How Snapchat Geofilters Can Help Your Business Get More Out Of It’s Marketing Budget

If you’re reading this article, you likely already have an understanding that Snapchat geofilters are extremely valuable as a marketing platform. You might know that Snapchat users generate 10x the daily video content as Facebook users despite having a fraction of Facebook’s user base. Or perhaps you read that Snapchat reaches 41% of 18–34 year olds in the United States on any given day.

But those numbers, without being anchored to any sort of monetary value, are difficult to comprehend. It is one thing to know about the sheer reach of Snapchat, but quite another to determine the value of a geofilter campaign to your business.

That’s why I wrote this article. To help you, the sharp business marketer, decide if the geofilter platform is a smart fit for your business.

To measure the ROI of a Snapchat geofilter marketing campaign, you must first familiarize yourself with an essential digital marketing metric: Cost Per Mille (CPM). This rate refers to the price paid for 1,000 impressions (views) of an advertisement.

No matter what type of digital marketing you are currently involved in, the essential metric is CPM. Sponsored content, CPC advertising, social media influencers, and even traditional banner ads all report on their CPM valuations. So do television and radio ads, and even direct-mail ad campaigns!

Depending on the platform and the advertisement type, the CPM for a given ad can vary quite a bit. Video ads tend to have a higher CPM than print or banner ads, because of their ability to garner longer attention rates among viewers. Not all impressions are created equal — so the more attentive the user, the more expensive the CPM. Google AdWords can reach $20 or more in certain industries. Direct mail campaigns typically have a CPM of $27 dollars. Snapchat video ads have been valued at a CPM as high as $40.

Remember when I said not all impressions are created equal? Well, check this out:

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standard states 50% of an ad’s pixels should be visible in the browser window for 1 second. For larger-sized ads only 30% of the ad’s pixels need to be visible, and for video ads, 50% of the pixels must be visible for a continuous 2 seconds.

That is how platforms like Facebook and Instagram quantify their impressions. However, it is highly possible that if only 50% of the ad is visible and for only 1 second (!!) that many users never even see the ad. Despite this, you are still paying for that fake impression.

In contrast, due to the nature of a Snapchat message, which ensures 100% geofilter visibility for as much as 10 seconds, geofilters clearly generate a higher quality impression. While some are hesitant to advertise on Snapchat due to the disappearing nature of the messages, this is an advantage! Snapchat users are attentive when they are viewing content sent from friends, because once the message ends, it is gone forever. With Snapchat geofilters, you can rest assured that your impressions are accurate and that your brand’s message is conveyed.

So what is the market CPM rate for a Snapchat geofilter campaign for your business?

While Snapchat officially has not made any statements on their internal valuation of geofilter impressions — we can easily determine it from internal data from our own past campaigns.

Snapchat valued a geofilter at Smorgasburg Food Festival in Brooklyn to be worth $395 for the day. Geofilt ran four single-day advertising campaigns at Smorgasburg last summer, generating a little over 44,000 impressions total.

Total Cost = CPM * (Total Impressions / 1,000)

Using this formula, we can plug in the numbers from our Smorgasburg campaigns and determine Snapchat’s internal CPM valuation of a geofilter: $25 to $35 CPM.

So now that we have that point of reference, how much are Geofilt clients spending in terms of CPM on geofilters? The short answer? Far, far less.

Geofilt offers annual rates for businesses that start as low as $195 per month. According to Snapchat’s valuation, a campaign worth $195 should generate 7,800 impressions for a $25 CPM. However, Geofilt clients are often generating that many impressions in a single day!

In fact, Geofilt’s campaigns generate an average of 5,000+ impressions per day, per client!

If you are a high-traffic business like a bar or restaurant, a geofilter campaign can generate 50–150k impressions per month! For $195 a month, that comes out to a CPM between $3.90 and $1.30! Not only is that cheaper than advertising on Facebook, but they are higher quality impressions!

It’s clear that Geofilt clients are receiving a tremendous return on their investment. The only question remaining is: how can your business take advantage?

Find out by scheduling a consultation with Geofilt today. Geofilt makes it easy to market your business on Snapchat, and provides you with monthly user metrics that show your impact.