What is Snapchat?
Snapchat is a mobile app that allows you to send videos and photos to others that disappear after a selected amount of time. This is one of the most popular apps among the millennial audience, with 60% of US citizens ages 13-34 using it. Approximately 10+ billion videos are viewed every day on Snapchat. 65% of these highly engaged viewers are sharing the Snapchat content they see every day; more photos are shared on Snapchat than any other social network. This platform has even surpassed TV with up to 8x the amount of 13 to 34 year-olds viewing live stories versus TV for similar events. If you are trying to reach a millennial audience, it would be wise for you to consider Snapchat as an advertising platform.
How Can I Use Snapchat for my Brand?
Snapchat allows you to send second long videos or photos directly to your friends, but it also has the “story” feature. Sending a snapchat as a story gives your snapchat a 24-hour shelf life and all of your viewers can view them, if they choose to do so. This allows your content to be seen an unlimited amount of times during that 24-hours, giving your viewers a longer opportunity to view your “story” and a greater chance your content will be seen and shared.
Snapchat also has cheap paid advertising opportunities. They offer 
sponsored lenses or geofilters, which allow users to select specific
designs and add them to their snapchats. A user could snap a picture and add a filter that has your brand and share it with others. McDonald’s is the first company to buy sponsored geofilters.
Another advertising opportunity is in the Discover section, which is now bundled with Snapchat stories. You can find news and videos from large brands like Cosmopolitan, CNN, MTV, etc. These are professionally produced ads that reportedly sell for a $20 CPM. Why do big brands like CNN leverage the Discover section? CNN said "They have a massive audience that’s passionate and engaged, but it's not one that CNN is reaching on a day-to-day basis."
The Discover section allows CNN to reach the millennial audience on a day-to-day basis.
Growing Your Snapchat Audience
Another element you need to consider is how to get Snapchat followers in order to grow your audience. The best way is to use other platforms to help create awareness and direct people to your Snapchat. This includes everything from including your Snapchat handle on your other social platforms, signing off blogs with your Snapchat handle, doing a story takeover of someone who is already killing it at Snapchat and so much more. But keep in mind, if you are going to drive people to your Snapchat, you better provide valuable content, otherwise they may never return.
Snapchat advertising opportunities have grown significantly over the past few years. With such a large audience and multiple ways of engaging them via Snapchat, it would be wise for brand marketers to consider Snapchat in their digital strategy, but as always you must understand your marketing purpose first. When you understand what you want the outcome of using Snapchat to be, then you can figure out how to speak to your audience.
If you need help leveraging Snapchat for your brand, let’s talk!
