Snapchat business users are in for a treat with the recent changes made to Snapchat’s self-serve ad platform. With two new ad formats, the objective is to enhance the stickiness of the platform and derive maximum engagement for the users.
What has changed on Snapchat?
The current ad serving was accomplished through 3 methods on Snapchat
1 – Short videos that followed the last clip in a Story
2 – Ads were placed in the Discover content
3 – Sponsored Lenses that marketed a brand or product
Now, marketers will see two more options to serve ads on this platform
1 – AR based Trial ads
2 – Promoted Stories
An in-depth look at the two new ad formats
Let’s take a detailed look at the two new ad formats:
1. AR Based Trial Ads
Here brands can augment real-world scenery with their own product. This is somewhat similar to the platform’s World Lenses. Users can resize the object placed inside a real-world image. They can also edit the colour and pin them to a particular spot on the image. Once this is done, they can move the entire image (along with the object) to see how it will look and feel from different angles.
BMW is one the key example utilising this new ad format to showcase its latest car model – the X2. The car model can be placed in a real-world scenario to give you a realistic view of how the car looks in an area familiar to you.
2. Promoted Stories
With this option, advertisers can craft and deploy detailed ads that focus on a specific problem within a brand. They can add upto 10 photos or videos and function like a routine Snapchat Story. The new sponsored stories will appear with a ‘sponsored’ tag above the preview pane. The stories are displayed on the ‘stories’ screen to users within a particular geographic location.
As opposed to a single Snap ad in between the different content, this new ad format promotes better visibility and hence better engagement with users who view the ad. Naturally, this new ad format will hold unique appeal for prominent brands who want to ensure a broader coverage of their marketing messages to the Snapchat audience.
Why has this change come about now?
Snapchat is trying to revive its fortunes with an overall disappointing 3rd quarter earnings. It is banking on the self-serve ad formats within the platform to turn things around. Maybe this explains why it has gone ahead with these two new ad formats. Clearly, the focus is allowing more and more marketers to use the platform, grow engagement with their users and thus win over business users to be loyal customers for the platform.
Snapchat is facing mounting pressure from competitors like Instagram to increase its user base and platform revenues. With new acquisitions hard to come by, it is banking on its existing users to grow its revenues. Here Snapchat will have to tread a fine line – of generating enough ad revenues but not at the cost of a great user experience to its users.
