10 Snapchat Ads Strategies, Tips, and Resources

Snapchat stands out as one of the most popular social networking sites globally. Functioning as a camera and messaging app, it provides users with a distinctive platform to connect with friends and beyond. Similar to other social media platforms, Snapchat enables businesses to leverage advertising through Snapchat ads.

With approximately 319 million users worldwide, Snapchat ads empower advertisers with a potent tool to reach diverse audiences and accomplish essential business objectives. Whether you aim to enhance brand awareness, drive website traffic, promote app downloads, or boost sales, Snapchat ads prove to be a valuable asset.

Yet, the pivotal question remains: “How can you ensure that your Snapchat ads are effective and yield the best results?” Fortunately, you need not ponder this question any longer. In this post, you will discover 10 of the most effective Snapchat ad strategies and tips that will enhance the overall success of your advertising campaign!

1. Choose the Right Ad Format

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Do you have a specific advertising goal in mind? If so, ensure that the selected ad format aligns most effectively with that goal. Fortunately, Snapchat offers a diverse array of ad formats to seamlessly match your business objectives. Here are the optimal ad formats and when to use them based on your advertising goals:

• Dynamic Ads: Ideal when featuring a product catalog.
• Single Image, Video Ads, Story Ads, and Collection Ads: Best suited for driving online sales.
• App Install Attachments: Optimal for boosting app installs and engagement.
• Story Ads, Lens AR Experience, and Extended Play Commercial: Most effective for building brand awareness.
• Story Ads: Particularly useful for retargeting existing customers.

2. Showcase Your Products or Services

Snapchat ads are all about highlighting your products and services effectively. The first 3 to 5 seconds of your ads are crucial, as this brief window determines whether you capture your audience’s attention or risk losing them. To ensure engagement, prioritize placing your products at the forefront of your ad creative.

Utilize full-screen videos and images to inspire and educate your audience about what you offer. Ensure that your “hero” message is featured from the opening frame, incorporating any relevant offers or specials to enhance consideration.

Here are tailored approaches for showcasing your products and services based on your business type:

• App and Games: Illustrate the app’s user interface, features, and benefits within the ad creative. Craft a visual narrative that entices users to delve deeper into exploring the app or game.
• Local Businesses: Draw attention to the distinctive visual features of your storefront or location. Highlight the specific services or products that set your business apart. For instance, a local beauty parlor can showcase popular hairstyles or special offers in their ad creative, enticing customers to visit and experience their offerings firsthand.
• e-Commerce: Feature your products prominently to stimulate purchase intent. Showcase the items you sell in a way that captivates your audience and propels them towards making a purchase.

3. Ensure Your Ads Seamlessly Blend with the Snapchat Experience

Snapchat revolves around its users, and it’s evident that users prefer a feed free from intrusive ads. To navigate this, your goal is to ensure that your ads don’t disrupt or disturb the user experience. The key lies in making your ads feel natural, seamlessly blending into the Snapchat universe.

To achieve this, embrace the concise and linear storytelling style inherent in Snaps, allowing your ads to feel native to Snapchat. Keep your ad duration to a brief 5-6 seconds. While this may seem short, it’s the optimal duration to establish a connection with potential customers organically and unobtrusively within the Snapchat community. This approach places your brand at the core of their conversations.

Consider incorporating user-generated content (UGC) and Snapchat-inspired features in your ads. Research indicates that such ads are notably more effective in fostering a deeper connection with your audience compared to more polished advertisements.

4. Instill a Sense of Urgency with Pertinent Messaging

Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to boost conversion rates and drive sales. When users perceive the need for prompt action, engagement is likely to increase. Here are a few tips to infuse a sense of urgency into your ads:

• Use easy-to-understand language.
• Clearly display your call to action early in the ad.
• Localize your message for your audience.
• Provide an offer message within the first two seconds of your ad.
• Employ urgent phrasing such as “limited time only,” “act fast,” and “act now for exclusive deals.”
• Promote flash sales and exclusive Snapchat deals.
• Reward users for taking immediate action.
• Highlight scarcity.
• Emphasize immediate benefits.

By incorporating these elements into your Snapchat ads, you can effectively instill a sense of urgency and drive viewers to engage with your content and make timely decisions.

5. Add the Right Music or Sound

Enhance the vibrancy of your ads by optimizing them for sound. Keep in mind that over 60% of Snapchat ads are viewed with the sound on. This underscores the significance of ensuring that your ads capitalize on this auditory engagement, as a lack of sound can result in a missed opportunity to further connect with your audience.

One highly effective and proven sound strategy involves incorporating spoken testimonials into your ad. Customer testimonials regarding your product or brand enable your audience to better understand your products, forge a connection with your brand, and appreciate the value your business delivers.

