Snapchat to roll out adverts between stories — forward thinking or foolish move?

Earlier this month, Snapchat have announced that they will be introducing a new and enhanced way of advertising on the popular Silicon Valley platform. Whatever this idea may mean to you, you have to admit that it will most definitely have an impact. Snapchat has over 100 million DAU’s (Daily Active Users) with an average of 9,000 snaps shared every second. These are impressive figures. There’s no denying that showing adverts between your friends’ stories will influence the users. This feature is set to be released later this year.

I really do think it will be okay, despite my original feelings and reaction. After giving it some thought, I came to the realisation that advertising on platforms like Snapchat has changed dramatically over that past year or so. There is one reason for that — knowing how to best impact your audience. I don’t want to jump too far into Instagram advertising, because I’ll be posting a separate blog post about it soon, but Instagram advertisers know how to target their audience, which audience to target and what ads to show them. None of this is coincidental. Now I don’t know how this will work on a platform like Snapchat, seeing as Snapchat doesn’t know you nearly enough as Instagram does. There’s no likes/dislikes, preferred content, interaction statistics etc. All Snapchat knows about you is your username, how clingy you are, and which of the ‘Discover’ channels you tolerate most. This might lead to any old crap being fed to your screen, which will most likely have no relation to what you do, what you like and what you look for in a social media platform. Snapchat know that, and this is a good thing.

And here’s why.

Snapchat won’t want to lose DAU’s because of this. They want to expand, collaborate and form partnerships with big brands and simultaneously bring a great content experience to its users. Often on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, ads are tailored to what you search for, who you interact with and what kind of content you post. With Snapchat not having that power, there will be very little way of telling which ad is most relevant for you. This is why I think only the most generic, and already-well-known brands will appear in between our snapchat stories. The likes of Netflix upcoming new season previews on their most popular shows, discounts and offers for shops we all use. Very very generic and basic things. It has been confirmed that a beta program will soon commence with the likes of Hollister, P&G, Verizon, and Warner Bros. Nothing with too much of a niche. I also think these will be very expensive, and to most small businesses will probably seem like their marketing and advertising budget will be best spent elsewhere, so I highly doubt that your average ‘John’ from average ‘Johns Hardware Store’ will be popping up between your stories any time soon.

These are all merely predictions, and how I think things will pan out, speaking from observations of Snapchat and other similar platforms. We know one thing for certain, Snapchat has definitely gone from being a hub for mildly-drunk 16 year olds to actually having a business purpose. Hold on, isn’t that what happened to Instagram?? I see a trend here.

Add me on Snapchat at db_brz to connect — to those that don’t currently have a Snapchat account, I strongly recommend downloading it and getting used to it with the current developments that are going on around it.