While most businesses crown Google or Instagram as King of Advertising, Snapchat is often overlooked as a powerful, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to reach the highly coveted millennial demographic. This guide is designed to show you the benefits of advertising on Snapchat and how it compares to its competitors. It will show you how to create successful Snapchat ads, and what metrics to look for after your ad is implemented.

Benefits Of Advertising On Snapchat

Here are some benefits to Snapchat advertising:

• The spending power of users
• Ability to target younger demographics
• Ease of ad creation
• Specific location targeting
• Full-screen ads
• Unique Snapchat features

Targeting your core demographic is a vital part of picking what platform to place ads. Snapchat users are primarily within the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. If your target audience aligns with these age groups Snapchat would be a favorable platform to place ads.

According to a Hootsuite article written in 2018, Snapchat captures 41% of those ages 18-34 every day. It also has the sixth-highest concentration of Millennials among all mobile apps.

Millennials and Gen Z have a $1 trillion spending ability. By neglecting Snapchat as an advertising platform you are leaving money and potential consumers behind.

In a Murphy research study, they found Snapchat users were 60% more likely to impulse buy.

Snapchat’s Ad Manager interface is extremely user friendly. It intuitively guides you through the whole process with their ‘Instant Create’ option. Comparatively, Facebook and Google have much more complex processes for creating an ad.

If you’re a seasoned ad creator, Snapchat has a more advanced ad creation option called ‘Advanced Create’. Anyone with a business Snapchat account has access to this feature. You can find the ‘Advanced Create’ portal from your desktop by logging into your Snapchat account and hovering over the ‘Create Ads’ button in the top left corner and selecting ‘Advanced Create’. Within the advanced create feature you can access a lot more customizable campaign options like:

• Split Testing
• Campaign creation instead of a single ad creation
• Access to more specific controls for who views your ad
• Access to a lifetime budget instead of just a daily budget
• Advanced bidding options (Auto-bid or Max bid)
• Tags that allow you to be able to target users that may consume products related to it
• Topsnap testing

In addition to its younger user demographic, and workable interface, Snapchat is the only platform that allows super-specific location targeting. It allows advertisers to target universities, parks, or even specific buildings. This allows you to target areas that largely contain your demographic instead of targeting a whole city, region, or country where your ad dollars would be wasted.

How Is Snapchat Different From Its Competitors?

Snapchat gives you the creative license when deciding what you want your ad to look like. You can use a GIF, video, or static image.

A ‘Snap Ad’ will run in a full-screen video format with the sound on. This differentiates itself from other platforms where the sound is turned off until the user decides to turn it on. This is a huge opportunity to make an initial impression with sound. The 100% full-screen ad is advantageous, Instagram is the only other platform to use this method of advertising. It’s only within their story feature and it doesn’t include sound.

There are three different types of Snap Ad formats displayed below:

App Installs look like this on the app:

Long-form videos are presented like this:

Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:

The full-screen ads differ from other platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram feed ads take up about 25%-33% of the screen when scrolling through a timeline or browser this allows for the user to be distracted by other information, while on Snapchat the ad has their full attention when the advertiser uses the full-screen presentation option.

Another Snapchat exclusive feature is branded tiles on the ‘Discover’ page. These are companies like Seventeen magazine that make content consistently to be featured within the ‘Discover’ page but companies can also pay to be a sponsored tile on the page.

Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:

This is one of Snapchat’s success stories.

The last example is a Snapchat filter that was launched in Germany. It was a huge success for the brand. View their KPI’s here.

Here is a helpful link that explains what filters and lenses are and how to create one for your business. These features are unique to Snapchat, and while Instagram has tried to copy Snapchat’s lenses and filters the quality falls short.

Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk praises Snapchat for its ability to capture the attention of its users. He said he hasn’t seen such an active user base since Twitter in 2007 and 2008. Let’s compare Snapchat stories to emails. According to Gary, on the best day, only 25% of his emails are opened this would be a very low percentage of stories viewed on Snapchat.

