videos. Creative Partners: These partners are responsible for creating ad campaigns that align with your marketing objectives. They use the Ad Manager platform to design and schedule these campaigns.

Recent Challenges in Snapchat Advertising

Despite the platform's popularity, recent studies have shown that Snapchat advertising faces some challenges. A survey conducted by customer acquisition firm Fluent found that a significant number of Snapchat users skip ads frequently.

Specifically, Fluent's survey of 3000 Americans revealed that 69% of Snapchat users skip ads always or often. This high rate of ad skipping can pose a challenge for advertisers looking to maximize their ROI. It is essential for marketers to craft compelling and engaging content to overcome this barrier.

Conclusion

Snapchat advertising offers a highly targeted way to reach young adults and millennials. By leveraging the Ad Manager platform and understanding the nuances of the platform, advertisers can create effective campaigns. However, it's crucial to stay up-to-date with user behaviors and preferences to ensure that your ads resonate with your target audience.

For more information on how to optimize your Snapchat advertising efforts, check out the following tools and resources:

Ads Manager: Set goals, select an audience, and measure results. Filter Tool: Design and schedule filters with ease. Snap Publisher: Publish your final ad.