Knowing how to use Snapchat ads is becoming a staple for retail brands’social media strategies. And if you want to get traction on Snapchat, it’s likely you’ll have to pay to play.
Paid ads on Snapchat are one of the most immediate ways to impact the reach of your snaps. But how do they work? What results can you expect from your hard-earned cash?
This guide will share everything you need to know about Snapchat ads to get your campaigns running, with tips and examples from brands doing it right.
Table of Contents
What are Snapchat ads?
Snapchat ads are 10-second full-screen vertical videos that show up in between watching friends’ stories. People can swipe up to interact with your ad.
How do Snapchat ads work?
As the advertiser, you can set the swipe up to link to a website, have them watch a longer video, read an article, or install an app. The closest comparison is a Story ad on Instagram.
Similar to Facebook ads, Snapchat’s advertising platform is self-serve. Anyone can create ads, launch campaigns, monitor performance, and optimize campaigns in theSnapchat Ads Manager. You can launch ads for as low as $5 per day.
Fuel your growth with video ads
Brainstorm, research, and plan video ad campaigns for your business on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, TikTok, and more using our video ad campaign template.
Learn moreHow much do ads cost on Snapchat?
Running ads on Snapchat starts at $5 per day. Advertisers can set a daily and lifetime budget that works for them and adjust as they go. Snapchat offers tools such asSnap Publisherto create and edit ads in minutes.
Snapchat charges per 1,000 impressions (CPM) but offersgoal-based bidding, which allows you to optimize the campaign for a specific action Snapchatters will take, like completing a purchase or downloading an app.
Getting started on Snapchat is free—you just need to create a Snapchat account, open an ad account, and begin running ads.
How to advertise on Snapchat with Shopify
Snapchat and Shopify partnered to make it easier for you to create ads and set up campaigns. In the Snapchat Ads app for Shopify, you can:
- Deploy the Snap pixel
- Sync your products
- Run ad campaigns from your Marketing tab
PRO TIP:Join over 10,000 Shopify merchants using the Snapchat Ads app to market their ecommerce businesses on Snapchat. Download the Snapchat Ads app for free in theShopify App Store.
How to create Snapchat ads in Ads Manager
如果你不是一个Shopify商人,这是马ke Snapchat ads in Snapchat Ads Manager.
If you know how to useMeta Ads Manager, the Snapchat Ads Manager is similar. If you haven’t used either before, then you’re in the right place to learn.
To create Snapchat ads, you first need tosign up for a Snapchat account. Once you do, head over to theSnapchat Ads Manager.
Then choose how you want to create your first snap ad. You can choose from Instant Create or Advanced Create.
Instant Createlets you make a single ad quickly.Advanced Creategives you more control. You can create multiple ads within your campaign and build out funnels.
We’ll cover the more advanced setup in this tutorial. So click onAdvanced Create.
1. Choose an objective
The first step is deciding on your objective. Think about what you want Snapchatters to do when they see your ad.
Let’s go through the objectives you’ll likely use as an ecommerce business:
- Awareness adswill help build brand or product awareness with new customers.
- Promote Placeslets you promote locations.
- App installswill drive people to download your app.
- With thetraffic objectiveyou can send people to a website of your choice, like a landing page or a product page.
- Theengagement objectivegets more users to engage with your advertisement.
- Video viewswill promote your video ad.
- Website conversionswill track meaningful interactions on your website, like purchases.
- Catalog saleswill display catalog of your products
Notice how these objectives are broken into three umbrella categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions. This is because customers will likely go through these three phases before making a purchase.
- In the awareness phase, the customer is just learning about your brand, service, or product.
- In the consideration phase, the customer is learning more about your offerings and considering making a purchase.
- The conversion phase is where the customer makes a purchase or takes an action you find valuable.
When choosing an objective, think about where customers are in your funnel and build ads accordingly.
If Snapchat is a new platform for you, you’ll want to start by nurturing customers at an awareness level, then retargeting the audience that interacts with your awareness advertisement and serve them an advertisement with the consideration objective.
2. Name your campaign
Next, give your campaign a name.
想出一个有意义的命名约定to you. Make it easy to understand what the campaign is about at first glance to stay organized.
The Status button is set to On by default. That means as soon as you launch a campaign it will start on the date that you set it to.
Next up, you have the option of creating a split test. This is where you can test two variables side by side in identical campaigns to see which variable leads to better outcomes—almost like sixth grade science class, where you test a control group against an experimental group.
3. Choose a start and end date and decide on a budget
By choosing a daily spend cap, you will spend no more than the daily amount you entered.
Lifetime spend is how much you will spend over the lifetime of your advertisement. This means daily spend can fluctuate. You can increase, decrease, or remove the lifetime spend cap at any time.
4. Create your ad set
On the Ad Set Details page, you’ll be able to enable your Snap pixel, if you have one. The Snap pixel helps you measure the impact of your campaigns and see the actions people take on your website after viewing your ad.