6. Properly Use and Add the Right Links

It’s not just about making people aware of your brand; you want them to take specific actions. Whether it’s visiting a website, downloading an app, or re-engaging with your existing app, strategic use of links is crucial.

There are various ways to incorporate links into your ads, and here are three effective methods:

• Web view attachments: Allow Snapchatters to swipe up on your ads, leading them to instantly view a web page. Web view attachments can be utilized in Snap Ads, Lenses, and Story Ads.
• App Install attachments: Enable users to swiftly download your app by swiping up on your ad. Utilize compelling call-to-action phrases like “Install Now” or “Download” to enhance conversion rates.
• Deep Link: Ideal for re-engaging existing users, Deep Link redirects users back to your app. You can include Deep Link attachments in Single Image or Video ads, Lenses, and Story Ads.

7. Test Ad Creatives

While Snapchat ads are effective tools to reach and engage your audience, it doesn’t mean that sticking with one ad creative indefinitely is the best strategy. Remember, everything evolves, from trends to user behavior. Therefore, it’s essential to regularly test your ad creatives and even explore new ad formats.

Conducting tests on your creative content provides valuable insights into what resonates best with your target audience. According to Snapchat, it’s advisable to run an ad for at least 2-4 weeks to accumulate enough data to evaluate its effectiveness.

In addition to testing different ad creatives, make sure to experiment with various ad formats to discover the most effective combination for your brand.

8. Take Advantage of Goal-Based Bidding

One remarkable aspect of Snapchat ads is their ability to automatically optimize the allocation of your set budget. By specifying your goal, Snapchat leverages its sophisticated algorithm to maximize the effectiveness of your budget.

With nearly 20 bid types at your disposal, accessible through the Advanced Create feature, you have the flexibility to align your bidding strategy with your specific objectives. The chosen bid type directly correlates with your goal. For instance, opt for the “Impressions” bid type if your aim is to deliver ads to as many Snapchatters as possible. Alternatively, select the “Click” bid type to optimize your ads toward Snapchatters likely to click on your ad, or choose the “App Install” bid type to target users who are most likely to install your app.

As mentioned, there is a wide array of bid types available, and delving deeper into understanding them will contribute to achieving optimal results for your campaigns.

9. Leverage Audience Insights

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The effectiveness of your ads hinges significantly on your thorough comprehension of your target audience. Fortunately, Snapchat acknowledges the importance of this aspect and provides the Audience Insights feature. Leveraging Audience Insights allows you to delve deeper into understanding your target audience on Snapchat, enabling the creation of content that resonates and uncovering additional targetable segments to expand your reach.

Audience Insights provides Snapchat data, encompassing demographics and interest categories, supplemented by external data from meticulously chosen third-party data partners. This wealth of information empowers you to fine-tune your content strategy and successfully broaden your audience reach.

10. Expand Your Target Audience

Running Snapchat ads is akin to perfecting an art, requiring constant refinement to keep your target audience engaged. Hence, after 2-4 weeks of running your ads, consider broadening your audience to enhance your reach.

Within your existing ad sets and campaigns, explore the possibility of broadening your targeting based on geographical location, gender, age ranges, device type, languages, and more. Keep in mind that there are more than 230 million daily active Snapchat users, and maximizing your reach is crucial.

By expanding your target audience, you enable your ads to reach a larger audience and generate more impressions. Snapchat provides the following expansion strategies to enhance your ad reach:

• Snap Audience Match: Ideal for re-engaging customers, encouraging repeat purchases, and fostering customer loyalty.
• Lookalike Audiences: Submit a list of your existing customers to Snapchat, and the platform will identify users similar to them. This strategy helps you connect with users likely to engage with your ads.
• Mobile App Custom Audiences: These audiences dynamically update using data from your app, transmitted to Snapchat via an advertiser’s MMP. Created through Snap’s Ads Manager at the Ad Account level, they are user-friendly, free, and suitable for both acquisition and retargeting campaigns.
• Pixel Custom Audiences: Comprising highly interested individuals who have interacted directly with your brand, these segments are crafted based on specific actions users take on your website, such as visiting product pages, adding items to their cart, or completing a purchase.

Run Successful Snapchat Ads Today

These tips and practices are just a glimpse of what you can incorporate into your Snapchat Ads strategy. From understanding your audience to expanding your target, implementing the discussed strategies in this guide significantly enhances your chances of success in advertising campaigns.

Remember, you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Elevate the positive results of your Snapchat ads by leveraging the expertise of ShyftUp. With their wealth of knowledge and experience in running Snapchat ads, along with top-notch tools, they can assist you in creating compelling Snapchat ads and offer valuable insights to enhance your overall advertising campaign. Moreover, their specialization in helping you acquire more users for your app adds an extra layer of expertise.

If you aspire to witness your business thrive on Snapchat, it’s time to book a demo with ShyftUp and embark on a path to success!