Industries Advertising On Snapchat

Naming all the businesses that advertise on Snapchat would be almost impossible, so instead here’s a list of industries that Snapchat has hosted ads for:

• E-commerce
• App services
• Technology
• Entertainment
• Consumer packaged goods
• Auto
• Retail
• Restaurants
• Travel
• Financial services
• Health
• Telecommunications
• Insurance
• Government/Politics

How To Engage An Ad Viewer

The average Snapchat user is very engaged with the app, opening it 18-25 times a day. While the users are loyal to the app it is important when creating an ad to catch their attention as soon as possible with a clear message, USP, and call to action. Here is an example of a brand that had clear messaging, engaging visuals, and a clear call to action.

https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/inspiration/e-l-f-cosmetics-efficiently-gains-share-with-millennials-and-gen-z

Elf had eye-catching visuals to open the ad with, then by the third second of their ad they had their USP displayed on the screen, and finished with a ‘Shop Now’ call to action. They followed the formula for a successful Snapchat ad.

Engage in 1-2 seconds + Present USP in 3-4 seconds + Finish strong with a call to action

Questions To Ask Before Creating A Snapchat Ad

• Who is the target audience?
• What do you want your viewers to do?
• Gain awareness of the brand, buy a product, download an app, visit a website
• What type of ad will you run?
• How do you want the ad to look?
• Video, GIF, image
• Will there be ad copy?
• Is there music or a voice-over?
• What is the daily and lifetime budget for the ad/campaign?
• How long should the ad run?

Most Effective Snapchat Ads

Lead Generation Ads

• Best for audiences you don’t have a relationship with
• Offer something that solves a problem or provides value

The benefit:

• You receive the customer’s email that can be used to occasionally promote your business
• You can retarget those that visited your site in the future (this requires the Snap Pixel plug-in)

Doorbuster Ads

• This ad gives something away for free that gets customers into a brick and mortar location

The benefit:

• People came in for the freebie but bought additional items

Counterpart Ads

• This is an ad served to customers that are theoretically interested in the same things your current customers are.

How to do it:

1. Load up your email customer contact list into Snapchat. (located under the assets tab in the ‘Audience’ section)
2. The app then builds a list of potential new customers that will theoretically like the same things as your current customers.
3. Create an ad for this specific customer base.
4. The ad you’ve created will then be served to the people that the Snapchat algorithm deemed of value to you.

Note: You should have more than 1,000 emails to make sure the Snapchat has enough people to use in their algorithm.

How To Create Snapchat Ads

The first step to creating Snapchat ads is to download the app.

Creating your business’s Snapchat account:

1. Download Snapchat from the App Store
2. Open Snapchat
3. Tap ‘Sign Up’
4. Enter your name and tap ‘Sign Up & Accept’
5. Enter your date of birth
6. Create a username
7. Create a password
8. Enter your phone number and verify it *optional
9. Use your username and password to access Ads Manager within the app

Once you’ve accessed the Ads Manager follow these steps to create your ad with Instant Create:

1. Select ‘Instant Create’ option
2. Select an ad goal
3. Input website
4. Select the image, video, or GIF you want to use
5. Crop image or video if necessary
6. Enter ad copy and choose a layout template
7. Edit template as desired
8. Continue and fill ad demographic information, the location where you want the ad to appear, the duration for the campaign, and business and payment information

Follow these instructions to create an ad with ‘Advanced Create’:

Build Your Campaign

1. Choose what you want your viewers to do and convert to.
   
2. Choose a detailed name for your ad.
   The best option is to name it by the objective of the ad and the time frame in which it will run. Then choose the time frame you want the ad to run through
   
3. Choose daily and lifetime budgets
   

Ad Sets

1. It’s suggested you name your ad set by the audience, budget, goal, and schedule.
   The more detail the better considering you can run multiple ad campaigns and ad sets.
   
2. Select the ad format and ad type, then attach the file that you wish to advertise.
   Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
   
3. Select your placement preferences, audience location, demographics, and language.
   This will vary from business to business and should all be decided in the research phase before creating an ad.
   
