Snapchat was once a leader amongst social media networks for young people. In recent years, it has fallen in popularity compared to Instagram and TikTok. Even though it’s not at the top anymore, Snapchat still has plenty of monthly users. These users often engage with the app and the content on it. This makes the platform a great place for advertising!
What Exactly Is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a social media app that allows users to share short videos or images. It gained immense popularity due to its unique visual system. In this system, images can only be viewed for a brief time, after which they would become inaccessible.
The goal of most Snapchatters is to create content that will appeal to their close circle of friends. Other apps focus more on creating viral videos and getting thousands of views. To do this, people need to be creative when making snaps. This can be helped by using certain filters that will make their content stand out from all the rest. Taking good pictures isn't the only thing a creator needs to do. Knowing how to use and create edits through Snapchat’s native editing tools is a must. Those tools include features like drawing, text, filters, and gifs.
Snapchat is one of the most innovative apps out there. They have introduced a lot of features that were later copied by their competitors. Snapchat is the creator of the “story”. Stories were later copied by every other platform like Instagram (currently the most popular implementation of the feature), TikTok, Facebook, and even Youtube! Filters and AR (augmented reality) are also popular features that Snapchat introduced. They were also later copied by other social media platforms.
Snapchat has taken off in popularity because it offers an immersive experience that focuses on “the moment”. This approach worked out well for the platform in the beginning. As other platforms started to copy their features, they lost a lot of popularity to them.
Snapchat is far from being dead! Estimations show that the platform has around 200 million daily active users. By some measurements, that number is still increasing daily!
How To Setup Your First Campaign On Snapchat?
Now that you know a little bit about Snapchat, it's time to set up your first campaign. If you're not familiar with how to do this, don't worry, we'll go over everything below!
1. Decide If Snapchat Is The Right Platform For You
Snapchat isn’t the perfect place to advertise for every business. The platform has a younger user base that has specific preferences and interests. This means that content you create for other audiences doesn’t have to translate on Snapchat. You will have to create some custom campaigns to ensure you get the most out of the platform.
Snapchat focuses a lot on individuality, personalized advertising, videos, emojis, and interesting content. So if you want to run anything on the platform, make sure your content isn't generic and soulless.
If you can fit on Snapchat you will be surprised by how little competition there is. Most businesses are afraid of advertising on the platform as they don’t quite understand it. This means you will have an easier time reaching more people. If done right, your content will stand out and have a massive influence on users.
2. Create An Account
The first step is creating a business account on Snapchat. If you already have one, you can skip ahead to the next step. If not, just go to Snapchat's website and create an account by entering your email address, username, and password.
The whole process is similar to how you create regular profiles on the app. The only difference is that you will have the “launch paid apps” feature enabled.
3. Define Your Marketing Strategy
Now that you have everything set up, it’s time to start creating content. But before you do that, you need to have a plan in place. Without a strategy, your content will be all over the place and you won’t be able to achieve your goals.
Your Snapchat marketing strategy should include the following things:
- Your target audience
- The type of content you will create
- The frequency of your posts
- The channels you will use to promote your Snapchat account
Target Your Audience
Before creating any content, you first need to identify your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with Snapchat? This is important as it will help determine the type of content you will create.
For example, if you are targeting adolescents, you’re going to have a harder time selling them on your products. This is because of their age group they are often more impulsive and buy things that look or sound cool rather than something that can help them.
What Type Of Content You Will Create
Once you know your target audience, you can define the type of content that will resonate best with them. The different types include:
- Images/videos - People overuse images on Instagram and Videos on Facebook. If you want to stand out on Snapchat, experiment with both.
- Storytelling - Snapchat is an excellent platform for storytelling. You can create short stories about important events in your life or your customers’ lives where they are featured in some way.
- Filters - Filters are one the best ways to promote yourself on Snapchat. They are customizable filters people can use. You can design templates through Snapkit, which makes it very easy for users to find the right filter at the right time.
- Geofilters - Geofilters are filters that apply to specific geographical areas. These help you target your audience more effectively and reach people in a particular area. You can design them through Canva or Snapkit.
- Snapchat Live - Snapchat Live is an excellent way to engage with your audience on the fly. If you’re hosting an event, users can watch it live on Snapchat.
- Custom Stickers - Another way to make your account stand out is by using custom stickers. You can design these yourself or have a designer create them for you.
The Frequency Of Your Posts
The frequency of your posts depends on the type of content that you create and how often your target audience engages with them. If you’re creating videos, you might not want to post them more than once a day. Whereas if you’re creating images, you could post them multiple times a day.
The Channels You Will Use To Promote Your Snapchat Account
You need to promote your Snapchat account on other channels to get more people to follow you. This includes:
- Your website - Place a Snapchat icon on your website and add a CTA to follow you on Snapchat.
- Your blog - Same as your website, but with more detail about why people should follow you on Snapchat.
- Your email signature - Add your Snapchat username to your email signature and ask people to follow you.
- Social media profiles - Add links to your Snapchat account on all of your social media profiles.
- Paid ads - Promote your Snapchat account through paid ads.
4. Start Running Ads
Once your account is up and running, your strategy is set in place, and you feel ready to start, enter the app and go into Snapchat Ads Manager. The Ad Manager is a tool that is used to purchase ads, manage them, organize ad accounts, and handle payments.
As soon as you log in you will be prompted to create Snap Ads, Lenses, Story Ads, Product Ads, or Filters.
When you decide what ad format you want to create, Snapchat will prompt you with the options to define targeting, ad spend, campaign options, and the usual options that ad platforms provide.
In most cases, you want to create Snap Ads or Product Ads, but the choice ultimately depends on what your marketing needs are.
Snap Ads
These are a type of fullscreen ad that appears between the regular content you interact with on the platform. So you might be browsing stories and then one of these ads pops up.
They last up to 10 seconds and they can take the form of photos, videos, or gifs. There is also a swipe feature that lets users click on a link or find out more about the thing you are advertising. You can also add an app install CTA, however, there are specific requirements you need to fulfill to do this.
Product Ads
If you have some specific product you want to promote, product ads are the right thing for you. This ad type displays your product or service and it shows it in a "shopping friendly" format. There you can showcase multiple products or the user can scroll through them and find something they like.
5. Snapchat Ad Manager Analytics
Once your ads are running, Snapchat provides some helpful analytics to help you understand how the ads are performing.
This includes data such as impressions, reach, clicks, and swipe-ups. You can also see how long users are spending on your ad, what device they are using, and where they are located.
All this data is important to help you understand how well your ads are performing so you can make changes if needed.
Final Words
Now that you know all about Snapchat Ads Manager, it's time to put this information into practice and create your first ad campaign. As always, make sure to test and measure how well your ads are performing so you can continue to improve them.
When creating your ads, always make sure they are creative and relevant to your target audience. And most importantly, have fun with it!
Have you run any ads on Snapchat? What was your experience with the platform? Share your experience with us in the comments below!
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