Will Snapchat boost online sales?
There are some wonderful success stories behind Snapchat adverts, but we can’t lie to ourselves and pretend, that this channel is for every retail. Young, dynamic audience does not like to have commercials pushed into their faces the same way, that’s available on regular social networks. We have fun and innovative ways to place ads, offered by the company, but will playing around concur the web and provide more revenue?
Close by Geofilters
Snapchat Geofilters display themselves after taking a snap, and are directly connected to the place, that the Snap is taken. When making a photo, you can swipe filters to see the ones dedicated to your location, such as “Manhattan” or “Venice” — they are either designer’s graphics, writings, graphical add-ons. Users can make their own Geofilters directly from Snapchat.com — the graphic can take up to about 20% of the picture. How marketers use it? Brand locations with customized geofilters were first explored by McDonalds — you could add graphical cheeseburger & fries to your Snap, once you’ve been in one of the company’s restaurant. Snapchat also allowed smaller companies to add their own geofilters, starting from $5. There were some national campaigns, like Tinder Valentine’s Day “geo”filter, Samsung or (RED) — outcomes of such campaigns have a wide target, are not determined by one localisation and about 40% of Snapchatters who unlocked the filter did choose to share it with friends. Objectively speaking — either your company has a lot of money to add a dedicated national geofilter, or the filter can be used when the user is already in your store, about to become a customer. If you don’t fit into the first example, try to make a Geofilter in nearby localizations — everything that is in a walking distance from your store will match. Having a filter saying “Coffee Corner, meet me at 5’” or “Just heading to the library” can make someone actually aware about your spot. The Geofilters are not clickable & don’t redirect anywhere, so unfortunately, not much potential in e-sales will come with this tool.
Magical Lenses
Face recognition implemented on Snapchat can be used by advertisers, in order to illustrate new cosmetic brands, sunglasses or hats — and those are just the obvious ones. Lenses locate the face of the user and implement additional features, that move around with the image, respond to sticking out tongue or laughter. With the AI on the Social Web, a Snapchat lens transformed it’s users to a giant Crunchy Taco Supreme. The lens was so popular, that over 224 million users have engaged with the filter, and 49% of them, have decided to share the outcome with friends. The usual usage of the lenses, presents for example Benefit’s Cosmetics new collection, transforming Snapchatters brows into ones, that could be achieved when using the newest products. Michael Kors lenses presented Kendrall II sunglasses, generating over 104 million views, and increased sales over 6% on the model. But, still — those examples are not the most selling, or at least not so obvious for the sale’s department. They implement crave, but causing a buy call to action takes just a bit more than just a nice lens. The one campaign that stands out, created a crave, giving also everyone a chance to buy the product — the low $5 price followed by a playful and tasty filter will be the success model for this one. Wonder what it is? Kraft Mac & Cheese. In the lens you could literally catch Mac&Cheese pieces to your mouth in augmented reality game, gain points & share the funny results with your friends. Over 20 million people have used this lens, the sales rose up to 13%. Success was covered by a great idea.
Real time ads
So what about regular, clickable ads, that actually lead to your product’s page, or app download? They are reached by a regular snap, busted by your credit card. There are various options, to target the right audience on Snap — we can use audience’s interest, like Reality TV, DIY, music festivals, demographics like “Moms, Spanish speakers, household income, and college graduates”, location, lookalike audiences and many more. This will bring your snap right to the point. Have you heard of the Pink Tax, a tax raise on women products? Boxed, shop & deliver company has taken a standpoint against the increase, aiming to get awareness of the snapping audience. A Snap with #RethinkPink engaged users to read more about the unfair gender policies & share their e-mail with Boxed. Over 4 million users have seen the ad, and swipe rate reached 20% — perhaps it could reach more if users were not forced to sign up with email as the first call to action.
What about the audience?
Products, apps and services that are popular among youngsters, will fit best on Snapchat. Over 50% of Americans before the age of 30 use this social media channel, so campaigns should be targeted for low-price, easy-get products. Sometimes, the decision makers are the parents in this deal, communication line will be crucial at this point too, especially if you’re selling games, not-so-safe toys or anything, that would raise concern. The most Snaps take place at home (81%), restaurants (80%), concerts (70%), gym (50%), airports (49%) — the mind focus of the place can work it’s chemistry too. So we have the age, the place, the engagement (over 54% of users log in everyday), and 166 million daily active Snapchatters all over the world. That is definitely a potential! Is it worth using in e-commerce? More than sure — especially if you are in the right industry for targeting young adults, sport fans and cosmetics addicts. Brand awareness, click through ads to products — it can all be reachable by Snapchat & delivered to your customers.
