How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 3

Published in

Inside Revenue

9 min readSep 13, 2018

The Advanced Guide

In the Intermediate guide I went through creating a plan for your Snapchatadvertising as well as the types of audiences Snapchat has for your to target. If you need a refresher on the topics discussed in this article, click here to read “How Do I Target Audiences On Snapchat? — Part 2 (The Intermediate Guide)”.

With Snapchat being a relatively new Social Media platform it is still vastly underused by most brands. It is for his reason that I looked through the web to find you the top tips, tricks and best practices that you can use in your Snapchat advertising to help you target your users best.

“Stop shoving product specs on millenials and teach them about business.” — Trish Bertuzzi (Sales Development & Inside Sales Thinker) @bridgegroupinc

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

In this article I will cover:

#1 Best Practices For Snapchat Advertising And Creatives

#2 Tips And Tricks For Snapchat Marketing

So let’s move along…

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#1 Best Practices For Snapchat Advertising And Creatives

If you want to reach your perfect global audience at scale, what better place to start than on the platform that boasts 173 million daily active users?

But Snapchat’s appeal isn’t just its impressive number of users. Its creative and quirky content is also keeping users engaged for an average of 30 minutes each day. From algorithms that turn faces into animals to an augmented reality dancing hot dog, Snapchat is wowing users with its cutting-edge technology and memorable experiences. And it’s giving brands the opportunity to contribute to these experiences with playful and highly effective branded content.

It is for this reason that we looked through the web to find the best practices for advertising on Snapchat and your creatives on Snapchat.

Best Practices For Snapchat Advertising

Define And Align Your Marketing Objectives
Before diving head first into Snapchat advertising brands need to define their main objectives and align them with what’s available on the Snapchat platform.
For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you’ll want to drive views. That means creating compelling content that showcases your brand while entertaining your audience.
But if you’re looking for direct response, you’ll need to include a convincing call to action. This is how advertisers at gaming app Bubble Witch managed to successfully drive installs. Rather than simply telling users to install their app, they invited them to give the game a try first — without ever leaving Snapchat.
Find Your Perfect Audience
Brands will find a range of familiar targeting capabilities available to them on the Snap platform — from identifying a target demographic to conducting lookalike modelling.
Advertisers can also choose from Snapchat’s over 3,000 lifestyle categories based on in-app user behaviour.
Advertisers can make sure they’re making the best use of their audience data by conducting A/B tests for each of their campaigns.
Get Creative
‘Snap ads are skippable,’ explained Fintan Gillespie, Snap Inc.’s Head of Consumer App, Gaming and Streaming. ‘People choose to put lenses on their faces and filters on their Snaps.’ That means users will only view, snap and share content that captures their attention and imagination.
When branded content is imaginative and playful, it will encourage users to swipe, snap and share with friends.
Continually Measure And Optimise Your Campaign
Once advertisers have put their creative campaigns into action, the work doesn’t end there. By measuring how well each ad is performing, they can make incremental improvements throughout the campaign lifecycle.

Best Practice For Snap Ads Creatives

Snap Ads offer the magic of sight, sound, and motion in a format truly made for mobile. Snap Ads begin with an up to 10-second vertical video, and then offer the option to add an interactive element one swipe away. Create a Snap Ad that suits your goals in the form of Video (Live or Animated), Gif-like, Still, and Cinemagraph! Below, you can find some creative best practices.

Snap Ads

Feature a “Hero” message from the opening frame
Use voiceover call to actions to encourage swipe up
0:03–0:05 is the sweet spot for Snap Ad length to drive action
Test all types of Snap ads from video, to stills, to gifs or cinemagraphs (one per ad set)
Align creative with targeting where possible- Higher relevancy leads to higher swipe and conversion rates!
Consider stop animation or GIFs for your Top Snap
Provide an offer message if available within second 2 or 3

App Installs

Showcase key metrics to demonstrate the value of the app
Feature a person using the app
Showcase the app UX
Use the creative to showcase what the user can expect from the app
Feature a single minded message from opening frame
Add a visual or a voice call to action that is relevant to the app and its value proposition
Try to align the voiceover content to the call to action (the audio should say “Install” or “Install Now” if you plan to use the INSTALL_NOW call to action and vice versa for DOWNLOAD)
Educate users as to what the app does visually
Where possible, use INSTALL_NOW or DOWNLOAD as your CTA as these have both the strongest conversion rates and CPIs

Web Views

Feature product, offer, and branding within first frame
Key messaging should be immediately understood
The Top Snap and landing page should focus on consideration not conversion
Ensure your ad is descriptive about what the user gets once they swipe up

Long Form Video

Drop into immediate action with a compelling element, like a reveal or brand iconography
Creative should be kept clear, concise, and linear
Brand and single key message should ideally be introduced within first 2 seconds
Vertical video is preferred

Additional Tips

Native Style
Develop video ad creative with Snapchat’s platform and visual language in mind. Ads which feature UGC look and feel, Snapchat inspired features, and speaking to camera are significantly stronger at driving view-through, while performing on par at driving ad awareness compared to polished ad style. Consider an endemic creative style to increase duration.
Simple Creative
Keep ad creative simple and concise with a clear key message. Ads should seek to mirror the bite-sized and linear storytelling of Snaps. Snapchatrecommends keeping duration closer to 05–06 seconds.
Early Branding
Establish brand moment before the 02 second mark to maximize ad awareness, but avoid opening on a solid frame with a logo or product shot only. Opening with dynamic footage provides a moment to hook viewers!
Frequency
Incremental exposures increase lift in resonance metrics, despite having a negative impact on view duration. Focus on driving resonance metrics rather than view duration.

