Snapchat has launched a new range of ecommerce advertising formats, as the chat app looks to further monetise its network.
The move will see the introduction of some great new features, including Shoppable Snap Ads, Product Catalogues, Advanced Pixel Targeting and 30+ Snapchat partners.
This new phase of advertising follows from the launch of Snapchat’s advanced performance marketing suite in June.
Initial testing has shown exceedingly strong performance for some of the world’s biggest brands:
• eBay saw a 5x higher engagement rate with Shoppable Snap Ads compared to standard Snap Ads featuring the same products.
• Mayor online retailer Wish.com saw a 17x higher engagement rate with Shoppable Snap Ads compared to standard Snap Ads featuring the same products
• Clothing brand Guess saw a 4.1x higher engagement rate with Shoppable Snap Ads compared to standard Snap Ads featuring the same products.
Introducing Product Catalogs – advertisers can import their existing product feeds to Snapchat’s platform. Product feeds are files, often spreadsheets, that contain all the relevant product information for items they sell on their website, such as image, price, color etc. This ‘library’ of assets can be used automatically create a number of Product Ads – Story Ads, Snap Ads and the new Shoppable Snap Ads – through brand new templates in Ads Manager. This increases the speed of ad creation and allows advertisers to test and learn more rapidly.
Advanced Pixel Targeting – using the Snap Pixel, advertisers can create more customized audiences from the actions users take on their site, such as browsing certain product categories like shoes or furniture. This will allow them to deliver more relevant ads to Snapchatters based on their unique shopping preferences.
Expanding ‘Snapchat Partners’ for commerce, DR, and performance advertisers – we’re adding over 30 new performance agency partners, certified to help with e-commerce, direct response, and data-driven advertising.
• This program recognizes and certifies industry-leading agencies that help advertisers with everything from pre-campaign strategy to creative execution.
• Some of our agency partners in the UK include: Miri Growth, Marketing VF and Nest Performance.
Stefan Cataldo, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Nest Performance: “The team at Nest Performance are proud to be one of Snapchat’s select few Certified Partners, it’s a very exciting channel for performance advertisers and we’ve seen some fantastic results for our gaming and e-commerce clients over the past year. We’re looking forward to further testing some of the platform’s new features, like Commerce Ads, that have been rolled out recently which will enable us to continue scaling our clients’ presence and exceed their business goals.”
Expanding advertiser education with online webinars. Snapchat is hosting two online training sessions on the Snap Pixel and e-commerce marketing in September & October. Registration and details can be found on our blog.
Tom Everson, Head of Paid Media at Lounge, said: “Initially, the reason we began to advertise on Snapchat was due to rapid growth at Lounge Underwear. We wanted to explore other avenues and ways to increase revenue outside of Facebook and Instagram. The support we received from “Snapchat account managers really allowed us to accelerate the whole process, allowing us to be up and running within a couple of days.
“One of the main reasons Snapchat stood out originally was due to the similarities in tracking capabilities vs Facebook and Instagram, and the adoption of a similar creation process. We’d previously read articles around the cost of Snapchat advertising being a lot cheaper vs other platforms, and the results within the first 24 hours of being active backed this notion up. In terms of actual results, we’re currently seeing CPM around 550% cheaper on Snapchat vs any other platform, and cost per click around 440% cheaper.
“The challenges we faced as a brand meant we needed to return a positive ROI in the early stages of activity for us to continue advertising on the platform. With the early support from our account manager, we got up and running with the results we needed across UK/US and AUS. With 80% less spend on Snapchat vs Facebook and Instagram, we managed to deliver a 461% increase in traffic from paid ads.
“Creatively we’ve approached Snapchat in a different way to other platforms. We’ve teamed up with different influencers to create native-looking content that we know resonates with our target audience. This is a first for Lounge and something we’ve been unable to execute successfully on other platforms. Not only does this lower the cost of video production, but has also increased the avg. view time on ads.”