How to Promote Your Brand on Snapchat
As a business owner, you’re probably wondering how to keep up with the evolving world of social media. One minute Facebook is all the rage, then we move on to ‘the Twitter’ and now visually appealing content is the hottest trend, with platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
Ensure your brand is keeping up with the competition by having a presence on Snapchat, the social media app that is most popular with young social media users and has approximately 150 million daily active users. Brands like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Acura and Free People are already using this platform to reach their young, tech-savvy target audiences in unique ways. Currently, there are four options available to promote your brand. Depending on your budget and how much time you are willing to commit, Snapchat caters to everyone, from the first-time Snapchat user to the social media all-star.
Here’s a rundown of the options available and why they might be the right fit for your brand:
Geofilters
This is the easiest option to develop and implement, with the lowest cost. When Geofilters first launched, Snapchat invited designers and artists to submit designs for popular landmarks and large events without a cost. Today, brands and individuals have the opportunity to create a design and choose a date, time, and specific area to offer Snapchat users the opportunity to ‘frame’ their image with their filter when taking snaps in the specified area. Retail stores, like Hollister, are joining the movement to engage with Snapchat users by developing single Geofilters that are only available to use while shopping inside the specified store. This is an ideal option for brand managers looking to test out a new platform or compare engagement between different target audiences.
Sponsored Geofilters
This option is essentially the same as the standard Geofilters, with more bells and whistles. Marketing managers are able to develop an entire campaign targeting a specific type of location, like McDonald’s locations across the United States, in order to become a part of the conversation with a unique target audience. Brands can choose this option for a more robust campaign to have their filters available at more than one location. According to Snapchat, Sponsored Geofilters typically reach 40 to 60 percent of daily users. This option is great for business owners who have a confirmed target audience and have done the research on where this target is spending their time.
Sponsored Lenses
Now that we have covered the basics, let’s discuss a more advanced option, which also has a higher price tag. Sponsored Lenses offer brand managers a creative way to interact with their target audience. Depending on how creative you want to get, you can prompt users to take an action to trigger an animation that then can be recorded and shared with all of their friends. A recent example is Taco Bell. They purchased a Sponsored Lens and developed creative to turn Snapchat users’ faces into a taco, as pictured below. For every sponsored lens created, Snapchat estimates that users interact with them for an average of 20 seconds. This is a great option for business owners with a higher budget, looking to get disruptive in their marketing efforts.
Snap Ads
This is the priciest option but you have the most control. Snap Ads allow you to fully develop your content and choose where you want the 10-second vertical, full-screen video to appear. Brands can interact with users by encouraging them to swipe up to read more or hold down to screenshot and share with friends. This is different from the options mentioned above because users aren’t engaging in an organic way through images or videos of themselves, which is the entire essence of the platform. Leader in mineral foundation and makeup, bareMinerals developed an ad campaign on Snapchat encouraging users to swipe up and find some tips on how to cover up blemishes. Snap Ads are strictly developed to push content to your target audience and tout a five times higher click-through-rate when compared to ads across other similar platforms.
Contact us today to learn more about which option is best for your business and how Snapchat can fit into your full marketing mix.
