It’s been a big year for Snap Inc. so far, and with their recent IPO, investors have been eager to see exactly what the company has to bring to the table. And, lucky for both investors and businesses, Snap is stepping up to the challenge by presenting some great potential for advertising on the platform. Specifically, for small and mid-sized businesses.
Social Media Marketing for SMB’s
SMB’s haven’t exactly been able to get their cut when it comes to advertising on Snapchat. Mostly, because of cost. A sponsored filter can run anywhere from $500,000 a day, and during holidays or special events, this price doubles. The cost of that is comparable to a 20-second TV spot during the Grammy’s. And because smaller businesses can’t afford that, or the high costs of influencers paid to talk about products and services on the platform, they’ve basically been boxed out. However, Snap released a self-serve ad platform that will change this.
Both Google and Facebook have self-serve ad platforms that allow businesses to purchase, manage, and target ads. Before now, the only way to purchase ads on Snap was through managed services. Which basically means businesses had to place their ad orders, and wait for a third party to do the rest. This third party is what made advertising on the platform more expensive, and less accessible to SMB’s.
Even larger companies who could afford to advertise on Snapchat have been hoping for a self-serve ad platform. Because going through this third-party not only made advertising more expensive, but also less effective. The businesses themselves had less control of when exactly their ads were going to be shown, and to who.
The New Ad Platform
So, now, like Facebook and Google, Snap is setting you up with Ad Manager, which allows you to buy, manage, optimize, and view reporting on campaigns for all of your Snap Ad types (video, app install, webview). Like its competitors, the platform will now also allow businesses to target ads based on the demographic data recorded within the app. And, there is no minimum amount when purchasing ads on the self-serve platform, which hugely opens up marketing on Snapchat for SMB’s.
If that’s not enough, to further entice SMB’s, Snap is making it easier than ever to track your success, and manage different ad accounts among a team with a mobile dashboard, and business manager.
What does that mean for Snap Inc.? Greater revenue potential. What does that mean for businesses? Better brainstorm some video content. That’s one of the potential downfalls when it comes to advertising on Snapchat. Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, sometimes it’s just easier for smaller businesses to make a text-based Google ad, or a templated Facebook ad, than it is to create short-form video content.
But still, we’re eager to see the advertising opportunities this platform will provide for social media marketing on Snapchat.
