Algorithms and The Pursuit of Advertising
This is an excerpt from a longer post talking about Instagram, Snapchat, and their pursuit of advertising by looking at how an algorithmic feed is an important part of building an advertising business, and how its introduction impacts the existing trade between brands and influencers. This excerpt focuses just on Snapchat.
Have you heard Instagram is changing their feed? It must be a big deal for the NY Times to write multiple articles about the upcoming-but-still-in-testing-calm-down shift to an algorithmically determined feed, including explaining the brief, “seems like a good idea” sign up for notifications spree.
That the shift is happening should not be a surprise. Our views to the web are parsed by the platforms we use, both in what we choose to follow and what our platforms choose to show us.
Google’s search algorithms use a mixture of factors to determine what — and in what order — to display in response to our searches, and the results can be different by person. Facebook released their algorithmically-determined news feed in 2009, and after the initial user outcry it’s now how billions of people experience the web. Twitter has been caught in-between efforts to stick to the user-defined feed vs. introduce an algorithmic feed, and currently choose to re-surface Tweets we may have missed “while we were gone” as a way to back into an algorithmic feed.
That Instagram would shift to an algorithmic feed shouldn’t be a surprise. But they aren’t the only one moving on that path. Snapchat is moving up the ladder through Stories and Discover to building more of a lean-back experience to view new content. The next leap to helping people discover new content by inserting content algorithmically from people or brands you follow or don’t follow, is less of leap than you may think.
Snapchat’s product evolution has been fascinating. What started as an ephemeral image-based messaging app has evolved into a communications and media platform with a product and advertising business unlike most social platforms. Consider recent major product launches: Stories created a non-ephemeral way to share content publicly, just as easily as sending someone a message. Discover created an area to feature brands and publishers creating content native to Snapchat. Geofilters created an ad unit tremendously native to Snapchat, and later, Stickers expanded the set of potential ad units. Auto-Advance Stories made it easier for people to consume content, streamlining the process of watching new content into a simple, engaging, lean-back experience. TV for mobile. And all of that while improving the core messaging functionality and features.
I’ve written extensively in the past about how hard it is for a consumer platform to make the transition from a product people love to a product advertisers love. But the next product leap for Snapchat has the potential to accomplish exactly that. Many of the same user and business dynamics happening on Instagram — missed content, discovery challenges for new content, new user feed creation effort, influencer marketing value exchange not captured by the platform — hold true on Snapchat.
And thus Snapchat’s rationale to introduce an algorithmic feed — to help people discover new content by inserting content algorithmically from people or brands you follow or should follow — is obvious. The question in my mind isn’t if, but how.
People define the nature of the ads we see, not advertisers. Snapchat’s user base has already pulled many brands and publishers into hiring editors and creating dedicated teams to create content specifically created, filmed, and edited for Snapchat. While the financial returns don’t appear to be there for them yet, one has to believe that Snapchat understands the dynamics. Snapchat controls the ability to choose who to show that content to by introducing an algorithmic feed, and with Geofilters and Stickers, have built in ad units for publishers and brands to use to build awareness for their content. The foundations are there. The next story of an age-old story is coming soon.
Excerpted from taylordavidson.com