You can get the code snippet from Ads Manager and post it on your website, if you choose. This is helpful for creating retargeting ads in the future.
Scroll down and you’ll have the option to choose your ad format, ad type, and attachment.
Next, select your ad placement. You’ll see the option to run Automatic Placement, which is where Snapchat will help show your ads to more people, across multiple placements, where they are likely to perform best.
Next, define who you want to see your ads. You can choose specific locations and demographics to target. Snapchat also lets you choose a target demographic by location, and advanced filters such as occupation or interests.
You can also further refine your target group by selecting a predefined audience.
These are pre-built audiences using Snapchat and third-party data you can use to connect with people based on their interests and behaviors. You can also get specific by targeting certain operating systems, like Apple iOS or Android.
Scroll down and you’ll reach the delivery section. Here, you can confirm how much you want to spend, how long the campaign will run, and your bidding strategy.
If you’re unsure how much to spend when advertising on Snapchat, start low. You can always increase your budget if the ad is performing well.
5. Build your ad
On the next screen you’ll see the option to design your ad. Upload your visuals, add your brand name, headline text, CTA, and any additional information required. These fields may change depending on your ad campaign objective.
You’ll be able to view how your ad will look on the right side of the editor.
Once everything looks great, review your information on the next screen. Add your business address and payment information, then click Publish Campaign in the bottom right corner.
Types of Snapchat ads
Snapchat has an ad format for every business, large or small. You can leverage different ad formats tailored to your business goals and objectives, such as encouraging sales or downloads.
Let’s look at some types of ads you can run:
- Single image or video
- Collection ads
- Story ads
- Lenses
- Filters
- Commercials
- Dynamic ads
Single image or video
Single image or video ads are full-screen ads that can be used for many objectives. All you have to do is add an attachment, like a link to your website or app download, and Snapchatters can swipe up to take action. They appear in between or after content such as User Stories, Publishers, Creators, and Our Stories.
Creative can take many forms, such as videos, photos, GIFs, or cinemagraphs. You can create an ad up to three minutes long, but since people’s attention spans are short, it’s best to keep your ad between three and five seconds.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type:.jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio:9:16
- Resolution:1080 px x 1920 px
- Length:3–180 seconds
- Attachments:Website, app, long form video, or AR Lens
- Brand name:Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline:Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action:Add CTA text. Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad.
Read more:How to Make Online Videos (In 30 Minutes or Less)
Lenses
Snapchat also lets you run memorable, interactive augmented reality (AR) ads in its Ads Manager. With Lens Web Builder, you can choose from hundreds of 3D objects, animations, and effects to build your own branded AR lens.
Once you’re finished, you can launch it as an advertisement for Snapchatters to play with and share with friends.
These AR ads come with many guidelines and restrictions. If you want to run them, readSnapchat’s Lenses specifications推出一个往下cessful ad.
Story ads
Story ads let you reach your target audience with a branded tile in the Discover feed. Snapchatters can tap into your ad and see a collection of three to 20 snaps. You could show off a new fashion collection, product launches, or special releases.
Viewers can also swipe up to further engage with the ad and accomplish your goal, like buying something on your website.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type:.jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio:9:16
- Resolution:1080 px x 1920 px
- Length:3–180 seconds
- Attachments:Website, app, long form video, or Lens
- Brand name:Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline:Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action:Add CTA text. Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad.
The following specs are for the tile asset for the Discover section:
- Logo:
- File type: .png
- Resolution:993 px x 284 px
- Image:
- File type:.png
- Resolution:360 px x 600 px
- Story title: Up to 55 characters, including spaces
Collection ads
Collection ads have four tappable tiles that let Snapchatters browse and buy your products. You can feature a series of products, and if someone is interested, they simply tap to get more information.
Collection ads are perfect forecommerce brandsthat want to give Snapchatters a frictionless shopping experience.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type:.jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio:9:16
- Resolution:1080 px x 1920 px
- Length:3–180 seconds
- Attachments:Website, app, long form video, or Lens
- Brand name:Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline:Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action:Add CTA text. Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad.
Collection ads also require a thumbnail image, which has its own specs:
- File type:.jpg or .png (static image only)
- Resolution:160 px x 160 px
- Each thumbnail image requires a URL
- URLs can be used multiple times
Filters
Geo filters are overlays that appear after a user takes a snap and swipes left or right. People can add them to their snaps to highlight neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, shops, and more. These ads normally target active users within a specific location, but can be refined by parameters like interests, gender, and age.
Ad requirements:
- File type:.png
- Resolution:1080 px x 2340 px
- Mandatory text, logos, and legal disclaimers may not be placed within 310 px of the top or bottom of the canvas.
- Visible brand logo or brand name
Commercial ads
Commercials are ads Snapchatters cannot skip for six seconds, and can be up to three minutes long. These video ads appear within Snapchat’s curated content, which are themed collections promoted in the Snapchat app. They help brands get a long message across in a premium environment.
