Using Facebook Ads to Grow Your Snapchat Audience:

The Beginner’s Guide

This guide originally appeared on http://www.thatdudeyouknow.com.

With over 4 billion daily video views and 100 million daily active users demographics, you have probably caught yourself thinking, “It might be time for me to try out this Snapchat thing.” You’ve made an account, you started snapping cool stuff and you understand your audience. There is just one problem, nobody is adding you. How annoying…

Trust me, I sympathize with you. Getting new followers is the most frustrating part of Snapchat (and most other social platforms, but Snapchat is especially annoying). I mean, there are 100 million people using Snapchat daily, but nobody is adding your account. What gives?

Well, sorry to break the bad news to you, but Snapchat was built this way on purpose. It is incredibly difficult to acquire new followers.

It Is Difficult To Add Friends

Snapchat did this on purpose. Unlike every other social platform, there is no search function that allows you to browse all of the users on Snapchat.

When somebody wants to add your account they essentially have two options.

1. Adding a user by their personalized Snapcode. You can do this directly with a camera over the QR code, or you can scan it in via a saved picture.

2. The other way to add people is by typing in their exact username. Snapchat doesn’t help you here either. They make you know exactly who you are adding. Misspell it by one character? Then whoever you are looking for will not show up.

Sound confusing and annoying? Well, that’s because it is. A lot of marketers tend to whine about this aspect and, although they do have point, lets look at what that does for the Snapchat user.

When the user has to go through all the hoops of adding a person, what happens is they really have to want to add that person. They either have learned about that account through a friend, or another type of word-of-mouth recommendation. This is an unusual psychological phenomena for a social media. For the user, each person you add is that much more special. Right off the bat you have a stronger connection with somebody who adds you, because they had to jump through some hoops to add you. It is actually quite interesting.

Don’t let all this friction deter you. Snapchat is growing at an incredible pace and it makes a ton of sense to make an awesome Snapchat account and hop on the snapping trend. It is difficult, but there are a few ways to get around that friction so that you can grow your following.

What You Can Do

If you are a restaurant, or have any type of physical location, you already have an advantage in growing your account. I highly recommend that you put out physical table-toppers with your Snapchat information and start driving people to your account that way. Jimmy Johns does a great job of this.

Jimmy Johns rocking that table topper

Another highly effective way to drive followers to your account is by making use of your other social channels. If you are progressive about being on Snapchat, it might be safe to assume you have found success on other social media. Tell your Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram followers that you are now on Snapchat and make it easy for them to add you. Alexander Wang did it perfectly.

So did @garyvee.

These are great ideas, but what if you don’t have a physical location to use to drive people to your account? Or, what if you aren’t that popular on your social channels and can’t drive traffic that way? Well, then Facebook ads might just be the answer you are looking for.

Why Facebook Ads?

Currently Facebook ads are one of the most robust tools that marketers have. Some characteristics include:

• Insane targeting capabilities. You don’t have to pay to put your ad in front of every Facebook user, instead, you can choose your ideal and most receptive audience and put your ad only in front of them. I run a Snapchat account where I talk about European soccer. When I run my ads they literally only show to people who have shown an interest in European soccer. I spend literally $0.00 on people who might not be interested in my ads. This sort of granulated targeting is incredibly powerful. Every single person who sees my ad has shown at least some interest in my niche, and you can do the exact same thing :)
• Currently, Facebook is attempting to battle YouTube for video supremacy and because of this Facebook is making it cheaper for advertisers to put videos in front of their users. This is why you’ll be able to create a video ad that reaches your direct audience and costs you literally pennies per view. Every single one of my Snapchat ads has a cost per video view of $0.01 or less. Good luck finding cheaper advertising than this anywhere else.

Check out that Cost Per Video View. Niiiiice.

• Last but not least, Facebook ads are scalable. If you have found the perfect cadence and your ads are killing it, you can just bump up your daily ad spend and reach a wider audience. I currently reach about 700 people per day, but my audience size is almost 4 million people. I could literally bump my ad spend up to $20 a day and expect to see similar numbers.

You get the idea. Done correctly, Facebook ads are one of the strongest tools out there. You can reach your exact audience for cheap, plus you have the option to scale up your efforts if you find success. Win, win, win.

This is literally the exact strategy I use for getting interested followers to my Snapchat account. Not just random followers who will never watch me, but followers who enjoy my snaps.

I run Snapchat ads for $1-$2 per day and I want to be straight up with you on the results I see. I get on average about 1–3 new followers for every day that I run the ads. So I reach about 700 and get 1–3 followers. That might not sound like a lot, but when you are starting from ground zero you need a base to get started. You need some people to fall in love with you so that they can go and tell their friends. That base will be what allows you to snowball in popularity six months from now.

For example, I’ll go five or six days getting 1–3 adds, and then randomly I will get an influx of 5–8 adds. Those extra ads come from friends telling friends. Good ol’ fashion word-of-mouth at its best.

Word-of-mouth marketing at its best.

