Snapchat lenses have become an extremely popular way for Snapchat users to enhance their photos and videos. From silly faces to sparkly eyes, Snapchat lenses add a fun element to Snapchatting. But can Snapchat lens creators actually make money from designing these viral filters? The short answer is yes, you can make money creating Snapchat lenses if your designs take off.
How do Snapchat lenses work?
Snapchat lenses are special effects and filters that users can apply to their Snapchat photos and videos. Lenses might add animated overlays like dog ears and tongues, change the look of your face with effects like aging and gender swapping, or apply stylized color filters.
Lenses are often silly and whimsical, but also align with trending memes or news stories. For example, a taco lens was released for Cinco de Mayo, and light saber lenses were created for the Star Wars movie premieres. The most popular lenses, like the rainbow vomiting lens, have been viewed over a billion times!
To use lenses, Snapchat users simply open the camera within the app and tap on the face icon at the bottom. This brings up the Lens Carousel, which lets you swipe through different available lenses to preview their effects. Tap on one you like to apply it to your photo or video. Snapchat cycles new featured lenses daily to keep things fresh.
Who creates Snapchat lenses?
Snapchat partners with lens creators and brands to develop new augmented reality lenses for Snapchatters to play with. These official lenses you see in the Lens Carousel are made using Lens Studio, Snap’s free desktop app for building lenses.
Anyone can download Lens Studio for free and create their own Snapchat lenses! You don’t need to be an expert coder or AR developer. Lens Studio has templates and tutorials that make the lens creation process simple and intuitive. After designing lenses, you can submit them directly to Snapchat for approval and potential distribution to all Snapchat users.
How can Snapchat lens creators make money?
If your lenses are approved by Snapchat, there are a couple ways you can start monetizing your designs and earning money from your creations.
Get paid for sponsored lenses
Brands can pay Snapchat to create sponsored lenses as part of their advertising campaigns. For example, Amazon commissioned a lens that turned people into Amazon packages around Prime Day. If your lens concept appeals to a brand, you may be able to sell it to them as a sponsored lens.
Earn a share of revenue from viral lenses
Snapchat also offers revenue sharing with some lens creators whose designs really take off. According to Snapchat, lenses that average more than 15 seconds of use per Snapchatter per day are eligible to benefit from advertising revenue sharing. So if you can create compelling, viral lenses that users play with over and over, you can earn a cut of the ad money your lenses generate.
Some Snapchat lens developers have claimed to make up to $40,000 per day at the height of a viral lens spread. Of course most lenses don’t reach that level of popularity, but revenue sharing still provides an opportunity to monetize your most successful creations.
Sell merchandise featuring lens designs
Another option is to sell merchandise featuring your lens designs outside of Snapchat. Several popular lens creators have found ways to profit from their lens artwork by selling t-shirts, phone cases, posters, and other products integrating their designs. While you need Snapchat’s permission to use your lens concepts on merchandise, they are usually open to collaborating.
What types of lenses tend to go viral?
It takes a special recipe for a lens to blow up and spread across the Snapchat community. Here are some common traits of lenses that “make it”:
- Align with trending memes or pop culture moments
- Let people transform their selfies in humorous, weird, or unexpected ways
- Incorporate music, especially catchy hooks, for video lenses
- Launch on holidays, events, or alongside big brand campaigns
- Use facial tracking to interact realistically with users’ movements
Essentially, lenses go viral by being creative, timely, and fun to engage with. Lenses tied to specific events or trends often spike in popularity. And the more a lens makes Snapchatters laugh, sing, or show their friends, the more shares it can garner.
How much do Snapchat lens creators actually make?
It’s tricky to estimate actual earnings for Snapchat lens creators. Snapchat doesn’t publicly share revenue details and creators aren’t supposed to disclose their payments.
However, we can look at a few data points:
- Snapchat says the average user plays with lenses for over 3 minutes per day.
- Daily active Snapchatters reached 363 million in 2022.
- Popular lenses often reach 1 to 2 billion views.
- Some creators have claimed over $10,000 per day at a lens’ peak.
While pay potential certainly varies substantially, these nuggets suggest there is decent money to be made designing lenses that go viral and using revenue-sharing opportunities. Dedicated creators willing to continuously iterate and publish new lenses likely earn the highest payouts.
Conclusion
In summary, it is possible for creative developers to monetize Snapchat lenses by:
- Selling sponsored lenses to brands
- Earning a cut of ad revenue from viral lenses
- Making merchandise featuring lens designs
The most successful Snapchat lens creators tap into trends, leverage humor, and find ways to make their lenses engaging and interactive. While significant time and effort is required, developing popular lenses that get widely shared can be a way to turn AR creativity into real revenue.