How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 1

Published in

Inside Revenue

7 min readSep 12, 2018

The Beginner’s Guide

Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send and receive “self-destructing” photos and videos. Photos and videos taken with the app are called Snaps.

Snapchat uses the device’s camera to capture Snaps, and online technology to send them. The app allows the sender to draw or insert text on the snap and determine how many seconds (one to 10) the recipient can view it for, before the file disappears from the recipient’s device. Messages can only be viewed once — and during the viewing period, the recipient must maintain contact with the device’s screen (So either you have to keep contact with your touchscreen or by clicking on your computer) or the snap disappears.

So how can Snapchat help your business? Snapchat has changed the way in which brands can talk to their customers. It provides an interactive view of a brand and is becoming increasingly popular among younger generations. This is providing businesses with a great opportunity to put themselves in front of their potential customers, while seeding their products in the market to customers who may not yet be in their targeted audience age range — increasing awareness, recognition and engagement

In this article set I will go through the Snapchat platform and how your brand can use it, as well as how you can specifically target your ads to your ideal customers.

“Happy employees develop happy customers”- Aaron Ross ( Author of fromimpossible.com and predictablerevenue.com) @motoceo

In this article I will cover:
#1 What Is Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

#2 Why Should You Care About Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

#3 How Can Targeting Audiences On Snapchat Help You Hit Your Revenue Targets?

#4 What Should You Watch Out For When Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

Let’s dive in…
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#1 What Is Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

When looking into targeting your audiences on Snapchat, it is crucial to understand not only what Snapchat is, but what target marketing is. It is for this reason that I want to go through both of these concepts before diving in a bit deeper.

Snapchat is a mobile messaging application used to share photos, videos, text, and drawings. It’s free to download the app and free to send messages using it, only drawing from your mobile data or WiFi. It has become hugely popular in a very short space of time, especially with younger audiences. There is one feature that makes Snapchat different from other forms of texting and photo sharing: the messages disappear from the recipient’s phone after a few seconds.

Target Marketing involves dividing a market into segments, then concentrating your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments consisting of the customers whose needs and desires most closely match your product or service offerings, and Ideal Customer Profile. It can be the key to attracting new business, increasing your sales, and making your business a success.

The beauty of target marketing is that by aiming your marketing efforts at specific groups of consumers, it makes the promotion, pricing, and distribution of your products and/or services easier and more cost-effective. It provides a focus to all of your marketing activities.

Taken from Snapchat’s official YouTube channel

#2 Why Should You Care About Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

Snapchat is a social media platform by which users communicate through chat and time-limited media. Many businesses are jumping on board with the app, finding new and creative ways to use Snapchat for marketing. Yet there are still some businesses and marketers who are not quite there. Like any social media platform, Snapchat isn’t for every business. However, there are several benefits to marketing through Snapchat if it is in fact the right fit.

Since the launch of the app, Snapchat has evolved into more than just a way to just send fun pictures to friends. Now users rely on the app to get a real-time view of what their favorite celebrities, shows, and businesses are up to, making Snapchat a great new marketing tool to personally interact with your customers.

Benefits of Marketing Through Snapchat

Gain Exposure
When it comes to usage, Snapchat has some impressive stats. Of the 158 million people who use Snapchat every day, the average user opens and checks the app 18 times per day, totaling about 25–30 minutes spent on the app per day. If you want more exposure for your business, you need to place yourself where your audience is.

Capitalize on Relevancy
As previously mentioned, Snapchat’s purpose has broadened. In addition to checking up on their friends and those they follow, Snapchat users are also using the Discover feature to check for news on nearby locations and accounts they have subscribed to. The Discover feature is mainly reserved for big names like National Geographic and The Food Network, but since users are checking Snapchat constantly for this relevant content, getting on the platform is a way of capitalizing on that traffic.

Of course you can also use Snapchat to post relevant content about your business, particularly by using Stories to publish content that stays up for 24 hours only.

Market in Real Time
Time-limited Stories is one of the key feature of Snapchat that offers real-time benefits to marketing. One of the newest Story features launched by Snapchatallows users viewing a Story to hold down on the screen and send the screenshot to someone else on their friends list.

This feature can be useful for your business with regard to promotions. For example, you could post a promo code or announcement and say “Refer a friend and both of you get 10% off when you show the screenshot in stores.”

Target Locations
Snapchat gives businesses the chance to interact with their followers in a not just a real time context, but also a location-based manner as well. If your business is having a special event at your brick and mortar location, consider getting a Geofilter for the event! Encourage those who visit your location to post a picture using the Geofilter on their personal Stories, and let their friends know where they are. This is a great way to gain visibility among the friends of those who visit your location.

Build a Community
Marketing is not about getting customers to buy your product. It’s about creating a relationship with your audience. Snapchat allows you to engage one-on-one with your customers, allowing them to see that you truly value them. Individual chats and behind the scenes posts are helpful in showing people know who you are and what you do, building a positive association with your brand. The more that you post on Snapchat, the more that you show the human side of your company, which will help to reinforce your brand overall.

#3 How Can Snapchat Audience Targeting Help You Hit Your Revenue Targets?

Snapchat ads are seen from 500,000 to 1 million times a day. A total of 45% of the users are aged between 18–24 and 30% are Millennials. At no minimum cost, you can create highly personal and engaging content for these users, tapping into this engaged audience.

Even more good news for advertisers is that people watch 60% of Snapchatads with their audio on. Which means users are listening to your message more than half of the time they are viewing it.

In my next post, “How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 2 (The Intermediate Guide)”, I want to go over the different targeting options that Snapchat has for your business to use, as well as give you a plan of action on how you can advertise on Snapchat.

Taken from Snapchat for Business official YouTube channel

#4 What Should You Watch Out For When Targeting Audiences On Snapchat?

Snapchat was created in 2013 by college students Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. One of the principal concepts of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are only available for a short time before they become inaccessible. As of February 2018, Snapchat has 187 million daily active users.

It is for this reason that more and more brands are turning to the platform to reach other audiences. In my article “How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 3 (The Advanced Guide)”, I will be guiding you through some of the best practices for using Snapchat and some tips and tricks for using the platform in your marketing efforts.

“When your competitors or other folks in the field look and say, “Hey, there’s no way that we can scale content quality like this. It’s just too much effort. We can’t keep producing it at this level,” well, now you have a competitive advantage. You have something that puts you in a category by yourself and that’s very hard for competitors to catch up to. It’s a huge advantage in search, in social, on the Web as a whole.” — Rand Fishkin (Founder of @SparkToro, Formerly of Moz) @randfish

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In my next article, “How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 2 (The Intermediate Guide)”, I will cover the following topics to help your brand understand how to use Snapchat effectively in your marketing efforts.