It’s no secret that Snapchat’s rise has been nothing short of astounding. With over 150 million daily users (60 million in the US and Canada) and 10 billion video views per day, there really is no good reason for brands to avoid the platform. Beyond the incredible user engagement, Snapchat offers relatively affordable advertising options compared to other social platforms, making it ideal for small and large businesses.
While ads on social media generally have a bad reputation, Snapchat is one platform where users actually want to engage directly with ads through lenses, filters, and interactive content. Ads on Snapchat the ability to penetrate into the very core of why users use the service in the first place making ads both engaging and fun!
Got $100,000+ To Burn? Start Here…
The good news? Snapchat advertising options are available for almost every type of budget. You may be familiar with popular lenses like the face swap or dog emoji, and brands can be a part of the fun too…for a hefty price. The Peanuts Movie campaign reportedly cost $750,000 to run on Halloween.
An interactive mobile video ad will likely cost you at least $100,000, but again, these are reserved for brands with big budgets. These ads appear in between Stories or Discover content.
National sponsored geofilters are overlays on users’ pictures and videos and typically reach 40 to 60 percent of daily Snapchat users in the United States. Gatorade ran a sponsored national lens that generated 165 million views.
Certainly, brands that can afford to spend big bucks in Snapchat advertising should consider it, especially if you’re looking to increase brand awareness. But if you’re a smaller brand or new to Snapchat, there is an option that allows you to pay to play without blowing your social media marketing budget.
And For Smaller Budgets: On-Demand Geofilters!
On-demand geofilters provide a budget-friendly alternative to other Snapchat ads, making it easy for just about any brand to allocate some money towards Snapchat. Additionally, on-demand geofilters don’t require an active presence, meaning you can create a filter without having an active account.
Starting at just $5, on-demand geofilters are a great way to expand awareness in specific geographic areas you want to reach. Pricing varies based on duration and size of the geofence, among others, but it is certainly a budget-friendly and creative way to engage with the Snapchat community. Note that if you want to target an area above 5 million square feet you’ll have to use sponsored geofilters.
To keep cost down, I recommend setting a small geofence, like the building where the event is taking place. In other words, keep it hyperlocal. If you try to cover too much space, you’ll end up spending more to reach the wrong people. Make your location as specific as possible.
In addition, only run the geofilter for the necessary period of time. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to run a geofilter for an event that hasn’t started. Visit Snapchat’s website for full guidelines on geofilter submissions.
Geofilters can work for any brand, big or small, that needs an innovative way to reach new and current audiences.
Use Cases for On-Demand Geofilters
Career Fairs
Generate excitement and buzz about your company with an on-demand geofilter at a career fair.
In addition to your geofilter, you can also accompany it with unpaid Snapchat content. Create a story showcasing a behind the scenes look at your company to give applicants a glimpse of what life is like at your company. Publishing this content along with your geofilter allows you to get the most out of both paid and unpaid content.
Conferences/Tradeshows
Similarly, raise awareness about your tradeshow attendance with a custom geofilter. Let fellow attendees know where you are by including your booth location on the geofilter. Be careful about using tradeshow logos. Your geofilter will likely get rejected. There’s a good chance that other booths aren’t using geofilters as a marketing tactic, so it’s a great way to stand out from others.
Events
Hosting an event? Launching a new product at the store? For an affordable price, on-demand geofilters are a great way to get the word out.
And with Snapchat’s Memories, you can generate content for free from users’ snaps. Simply encourage users to send snaps with your geofilter, screenshot them, and save them to add to an event recap in a story. For a little bit of money, geofilters can help to generate user created content after the conclusion of an event.
Then There’s Always Organic Content
Remember that your Snapchat advertising endeavors are only part of the puzzle. In addition to advertising, your organic content is just as important. In fact, your organic content is how you’ll capture your users’ attention over and over. Because snaps disappear, your brand can create unique organic content that forces your followers to pay attention, outside of advertising.
Like any social platform, your organic Snapchat content needs to be planned. Be willing to experiment to see what works with your followers; maybe it’s a weekly question and answer session, or a Snapchat takeover with an influencer. Don’t be afraid to get creative.
In Conclusion
There’s no doubt that part of your audience, if not all, is on Snapchat. And it’s where you need to be. With so many social platforms and competition, you may feel overwhelmed with paid social advertising. Experimenting with on-demand geofilters is an affordable tactic to reach your customers and gain loyal followers. Build a community with fun organic content, and use Snapchat’s advertising options to help support those efforts.
SME Paid Under
About the Author
