27 Jun Snapchat for Business: The Ultimate Marketing Guide
By Sydney Parker
On the daily, Snapchat reaches 41 percent of all 18 to 34 year-olds in the United States. If that statistic doesn’t surprise you, you might be more impressed to learn that half of all new users signing up for Snapchat are over the age of 25. Don’t guffaw. You can learn a few things from these older users.
Given the app’s insane popularity, it’s hard to believe that Snapchat launched only four years ago. Over 150 million people now use Snapchat to watch 10 billion videos every day. For a savvy social media marketer, that should read as 10 billion daily opportunities to build awareness of your brand.
If you’re not familiar with the app, here’s what you need to know: a person or brand on Snapchat can send photos and videos—called Snaps—to their friends and followers. These Snaps can then be viewed for up to 10 seconds before they disappear. Colorful filters, face-swapping effects, messaging, and other playful functions have made this app wildly successful with people of all ages.
Take Starbucks, for example. The beloved beverage brand launched a Snapchat chilled summer drinks campaign. Cashing in on the popularity of their scrumptious Frappuccinos, the promo gave Starbucks drinkers the opportunity to super-impose a festive lens over a picture of their icy beverage and send it to their friends.
Snapchatters who see their friends snapping photos with the lenses may be inspired to head to their nearest Starbucks and purchase a cold drink. They will probably also add Starbucks to their list of must-follow brands on Snapchat, increasing the odds they will be inclined to drink Starbucks again in the future.
Sounds great for Starbucks. But why should you use Snapchat for your business? Read on for the finest Snapchat for business tips the internet has to offer.
Why your business needs to be on Snapchat
According to Adweek, Snapchat recently launched a colossal expansion of Its advertising with a host of new Snapchat for business features. The biggest change will be Snapchat’s rollout of Snap Ads Between Stories. Which is just what it sounds like—ads will now start to appear between Snapchatters’ stories. They’re skippable, and won’t be inserted into the stories themselves, but will occasionally appear full screen with sound when Snapchatters transition from one story to the next.
Additionally, business ads will for the first time be certified by third-party agencies—not just by Snapchat itself, which has been the case up until now. Businesses will be able to choose additional actions when users swipe up on business content. Your business can send them to an extended video, direct them to a website or article (without leaving Snapchat), or prompt them to install another app.
If you’re still not convinced, we’ll just say “everybody who’s anybody is doing it.” Snapchat brought on 10 test business partners including Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Verizon, Procter & Gamble, Warner Bros., and Express.
The numbers speak for themselves. Snapchat collaborated with MediaScience to survey 320 consumers aged 16 to 56, which compared, during 552 sessions, Snapchat video ads to those on TV, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The study tested emotional responses, eye-tracking, and exit surveys. Snapchat says its ads garnered twice the visual attention of Facebook and 1.5 times more than Instagram. They were also 1.3 times more effective than YouTube. When compared to those platforms and TV, Snapchat claims that its ads generated greater emotional response and twice as much intent to purchase.
So jump on the bandwagon and read this breakdown of how to get started with Snapchat for business.
How to make Snapchat work for your business
Snapchat offers several different paid marketing options to meet the specific goals of your business. You can create a clever Snap Ad, build a fun Sponsored Geofilter, or give your potential customers an opportunity to interact with a Sponsored Lens. Do these terms make you want to rip out your hair with buzzword confusion? Don’t worry, we explain everything below. Here’s the scoop on your Snapchat marketing options to meet each of your goals.
Build brand awareness with Snap Ads
Snap Ads are a great way to catch the attention of your ideal audience. A Snap Ad is a 10-second, full screen vertical video ad that appears between Stories. Advertisers can offer Snapchatters the choice to swipe up to view more in-depth content like a long form video, article, app install ad, or mobile website.
According to Snapchat, the swipe-up rate for Snap Ads is five times higher than the average click-through rate on comparable social media platforms.
Snap Ads Case Study: Popular music app Spotify purchased Snap Ads to promote their annual “Year in Music,” a campaign where users can review all the songs they listened to on Spotify that year. Spotify’s Ads popped-up on Snapchat’s Discover channel, highlighting a different music genre every day. As a result, Spotify earned 26 million total views and a 30 percent increase on subscriber intent. That’s no small potatoes.
Promote engagement with Snapchat Geofilters
Snapchat has two types of custom Geofilters that businesses can take advantage of: On-Demand Geofilters, which start at $5, and the much pricier option of Sponsored Geofilters, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We’ve seen geofilters work their magic first-hand. When Snapchat rolled out the ability to create your own geofilter in February of this year, Hootsuite tested the feature out and demonstrated how to create a custom geofilter on Snapchat.
Geofilters have proven to be a highly effective method of bringing in new business. They are small art graphics that show up over a Snap. When Snapchatters in the location of your choice take a Snap, they’ll be able to select your Geofilter and use it to explain where, when, and why they took the Snap.
For example, if your taco truck is having a Cinco De Mayo special event, users can take Snaps of themselves eating tacos and add your fun geofilter to let their friends know where they are and who’s tacos they are enjoying. In this case, a relatively inexpensive On-Demand Geofilter will suffice.
If your campaign is less location-specific, say you sell staplers and decide to start a National Stapler Appreciation Day, then Snapchat users all over the country can take Snaps of themselves appreciating their staplers and add your filter over it. This is a highly effective strategy. According to Snapchat, in the U.S., a single National Sponsored Geofilter typically reaches 40 to 60 percent of daily Snapchatters—which is why they can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sponsored Geofilter Case Study: When non-profit organization RED wanted to spread the word about World AIDS Day, they partnered with Snapchat to create three Geofilters people could use to show their support. Each time a Snapchatter sent one of the Geofilters, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $3 to RED’s fight against AIDS, up to $3 million. The campaign reached over 14 million Snapchatters, 97 percent of whom were between the ages of 13 and 34. Over two-thirds of Snapchatters who saw the Geofilter correctly remembered RED’s campaign message and those who saw the filter were 90 percent more likely to donate to the RED campaign.
Drive increase in purchase intent with Snapchat Sponsored Lens
Sponsored Lenses offer users the opportunity to play with the interactive ad you’ve created. As Snapchat explains on their website, “To activate Lenses, Snapchatters simply press and hold on their faces. Some Lenses include prompts like ‘raise your eyebrows’ to trigger an animation, adding a fun twist to the experience. And when you’re finished playing, it’s easy to send Lenses to a friend or post one to your Story. On average, Snapchatters play with a Sponsored Lens for 20
If you sell beagles and have always wondered what your face would look like in beagle form, Sponsored Lenses is your chance to find out.
Sponsored Lenses case study: Delightful sports beverage Gatorade created a filter that mimics the classic Gatorade showers that football coaches enjoy when their team wins. During Super Bowl 50, NFL fans could experience the Gatorade shower virtually from the dry comfort of their smartphones. Snapchatters went crazy for it. The lens received over 165 million views and triggered an eight point increase in purchase intent. Users were ready to enjoy their victory with a cold glass of lemon-lime. View Full Article >>
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