This is the point of building up a base of followers who are actually interested in your subject matter. Once you have proven to them that you are something enjoyable and cool, they go and tell their friends.

If you, or the brand you work for, want to run a successful Snapchat account, but don’t know where to start, I highly suggest investing a few dollars a day and jumpstarting your account with Facebook ads.

Side Note: If you are unfamiliar with Facebook ads, the strategy we will be using might sound a little complex, but I promise it is super easy once you get the hang of it. The first time I did it, it probably only took me 2 hours total.

Best of all, you don’t have to worry about your ad spend going out of control. You can set a daily budget and Facebook will never exceed that. Plus, if you aren’t feeling all of this, you can just toggle off your ad and you won’t be charged at all. So don’t worry :)

How To Setup Your Ads For Success

Ahh the good stuff, this is the real meat of this article.

Head to the “Manage Ads” section of Facebook. Click on the little down arrow in the nav section of Facebook.

Then, click on the green “Create Ad” button on the top right of the page.

Before we go any further, allow me to educate you a tiny bit on Facebook Ads. There are 3 sections that make up an ad.

1. The Campaign level — this is where you choose your objective. You also name your campaign here.
2. The Ad Set level — this is where you choose the audience you want to reach as well as how much you want to spend.
3. The Ad level — this is where you choose what your specific ad will look like.

Okay, where were we?

Ah yes. Select the “Get video views” objective.

Next, select the Facebook Page you wish to create the ad from. If you are worried about what this will look like on your Facebook page, then don’t worry. This ad will not show up on your page’s timeline. This type of ad is referred to as a “dark post.” It is separate from what you post organically to your Facebook page.

Side note: If you don’t already have a Facebook Page, then you will need to make one. I had to do this for my account. It is pretty easy and simple. Dress it up a little, but you don’t have to spend a ton of time here. Obviously it is better if you already had a page with thousands of likes, but it is not essential to your success. Here is a link for setting up a Facebook Page http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-for-business/

Now, give this campaign a name. Just choose something that will help you stay organized. This doesn’t matter a ton and you can always edit it later.

Now we are done with the campaign level.

The Ad Set Level

Next up we have the Ad Set level. This part is massively important. This is where we will be choosing the audience we target with our ads.

Because I run a soccer Snapchat account, I chose my demographics and interests based on the persona I believe would be most interested in my account. The “Buyer’s Persona,” if you will.

Side Note: If you are unfamiliar with Buyer’s Personas, I highly recommend you read this awesome article written by Neil Patel and jump to the “Create Buyer’s Persona” section. Getting familiar with audience insights is a great tool as well.

You should also remember Snapchat’s younger demographic. It doesn’t make any sense to target 40+ year olds, because, although they may be your Buyer Persona, 40 year olds are not on Snapchat. You need to be creating an audience that is both interested in your subject matter AND also on Snapchat. Here is the audience I have created.

Selecting the right audience is crucial to your success. Building an audience that is more receptive to your ad will not only convert more followers for you, but Facebook will also notice people watching your video and make your ad cheaper to run. Win, win.

Let me break this down a little bit.

• Even though my account is about European soccer, I chose United States, because I am from the States (and will be more relatable to this audience) AND because Snapchat is mostly popular in the U.S. still. No point targeting people who don’t use Snapchat.
• I chose 16–26 year olds, because this demo is currently active on Facebook. See how I didn’t choose 40 year olds?
• The interests section is key. This represents pages that people have “Liked” on Facebook or pages that they have interacted with. I chose the most relevant European soccer teams, as well as the league they play in, “UEFA Champions League.” I also chose a popular player that I know this audience loves, “Mesut Ozil.”
• The interests section acts as an “or” statement and not an “and.” This just means that Facebook will deliver my ad to anybody that has an interest in any of those pages and not necessarily all of those pages.
• Remember to click the “Save this audience” button. If this audience performs well for you, you will want to have saved it. You can always go back and delete audiences that suck :)

We are still in the Ad set level, but now we are choosing your daily budget and price optimization. Set it to $1.00 and leave the rest as defaults. You don’t need to change any of these.

See the “Estimated Daily Reach” section? This shows how many you can expect to reach with spending $1.00. If your ad is strong and you chose a relevant audience, you will reach closer to the 750 mark than the 280 mark.

Next up, we have the Ad level. This is where we will choose the ad copy, the video, and everything else that your audience will see. But before we can complete this section and finalize your ad, you need to make an actual video that you will use for your ad.

Making Your Video Ad

Here are some things to remember when making your video ad:

• Make your ad horizontal. Normally I recommend shooting everything in Snapchat vertically, but for the sake of making an ad I highly suggest making it horizontal. This is because people consume horizontal videos on Facebook, especially on mobile. I’ve tested this for my own account and I find I get a lot more video views when I have make my add horizontal.
• Have a clear call-to-action. Make it simple, clear and easy to understand. I format my ads with an intro section, a little taste of what to expect from my account and then that simple call-to-action where I say something like “If this sounds interesting to you, then you should add me. Get ready to screenshot this QR code.”
• Always remember to show your QR Code (or “Snapcode” as Snapchat calls them) because there is a ton of friction with Snapchat. Make sure to have your QR code at the end of your video. Make it as easy as possible for people to add you.

