Although the Snapchat of the past isn’t a big name in social commerce like Facebook and Instagram, as an advertising and marketing channel for brands and retailers there’s a few features worth knowing about.
The photo-messaging app has in excess of 265 million daily active users worldwide, and is making a name for itself as a place to discover and buy products. With its overwhelmingly Gen Z and Millennial audience, plus the super sophisticated AR lenses it’s well known for, it is a natural marketing channel for fashion and beauty brands.
It is bang on trend with its ecommerce-specific augmented reality features, like digital try-on and in-app experiences triggered by users scanning logos and barcodes. And Snap’s acquisition of Fit Analytics, a Berlin-based company that helps consumers choose the right size when they shop for clothes online, makes complete sense.
Adding to its multitude of ad formats, Snapchat now offers brands and retailers First Commercial ads, a spin-off of its Commercial Campaigns. First Commercials guarantee brands a six-second unskippable spot right before a video plays. And, in June 2020, it rolled out its Dynamic Ads worldwide.
Dynamic Ads on Snapchat: What’s the deal?
Across the major social channels, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok and Snapchat all give brands and retailers the chance to promote their products dynamically.
Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads offering works similarly to those on other platforms. Just like Facebook dynamic ads, Snapchat Dynamic Ads automate ad creation and optimize your campaigns depending on your goal, for example driving sales online or in app.
To do this, they use a Snap Pixel and, for app advertisers, one of Snap’s mobile measurement partners. The pixel or measurement partner feeds back data on user actions such as views, adding products to cart, purchases. Current retargeting options are users who viewed or added to cart but did not purchase within the last 1-30 days, and users who added to cart but did not purchase within the last 1-30 days.
You can choose between two formats: Dynamic Single Image Ads and Dynamic Collection Ads. Dynamic Single Image Ads showcase one product from your product catalog at a time, and let you apply text fields and creative elements on top. There are five templates to choose from, a preview tool, and both default and custom text fields that are pulled from your catalog. On seeing the ad, Snapchatters will be able to swipe up to open a website page, the app store, or the app.
Dynamic Collection Ads feature a single image or video (from your product catalog or uploaded) with either three or four tappable tiles to advertise products. The tiles will be dynamically populated using content from your catalog, based on the product set selected and the targeting option you choose (either retargeting or prospecting).
Why run Dynamic Ads on Snapchat?
There are plenty of reasons to love Snapchat ads. If your existing and target customers are likely to hang out on Snapchat, Dynamic Ads are a simple way to deliver personalized ads content to them. M-commerce and online spending are reaching all-time highs right now, and dynamic ads are an ideal format to capitalize on new shopper habits.
Dynamic Ads on Snapchat are built directly from your product catalog and pre-designed templates, rather than being manually created. As such, they offer a large return for very little time invested. Adidas reportedly saw a 52% growth in ROAS while testing out Snapchat Dynamic Ads.
They are highly relevant, as they show Snapchatters ads that are tailored to them based on actions they take on your website or in your mobile app (retargeting), or they can reach users who are yet to interact with your brand (prospecting). Targeting options for prospecting include Lookalike Audiences, specific locations and specific demographic qualities, such as education and income.
When product info such as price and availability changes, your dynamic ads adjust in real-time. And, if you add location data to your product catalogs, you can target your message and offers to wherever your customer is in the world.
How to create and run Snapchat Dynamic Ads in 7 steps
This is a basic step-by-step guide to getting started with Snapchat Dynamic Ads.
- Upload your product catalog or feed to Snap, making sure it contains all the relevant product information such as image, price, and color.
- Create product sets to group your products into subsets for use in your dynamic ads and serve relevant ads to users.
- Connect your event source so you can use the Pixel or Mobile Measurement Partner data for retargeting purposes.
- Make sure your Pixel is ready in the Pixel tab of your ad account, which means Snapchat is matching item IDs from events to your product catalog.
- Build your Dynamic Ads in Ads Manager by choosing Catalog Sales as your campaign objective and selecting the catalog you want to use.
- Build your ad set by defining your product set to generate your audience size, and choose whether to drive users to your website, the app store, or a specific location within your app. Select audience type (prospecting or retargeting) and
- Create your ad by adding the name, brand name, and headline that will show in the top corner of your ad, and select your preferred template and text fields. If you like, you can choose a background color and upload an image overlay for your Dynamic Ad.
And that’s it! You’ve created your Snapchat Dynamic Ad campaign.
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