Snapchat 101: Why This Social App Is Such A Powerful Marketing Engine

Snapchat is one of the most powerful mobile apps on the market today. Although it started off small, it has gained incredible popularity over the years with digital marketers, brands, celebrities, and athletes, to such a degree that it has become indispensable.

Unlike most of its competitors, Snapchat has kept its focus on adding ‘authentic value’ to brands. That’s exactly why it shouldn’t be dismissed by marketers who think that perhaps Instagram is a safer bet.

Instagram is obviously a powerful medium, but Snapchat is here to stay. The statistics below show why it has massive potential to make major gains for your company – and the tips explore its different advertising options.

1. Snapchat is female-centric

According to the Wall Street Journal, 70% of Snapchat’s users are women.If your product or service targets women, you really ought to be using Snapchat. If you fail to take advantage of the platform when the majority of its users are your target demographic… well, that’s just foolish.

2. Millennials adore it

If your prospective customers are between the ages of 18-25, then you definitely want in on Snapchat. According to the stats, 45% of Snapchat users fit into that age range, and 77% of the people using Snapchat are in college. Despite the fact college students aren’t renowned for having a lot of money, they still have needs – needs your product may meet. If it does and if it’s enticing enough, they will be beg their parents for money.

3. Users are primed to buy

Speaking of college students, a different study shows that 58% of college students are likely to buy your product if you sent them a coupon on Snapchat. This means advertising on Snapchat is one of the most solid investments you can make – over half the people exposed to your offer are bound to respond positively to it!

Advertising on Snapchat

While Snapchat may not be the only place you decide to advertise, there are many potential avenues for parading your product around on this platform. Snapchat has several official and non official campaign types you can take advantage of. These are:

• Snap ads. These are interactive videos that appear in the app. Gatorade had a big campaign celebrating  Serena Williams’ 23rd Grand Slam victory where users could swipe up to play an interactive 8-bit mini game of tennis. According to an article on Wallroo Media, the average user spent three whole minutes engaging with this advertisement. Most companies struggle to get people to sit through their ads – let alone interact with them directly. It’s even more time when you consider that snaps only last 10 seconds at longest. YouTube has to force its users to stay for more than 15 seconds in their platform. And according to the same article, Snapchat users swipe up at a rate that is five times higher than that of users who click through on other platforms.
• Sponsored lenses/filters. We’re all familiar with the lenses and filters on Snapchat that do things like overlay dog ears and a tongue onto the user’s face in a photograph. In a similar way, advertisers can create their own fun versions of filters for users to send their friends to promote their product or service. Taco Bell had a particularly well-received sponsored lens that garnered over 224 million views.
• National/local sponsored geo-filters. Another way companies can advertise is through local as well as nationwide geo-filters. Keep in mind that local geo-filters are usually much cheaper than nationwide geo-filters – so, if you don’t have a McDonald’s sized marketing budget, it’s best to stick to local.
• Placement in ‘Discover’. Speaking of big budgets, if you aren’t afraid of paying a premium (roughly $50,000 a pop) you can have your product displayed in a premium spot. Usually, it’s right at the top of a Snapchat user’s cellphone screen, in the ‘Discover’ section of the app.
• Snap to unlock filters and codes. One of the most appealing features of Snapchat to users (and geeks) is its snap-able codes. For example, Garage Magazine placed a code in one of its issues featuring Kendall Jenner that unlocked a special filter for readers. Another example can be found in the snap-codes scattered around train stations promoting the ‘Girl On The Train’ movie that piqued interest about the film. What’s most exciting about these sorts of snap-able codes is the built-in interaction. It isn’t actually a stretch for Snapchat users to spend upwards of twenty seconds playing with interactive advertisements.

Wrapping up

As you can see, Snapchat may not be the biggest platform you can advertise on, but it has a lot of nifty features and lends itself well to creative marketing. It allows advertisers to do something rare with their marketing strategy: make it fun for their target audience.

Ads are a fantastic tool to help connect products with the people who want or need them – yet when they are perceived by consumers as repetitive, boring or obtrusive, the effect they have can only be negative. That’s why the flexibility provided by Snapchat’s varied campaigns is great.

As mentioned earlier, millennials in particular love Snapchat. The reason why can be summed up in two words: it’s fun. If your advertising can add to that fun instead of take away from it, then you have no reason not to advertise on Snapchat. In many ways your advertisement often is the product that sells.

Guest Author: Anja Skrba is the Content Creation Manager for First Site Guide – an educational website which offers tutorials and guides to people looking to grow and promote their online activity. You can follow her on Twitter here.

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