Below is my current ad. Give it a watch for some inspiration and clarity. It took my 20 minutes to make and I like the “rough around the edges” qualities of it. That’s sort of how it feels on Snapchat and I wanted to emulate that (aka, I’m not an expert videographer haha). Plus, it still works :)

Here are the tools I use to make my video:

1. Snapchat (and its download button).
2. iMovie (which came stock on my mac).

That’s it :)

I use Snapchat to record my video. I turn the phone so it records me horizontally. Then, instead of posting it to my Snapchat story, I click the little “download” button.

I record and download however many sections I feel are necessary and then I import them into iMovie.

Again, I suck at editing video and iMovie is super easy for me. If you rock at using Premier Pro, then you will surely be able to make better video ads. Just remember to also download your QR code and add that to the end of your video. Most of my new followers come from that QR code :)

The Ad Level:

This is the last step until your ad is up and running.

There are some nuances here, but the basics are easy.

• Upload your video.
• Select your thumbnail — Facebook only lets you have a thumbnail that has a maximum of 20% text. If you think you are close to that, use this grid to double check.
• Craft your ad copy — Be simple, concise, use appropriate jargon, and have a clear call-to-action.
• Choose the placement for your ad. I recommend just using the mobile feed, but feel free to test the desktop feed as well. You probably shouldn’t waste your money on the Desktop Right Column though.

Boom! Click that green Place Order button and Facebook will review your ad. If it follows the 20% thumbnail rule and you don’t curse in your video, they will approve it. Just a heads up, approvals normally take anywhere from 30 min to a few hours.

What To Do Once Your Ad is Running

Once your ad gets approved and is up and running, I like to give it 24 hours before I make any judgements on it. Facebook normally takes a little bit of time to optimize your ad.

Once that 24 hour window is done, I then check out three things.

1. Relevance Score — This number tells me all the good stuff. I have found that if I choose an interested audience, then my relevance score is at minimum an 8.

For reference, 10 is the best and I’ve noticed that either an 8, 9 or 10 all give great results. Relevance score simply is how “relevant” Facebook views your ad to the audience that you have chosen. The higher the relevance score the more “relevant” to that audience your ad is. Facebook makes ads cheaper that are more relevant to it’s users.

Higher relevance scores = cheaper ads.

2. Cost Per Video View — I have run a ton of different ads and each time I get a relevance score of 8,9 or 10 (which has been every time with this strategy) then I get a cost per video view of $0.01. If you are seeing that you are paying more than this, you should double check with your relevance score. If that looks good, then you might be in a crowded niche. That would be a little hard for me to believe since not many people are using this tactic yet, but every niche is a little different.

If you are having a hard time getting your cost per video view below $0.10, you should hit me up in the comments. I’m interested to see what went wrong and I wanna help :)

3. # of New Snapchat Adds — You have to check this manually in the Snapchat app. If you aren’t seeing results a few things could have gone wrong. Maybe your video sucks. Maybe your targeting sucks. Or maybe your audience just isn’t interested in getting on Snapchat just yet. If you think your audience IS active on Snapchat and would be receptive, then hit me up in the comments. I wanna see what went wrong and maybe I can help.

You’re Not Done Yet

Once you start seeing new followers trickle in, I recommend reaching out to them and opening up a dialogue. Remember, they are coming from a Facebook post and maybe they still are having second thoughts about you.

Once somebody adds me, I send them a chat Snap like the one below.

Then I send them a message in chat. Something like “Whatup Jordan? You watching any of the games tonight?”

This opens up a dialogue with them and builds a relationship. Instead of you just being an account that they might check out, I try and build have somewhat of a friendship with them, which is the whole point of social media.

Now all that is left is for you to go out and deliver value for each one of your followers and you’ll find success.

If you find yourself having any trouble, I would double check these two things:

• Quality of your video ad — Would your ad convince you to check you out? Be honest with yourself.
• Quality of your audience targeting — If you have a good relevance score, then your targeting is probably pretty good. If you are still having troubles either re-read the “Create buyer personas” section of this article, or get in touch with me.

I hope you found this beginner’s guide helpful. I feel confident this will work for you, because it is currently working for me. However, I do think it is incredibly important to remember that social media is a marathon and not a sprint. You won’t grow to 1,000 followers overnight. This stuff takes time, creativity and dedication. Use Facebook ads as a tool for growth and be reasonable with your expectations. As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, or just want to let me know how your ad did, then hit me up in the comments :)

✌️👻

Shameless plug — My name is Ryan and this guide was originally posted over on my blog. Peep that for social media marketing stuff.

Shameless plug #2 — If you happen to be interested in soccer, then you should totally add me on Snapchat, @thatarsenaldude. My account has been growing steadily and I do my best to give people their daily soccer fix :)