4. Select audiences predefined category, operating system, and connection type
   
5. Choose the status of the ad, budget, start and end date of the ad, the goal of the ad, and your bid type.
   As a newcomer, it is recommended to choose the auto-bid option. This takes the guesswork out of how much you’ll need to spend on daily ad budgets in the future. It will also allow you to figure out your cost per action or in layman’s terms how much you spend for someone to complete your desired ad goal.
   

Build Your Ad

1. Fill in your ad name, brand name, and headline then choose whether you want the ad to be sharable. Test your ad in Topsnap to make sure it meets the minimum requirements.
   
2. Select whether you want the ad to be active and fill in the tags that correspond to your ad.
   

Review and Publish

1. Review your previous ad choices, fill in your business information, and payment details.
   
2. Publish your campaign
   

How To Install Snap Pixel

Snap Pixel is an important program you will want for the purposes of retargeting and analytics. You can add it to your website by following this video tutorial.

How To Measure Success On Snapchat

KPI’s (key performance indicators) are what you will use to measure the success of your campaign. If you already have a website, your current KPIs might be conversion rate, total revenue, or time spent on your web page. Outlining metrics to measure your success in advance is helpful because it keeps you (and your team) focused on the end goal throughout the entire project and helps avoid distractions.

There are two apps needed to measure your KPI’s on Snapchat. Snaplytics and Delmondo.

Neither app measures every KPI.

Snaplytics measures open rates, story views, average screenshots per story, and completion rate.

Delmondo tracks more helpful metrics and provides a more detailed view of your audience, basic metrics, and channel comparisons to your other social media channels.

Here are some of the specific KPI’s tracked by Delmondo

Audience Insights

• Location
• Age
• Interests

Basic KPI’s

• Impressions
• Views
• Completion rates
• Screenshot rates

Channel Comparisons

• Measures how well your Snapchat is doing against your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

Other important KPI’s to measure that aren’t on Snaplytics or Delmondo

• Fall-off rate – The fall-off rate takes a little bit of grade school math to calculate. Here’s how you do it:
  • Compare the views of your first two photos on your story
  • The first has 500 views and the second has 400
  • 500 – 400 = 100
  • 100 / 500 = .2
  • .2 x 100 = 20%

  Therefore your fall-off rate is 20%.

• Number of followers – Below are the steps to locate your follower count
  • Open Snapchat
  • Click on your Bitmoji in the top left corner
  • Look under your yellow snap code and beside your username
  • The number located there is your follower count
• Geofilter analytics – Here’s how to locate your geofilter analytics
  • Log into the desktop version of your Snapchat account
  • Click on your name in the top left corner
  • Click ‘My Geofilters’
  • Select the geofilter
  • Scroll to view your metrics

Here’s a link to successful Snapchat ads and their KPI’s. The list can be sorted by region, industry, and campaign goal.

Here’s How Can We Help

If you would like to take full advantage of your advertising budget, outsource your Snapchat marketing or other digital marketing needs to experts please contact Ventura Web Design at (813) 556-7990 or fill out the online contact form.

Coronavirus is impacting your business on Yelp

COVID-19 is impacting businesses in many different ways, and Yelp is one of them. Yelp is now displaying generic alerts on business account pages concerning the coronavirus. You can (and should) customize these alerts. It’s important that you take advantage of this opportunity to keep your customers informed.

It’s likely that your business has changed and is offering virtual and digital alternatives to your traditional services. For example, if you feature online courses or virtual appointments to accommodate social distancing, be sure to update your Yelp account. This helps you pivot and transition alongside your customers.

It’s important that while you’re creating your custom COVID-19 alert, you’re also updating your business hours, location, photos, and more. Keeping your Yelp account up to date is imperative for maintaining trustworthy communication with your customers.

Many of us are transitioning towards a remote work environment. This means our meetings are no longer in person and we’re using digital platforms to discuss ideas. We’ve put together a list of things you should (and shouldn’t) do during your virtual conference calls to help you stay focused, productive, and professional.