“If we follow the same path everyone else follows, we’re going to be one of the pack and we’re not going to be different. The best reason for doing something is because it’s never been done before.” — Joanne Black (Referral Selling authority) @ReferralSales

#2 Tips And Tricks For Snapchat Marketing

Snapchat’s appeal is that it acts as a “dark” social network of sorts, essentially meaning that grandma can’t view and comment on every photo and video that is posted, especially given the content disappears after a set number of seconds. This makes a much more personal experience, as unlike Facebook or Instagram, you are not broadcasting your updates to the world, but rather to a very select group of friends.

Unlike other social networks, Snapchat is very intuitively designed and is intended to be as hassle-free as possible. When you open the app, the camera is automatically activated and then you can quickly snap a picture for your friends. You don’t have to dig through any menus or manage updates, likes, or comments — all you have to do is hit the record button and you are ready to go.

As a result, Snapchat has become one of the most popular social networks, especially among younger generations who appreciate the creative ways it does ephemeral messaging — it’s so popular that it has caught the attention of Facebook, which is experimenting with Snapchat-like features with its Facebook Messenger app. With that in mind, here are some tips you can use to use Snapchat in the best way possible.

1. Know Your Audience
Success on Snapchat means knowing as much as possible about your audience. That’s how you create content that resonates.

Snapchat’s demographic has traditionally been young folk in their teens and twenties. But that’s changing, with an older demographic using Snapchat in increasing numbers.

Stay true to the audience you want to attract. Monitor the type of tribe you gather as you step deeper into the Snapchat seas, then tweak your strategy accordingly.

2. Know Your Platform
Get a personal account first. Follow some of your friends and favourite brands to get a feel for how others use Snapchat. You’ll soon find your way.

Snapchat is famed for its ephemeral, self-destructing messages. But this platform isn’t as transient as you might think. There’s no timeline in Snapchat. Messages to your followers stay in their inbox until they are opened. So whereas with other social platforms your content is quickly confined to history, your message is actually stickier on Snapchat.

Sure, your content is lost forever once it’s opened. But some marketing experts argue that this ensures users pay more attention to Snaps, whether they receive them from their mother, their brother or their favourite brand.

3. Decide On The Types Of Content You’d Like To Publish
You’ve signed up, added your company logo to your profile. Now what? What are you actually going to publish? While it’s important to have a content plan or some kind of rationale to guide you, you have plenty of creative license on Snapchat.

Some Ideas:

Product demos
Tutorials
New product announcements
Behind the scenes at your workplace
Videos of your product in action
Industry tips
Discounts/Flash sales
A series showcasing the history of your business
Takeovers from an industry influencer
Reactions to the latest news affecting your industry

4. Be Creative
Find your own style. And remember: there’s no such thing as a boring topic, just boring content writers. See point three in an article by a Snapchatjournalist for tips on producing more engaging content.

5. Stop Being A Perfectionist
The simplicity of Snapchat allows you to create short, light-hearted videos without calling on expensive production resources. That’s the point. If your videos don’t feel raw, organic, off-the-cuff, somewhat rickety, you’re probably doing Snapchat wrong.

Leave your Hollywood production values at the door.

6. Reciprocate
Great marketing is a conversation. Comment on your followers’ Snaps. Create dialogue. Be part of the social movement. It’s not about shouting as loud as you can, for as long as you can, and expecting people to listen.

7. Don’t Get Lost In The Wilderness
With no search function, it can be hard to build your following on Snapchat. Instead you have to promote your presence on Snapchat via other channels. Facebook, email, print media — you name it. Give people a reason to join you.

8. Take Advantage Of New Business Tools
Snapchat announced a major expansion to its advertising model. Snapchatters will soon begin seeing video ads in between their friends’ stories. Essentially the move allows businesses to promote content far beyond their own followers.

9. Track Your Engagement
Social media measurement can be a vexing beast at the best of times. But that’s especially the case with an ephemeral platform like Snapchat. So how do you track how well your content is performing? One way is to run a campaign offering your audience a discount code.

It works like this. Publish a Snap, alerting your followers that you are about to share a discount code that they should get ready to screenshot. Snapchattracks views as well as the number of times your Snap was screenshotted. If your discount code was unique to Snapchat, you can then see exactly how views and screenshots translate to action.

10. Commit
If you’re going to use Snapchat, commit to it. Don’t just publish content once a month when you find time. Assign responsibility. Create a strategy. Give ownership of the account to the most social-savvy member of your team. Go forth and create.

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This article set was aimed at teaching you about Snapchat targeting and using the platform. I have had a lot of fun learning about this exciting and different social media platform. It has a vast reach and can create some unique opportunities for any business.

We are working to bring you guides on Snapchat and other social media platforms, so come back and visit our publication, Inside Revenue, for the release of these articles and more.