Ad requirements:
- File type:.mp4 or .mov (H.264 encoded)
- Aspect ratio:9:16
- Resolution:1080 px x 1920 px
- Length:3–180 seconds
- Attachments:Website, long form video, or AR Lens
Dynamic ads
Most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, andTikTokgive brands the chance to run dynamic ads.
这些广告自动推广你的产品到people based on their actions or page views on your website. For example, if someone abandons their cart on your website, Snapchat will generate an ad for that person and show it to them on mobile.
Snapchat offers two formats for dynamic ads:single imageandcollection. They are built using items from your product catalog and pre-set templates rather than being created manually each time.
Are Snapchat ads worth it?
Snapchat ads are a good channel for ecommerce brands targeting younger crowds. Other benefits include reaching an untapped market, powerful targeting abilities, and Snapchat favoring ecommerce brands.
Untapped market
According toSnapchat marketingstatistics, there are306 million peoplewho use Snapchat daily. Advertising on established channels like Facebook or Instagram can be more expensive. You have to compete with other brands for the consumer’s attention.
That said, Snapchat has the potential to be an exciting untapped advertising channel for your brand.
Powerful targeting
With Snapchat’s data, you can target users based on their demographics. You can target them based on their online and offline interests and behaviors. Plugging in your own data is also an option to reach Snapchatters.
For businesses looking to target a younger audience, 82% of Snapchat users are under the age of 35, so this could be to your advantage. However, if your products or services don’t cater to young people, this might not be the platform for you.
Favors retail brands
Snapchat ads have a high return on ad spend for the retail category. Snapchat users are45%more likely to recommend advertised brands to their friends, and 34% of Snapchatters are more likely to buy after seeing an ad.
Fashion, novelty items, and impulse purchases do well with Snapchat ads. If you’re a B2C (business to consumer) brand, Snapchat ads might be right for you.
Snapchat ad tips
Now that you know how to create a snap ad in the Ads Manager, here are a couple ofSnapchat tipsthat will help your ads convert.
Use retargeting ads
Moving an audience through a funnel with retargeting ads can have a higher conversion rate then just running a single ad. Retargeting is when you serve an audience another ad or ad sequence based on an interaction they took on a previous ad.
Snapchat calls this type of audiencead engagement audiences. It’s a retargeting strategy that’s confined to actions people take on Snapchat ads only.
Let’s take a look at how you might make a sequence of ads and use retargeting effectively.
- Your first ad can be a seven-second video of someone demonstrating the unique features of your product and how it’s used. This would be your first brand awareness ad.
- Then you might retarget the people that swiped up. You could pull the engaged audience into consideration, or the second phase of the funnel, by serving them an ad that speaks to your brand’s leadership in sustainability.
- The audience that interacted with that second ad would then be pulled into the conversion phase of the funnel, where you might serve them an ad that has a sale and free shipping.
Discounts and free shipping are generally a great way to get people that are on the fence to finally make a purchase.
Be consistent with your content on Snapchat
Slow and steady wins the Snap race. If you’re limited by budget, make sure that you’re spreading it out. Being highly active in the month of January and then completely falling off the face of the earth from February to March is no good.
Of course, if your brand has specific reasons to advertise more heavily at one point in the year, or has a strategy in place for a sprint style of advertising, then go for it. Every brand is different, but a general rule of thumb is to keep your brand top of mind over a longer period of time.
“Create a full funnel structure as you would with Facebook ads or any paid social platform,” says Jack Shepherd, founder of social media marketing agencyThe Social Shepherd.
“Use appropriate custom audience exclusions throughout your funnel to control which creative each person is seeing, depending on where that person is in that journey with your brand.”
Jack recommends the following tips for creating ad content for Snap:
- Focus on one key message.
- Strong message from the start. You need to capture a viewers’ attention within the first second, otherwise you’ll lose that user.
- No longer than 20 seconds for your creatives.
- 创建阴谋来驱动滑动,但给enough context in the video itself to ensure you’re driving high-quality traffic.
Make your ads feel natural and not overly salesy
Create content that is fun and exciting 80% of the time. The other 20% should be for pushing your products. People are opening up the Snapchat application to share stuff with their friends. Nobody goes on Snapchat thinking, “Hey, I want to see a great advertisement today.”
Work with content creators and micro-influencers on videos in the style of user-generated content, so it feels authentic to the user. Consider an underproduced look—skip the lights and studio for your Snapchat ads.
Start building your Snapchat advertising campaign today
There’s no doubt that Snapchat ads are worth it for ecommerce brands. Both big and small retailers and marketers can lean into the power of mobile shopping, showing commerce-made ads and encouraging people to browse and buy on their phones.
Remember that success in using Snapchat for business relies on authenticity. Make your ads feel natural by cutting out the heavy production.
Use retargeting to move people through your funnel. And test and optimize based on your ad metrics. You’ll soon start seeing a rise in leads and sales on your site thanks to Snap ads.
Illustration by Eugenia Mello
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