Last week we wrote about the latest developments around advertising on Snapchat and its users. In this blog, we take a closer look at the different ad types and provide some tips for creating a good snap ad.
Sponsored filter
You can place a filter over the photo or video after taking a snap. As a company, you can also use this in a sponsored way, as Unox, for example, did especially for King's Day. Users shared this filter en masse to make their own snap more festive.
Such a filter is suitable, for example, to "claim" a moment or location, or to let your target audience interact with your brand in a fun way. There is no possibility to click through to a website, so it is really a means to get users engaged with your brand. The filters can be purchased in two different ways:
1. The first option is through the Snapchat business manager where you buy the filters on a CPM basis. You then bid in the auction using the various targeting options that are in the system (geography, demographics, interests, etc.). The minimum amount to enter is 50 euros per day.
2. The second option is to set your own location and time when you want the filter to be active. Anyone who is in your location on Snapchat during that time can use the filter. This is especially appropriate for an event that lasts a few hours. You buy per square meter and the time the filter is active. As an indication: if you want a filter in and around the Ziggo Dome for 8 hours, you pay about 1,000 euros. This goes up quickly as you increase the location.
Sponsored lens
Snapchat is partly known for the creative lenses you can use to give yourself the well-known dog ears, for example. As a business, you can also have such a lens made up, as Albert Heijn did during hamster weeks.
As with the sponsored filter, this is primarily about engagement and visibility of your brand. Although they are experimenting with ways to enable purchases from a lens. Snapchat does the production of the lenses itself, in consultation with customer, of course. The cost to deploy a sponsored lens for one day is at least 30 thousand euros.
It is also possible to convert this budget into a number of impressions that you can deliver over a longer period of time within a certain target group (for example, men 20-48 years old), so there is no waste. So it is a hefty investment, but you do reach many people in one day with a very creative format.
Snap ads
The most commonly used form of ads are the snap ads. These are the ads that are shown between friends' content or on the discover page. This can be either an image or video, but what is also increasingly common is a GIF or Cinemagraphs (cross between a video and image, where only part of the image moves). The snap ads, like the filters, can be purchased through the business manager with a minimum spend of 50 euros per day.
Tips & tricks
The first two ad forms are mostly about creativity. It should be fun for the user to use and share your lenses and filters. Snap ads are mostly videos, with which you want to inform, inspire or get the target audience to take action. Snap ads are instantly click away, so you need to think carefully about the creation. Here are some tips for creating a good snap ad video:
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Make the first seconds count.
Many ads are clicked away within a few seconds. Therefore, make sure your brand and what you want to convey are in focus immediately.
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Make sure sound amplifies your ad
2/3 of users have their sound turned on within Snapchat and the ads are then automatically played with sound (unlike many other platforms). Nevertheless, keep in mind the 1/3 who have their sound turned off. Make sure the message is clear to them as well.
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Think native
Make sure your creation does not come across too much as an advertisement, especially if your video is shown among the friends' content. You can do this, for example, by having someone talk right into the camera. It all doesn't have to look super slick; neither do friends' snaps.
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Highlight the call-to-action
A click to the website is done by swiping up the expression. At the bottom of the expression will be a call-to-action that can be chosen in the business manager. But you can draw more attention to this yourself. This may not be by using arrows or literally including "swipe up" as text in the ad. The examples below show how you can subtly draw attention to the call-to-action that appears at the bottom of the screen. In the ad, you then make it clear why you should swipe up.
Fresh off the press
Since today (May 7), it is possible to insert multiple videos in a row as your own "story. Users have to click on this story themselves in the discover page, so it is not a forced view. You can put up to 20 snap ads in a row, a good way to show the different features of your product, for example.
If you would like to get even more information about advertising on Snapchat give us a call!