DO: Give Notice

Try to let all participants know when to expect a meeting, or that they will be receiving an invitation soon. This is not only polite, but it gives everyone a chance to check their schedules and make adjustments. You can avoid repetitious meetings or constant rescheduling by making sure everyone has the availability first. Send out virtual invitations if possible to let everyone know the designated time and date. Depending on which platform you’re using, you may even be able to share a link to the meeting beforehand.

DO: Set The “Place”

Let everyone know “where” to meet. This means you should be designating the platform you all are going to use. Some popular platforms include Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or Slack. Most everyone on your team should be using the same platform already. However, specifically naming the platform can give everyone a chance to update their applications or install the software in case they’re using a different computer to work remotely. This can also give your team the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the technology ahead of time if they’ve never used it before.

DO: Provide a Topic

Try your best to let your team know why there’s going to be a virtual meeting and what is going to be discussed. This will give everyone more time to mentally prepare and gather necessary materials that may be needed during the meeting. Impromptu meetings certainly aren’t ineffective, but the more time you can give your employees or coworkers time to prepare, the more meaningful your discussion will be. Providing a topic ahead of time also gives structure to the meeting which helps keep everyone on track and focused.

DO: Look Professional (At Least From The Waist Up)

Just because you’re aren’t at the office, doesn’t mean you aren’t at work! Working remotely has its benefits: no commute, more sleep, closer to last night’s leftovers in the fridge. However, it’s still business and it’s important to appear as professional as you would in the office or traditional work environment. You’re also more likely to look less presentable on camera than you would in person. You may need to adjust accordingly by paying attention to how your outfits, hair, makeup, etc. appear through the lens.

DO: Control What You Can

Traditional conference rooms are set up with little distractions and designed for focused discussion. When working remotely, you need to create a space like that in your home so you’re prepared for virtual meetings. This means you need to control everything that you reasonably can when it comes to your remote set-up. Do you have pets or children who can be picked up on your  microphone? What is in the line of sight of your computer’s camera?

Minimize background noises and tidy up what other people will be able to see. Remember that your work computer and phone can be a source of distraction as well. Remember to mute your notifications sounds and silence your cell phone during a meeting. If you’re working from home and you have roommates, family members, etc. you can always have a sign or signal that you’re in a meeting so others don’t barge in.

DON’T: Eat Or Drink On Camera

Unless it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. your boss deemed this meeting as a working lunch), avoid eating and drinking on camera. Not only is it unprofessional, it’s something most people would avoid anyway during traditional meetings. Remember to save snack time for after the meeting.

DON’T: Bite Your Fingernails, Groom Yourself, Etc.

Just like a physical office, employees, employers, coworkers, etc. are expected to show up to work ready for work. This means that you still need to get all of your personal grooming and hygiene habits out of the way before the beginning of the day. At the very least, you should be avoiding these on camera during a virtual discussion.

DON’T: Forget You Can Be Seen And Heard

If you don’t mute your mic or turn off your camera, you’re still visible. Some of us tend to forget that we can be seen and heard through our computers when on a call. Try to be aware of yourself and your surroundings when communicating virtually because you can be a distraction to others, or do something you may regret later.

DON’T: Forget To End Or Leave The Call

In the same vein as pocket dialing, forgetting to end or leave a virtual conference call can make for some embarrassing moments. Most of us are unlikely to do or say anything wild. But there’s a chance your coworkers may be on the other side of the screen seeing you chew with your mouth open or talking to your grandmother. Be especially aware of this if you were screensharing during the meeting. By ending a call, you’re also signaling to all other participants that it’s time to act on whatever was just discussed.

DON’T: Interrupt Or Have An Unorganized Meeting

A good rule of thumb is to mimic your traditional meetings and come up with ground rules so people aren’t talking over one another. Because of the way that virtual calls are set up, it’s difficult to tell who the speaker is talking to because we’ve lost that spacial perspective. If you’re the speaker, try to say someone’s name before asking a question or sharing information. This gives them an auditory clue that they are being engaged and you can skip over the “are you talking to me?” questions.

DON’T: Avoid Eye Contact

Remember to pay attention to your screen and try to mimic traditional eye contact. For example, you can lower or raise your computer’s camera to it’s closer to your natural eye level. This method makes you appear as though you’re giving eye contact which signals to other participants that you’re engaged and actively paying attention.

DON’T: Be The Only Person Without Your Mic or Camera On

Another general rule of thumb is to make sure all participants are on the same page when it comes to mic and camera use. Everyone should be on camera (the ideal choice), or they should all be off camera. Test out the meeting platform ahead of time to adjust settings. Figure out how to mute your mic and turn your camera on and off ahead of time as well, as you’ll likely need to do both of these at some point.

Now you’re ready for the world of virtual meetings in the digital world. By following these guidelines, you should be more prepared for remote productivity.

With over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with your customers and boosting brand awareness. Building your brand on Instagram takes more than just setting up a profile. 

Simply having a presence on the platform just isn’t enough these days. To take full advantage of the social media juggernaut, you should consider utilizing all of the tools that Instagram has to offer. One of the most powerful tools Instagram has in its arsenal is the Instagram Stories feature.

What Are Instagram Stories?

For those who haven’t been using this feature, Instagram Stories is a feature within Instagram where users can capture and post pictures or video content in a slideshow format. Audiences are then able to click on your profile picture and view your content. After 24 hours, your pictures or videos disappear back into the ether.

Instagram stories can be a unique branding opportunity that not enough businesses are taking advantage of. If you’ve been considering using stories, why not give it a shot? Read on to learn how you can leverage Instagram Stories to increase brand awareness.

We’ll Do It Live

One of the most exciting aspects of Instagram is its ability to showcase events in real-time. Whether you’re launching a new product or attending an industry event, going live on the ‘Gram is a surefire way to entertain your core audience.

For example, if you’re an online retail company getting ready to launch a new product, do a live Q&A for customers to interact with and learn more about the launch. Live video allows your audience an authentic behind the scenes view that they may not be privy to otherwise.

Then after your live video ends, add it to your stories for the rest of your followers to enjoy for the next 24 hours! Live video is fast becoming one of the best ways to keep your audience entertained and connected and can do wonders for your brand awareness.

Tag, Use Hashtags, & Add Locations

Just like traditional posts, Instagram allows you to add #hashtags to your stories. Using a similar strategy as your traditional posts, adding hashtags to your Instagram story is an excellent place to use your own branded hashtags. 

Brands can also add their location as a way to connect with people in your local community. This can also be an opportunity to connect with other people and institutions within your IRL community. In a similar vein, you can tag other accounts within your stories and try to generate meaningful interactions.

These features can be a fantastic way to foster relationships with people and businesses within your area and humanize your brand in the eyes of your local community.

Swipe-Up Feature

Do you have that coveted little blue check next to your profile? How about at least 10,000 followers? Congratulations! You can take advantage of Instagram’s swipe-up feature.

Swipe-up allows users who view your story to swipe up on their screen and go directly to a landing page of your choosing. The best part? The user can do all of this without ever leaving the Instagram platform.

If you don’t have access to this feature, don’t sweat it. Though it’s only available to a select amount of users at the moment, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Keep an eye out on the latest Instagram updates in case the powers that be decide to make the feature public in the future.

Highlights

Although stories are designed to be ephemeral, the highlights feature allows you to keep your stories in a more permanent place. Anytime you post a story, you have the opportunity to save it as a “highlight”. These are the buttons that appear on your profile, below your bio and above your regular feed.

How you create and arrange these can vary, just remember to keep them on brand! You can even go above and beyond and create branded highlight covers. These will keep your profile looking great while presenting information or content that resonates with your audience.

Become A Storyteller

At the end of the day, the most important feature of Instagram stories is simply the stories themselves. Stories connect us, both in real life and with our audience online. Instagram stories allow brands the unique opportunity to tell their own stories and nurture positive relationships.

When you relate to your audience on a human level, you foster goodwill between yourself and your audience. Think of Instagram stories as opportunities to continue to build your brand and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

If you’re curious about getting started on Instagram or have specific questions relating to stories, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.