Snapchat is a popular social media platform that allows users to share photos, videos, and messages that disappear after being viewed. Snapchat now has over 250 million daily active users worldwide. This massive userbase presents a huge opportunity for marketers looking to advertise on Snapchat.
Like other social platforms, Snapchat provides various advertising objectives that marketers can optimize their ads towards based on their goals. Choosing the right objective is crucial for ensuring your ads resonate with your target audience and drive results.
Awareness
One of the main goals for Snapchat ads is driving brand awareness. Snapchat’s immersive full-screen ads are ideal for grabbing attention and getting your brand, product, or service in front of Snapchat’s hard-to-reach youth audiences.
Here are some tips for optimizing Snapchat ads for awareness:
- Use eye-catching creative like video and animations
- Leverage Snapchat’s voiceover feature to engage viewers
- Keep your message simple and focused on brand-building
- Target a broad audience based on demographics and interests
- Measure impressions, reach, frequency, and brand lift surveys
Raising brand awareness is crucial early in the marketing funnel to get audiences familiar with and interested in your brand. Snapchat’s immersive ads can be more impactful for awareness than small static ads on other platforms.
Consideration
The consideration objective aims to move audiences further down the funnel by promoting specific products, services or events. This objective is focused on driving conversion actions.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for consideration include:
- Highlight specific features/benefits of your offering
- Use promotional messaging and offers like discounts
- Drive traffic to your website, app or online store
- Target audiences likely to convert based on behaviors and demographics
- Measure website visits, app installs, sales and more
Consideration campaigns work best for audiences already aware of your brand. The ads should nudge them closer to a conversion by promoting your products/services and driving them to take action through clicks.
Conversions
The conversions objective optimizes your ads directly for driving conversions, like purchases, sign-ups, bookings, and more. This requires precise targeting and messaging.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for conversions include:
- Use direct response creative and messaging
- Drive traffic to landing pages with clear calls-to-action
- Target lookalike audiences similar to your existing converters
- Remarket to users who have already engaged with your brand
- Measure sales, sign-ups, page views, add-to-carts and more
The conversions objective is best suited for buyers at the bottom of the funnel who need one final nudge to drive the desired action. The right creative and offer can help tip them over the edge to convert.
App Installs
Snapchat now allows optimizing specifically for mobile app installs. This involves driving clicks on App Store/Google Play links to prompt app downloads.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for app installs include:
- Promote your app benefits and key features
- Use video to demonstrate the app experience
- Target audiences likely to be interested in your app
- Drive clicks to app store listings
- Measure installs and cost per install
App install campaigns work best when targeting audiences who will find utility and value in your app. Messaging should focus on the app’s functionality and why users will benefit from downloading it.
Video Views
Given Snapchat’s video-first format, many advertisers optimize specifically for driving video views through Snapchat’s 3-second Commercials and Snap Ads.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for video views include:
- Use compelling video content that grabs attention quickly
- Leverage sound and motion for increased engagement
- Target broad audiences likely to view full videos
- Measure video views, completion rates, and cost per view
Video view campaigns aim to get the most exposures for your video content. Completion rate is also a key metric, as you want viewers watching your full videos. Shorter videos typically see higher completion rates on Snapchat.
Catalog Sales
Snapchat now allows optimizing campaigns directly for driving catalog product sales. This involves promoting products from your product catalog.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for catalog sales include:
- Promote discounted or trending products from your catalog
- Target audiences likely to purchase your catalog products
- Drive traffic directly to product pages
- Measure purchases, add-to-carts, and return on ad spend
Catalog sales campaigns work best when paired with compelling creative and offers showcasing your products. Messaging should speak directly to your goal of driving product conversions.
Store Visits
Snapchat now allows optimizing ads specifically for driving foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores. This requires location targeting and compelling calls-to-action.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for store visits include:
- Target users near your store locations
- Promote special in-store offers and events
- Drive foot traffic from Snap Map
- Measure store visits via location data
Store visit campaigns are ideal for omnichannel brands with physical retail locations. Messaging should highlight the benefits of visiting your stores and any special promotions or experiences.
Lead Generation
Some brands use Snapchat ads specifically for generating quality leads, like promoting lead gen offers, surveys, contests, and sign-up forms.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for leads include:
- Promote gated offers, content, contests, etc.
- Drive clicks to landing pages with lead gen forms
- Target high-intent audiences likely to convert
- Measure form submissions, cost per lead, and lead quality
Lead gen campaigns work best when targeting audiences open to providing information in exchange for exclusive offers and content. Messaging should sell the value of the gated asset.
Traffic
Some advertisers may simply optimize Snapchat ads for driving traffic to their website or app. This can help increase awareness, consideration, and conversions.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for traffic include:
- Use clickworthy creative and messaging
- Drive traffic to high-converting pages
- Target broad and targeted audiences
- Measure clickthrough rate, cost per click, and post-click actions
Traffic campaigns can have wide objectives, from top-funnel awareness to driving conversions. You can tailor targeting and creative based on your overall business goals.
Engagement
The engagement objective optimizes for social engagement actions like shares, likes, comments, and views. This helps amplify brand awareness and consideration.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for engagement include:
- Use interactive and entertaining ad formats
- Leverage viral content designed for sharing
- Target audiences prone to social engagement
- Measure shares, comments, cost per engagement, and brand lift
Engagement campaigns help make your ads part of the cultural conversation. Viral content that encourages sharing can help drive brand buzz, especially among Snapchat’s youth demographic.
Reach
Some brands use Snapchat ads to maximize reach by serving impressions to the largest possible audience. This can help in early brand awareness stages.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for reach include:
- Target broad audiences and interests
- Set higher frequency caps to increase exposures
- Use large text, branding, and other attention-grabbing creative
- Measure total impressions and unique reach
Reach campaigns cast a wide net to expose your brand to as many Snapchat users as possible. They work best for raising awareness in the early stages of the funnel before narrowing to more precise objectives.
Frequency
Optimizing for frequency involves serving multiple exposures to the same audience to increase brand familiarity and memory. This works best for later-funnel objectives.
Best practices for optimizing Snapchat ads for frequency include:
- Target more narrow, defined audiences
- Use 3+ frequency cap for increased exposure
- Leverage retargeting to re-engage users
- Measure average frequency and brand lift
Frequency campaigns aim to make audiences increasingly familiar with your brand and messaging through repeated exposures over time. But beware of over-exposing users, which can lead to fatigue.
Objective | Best Uses | Key Metrics |
---|---|---|
Awareness | Early-stage brand-building | Impressions, reach, brand lift |
Consideration | Promoting products, services, events | Clicks, website visits, add-to-carts |
Conversions | Driving purchases, sign-ups, bookings | Sales, registrations, cost per conversion |
App Installs | Promoting mobile app downloads | Installs, cost per install |
Video Views | Increasing video views and completion | Views, video completion rate |
Catalog Sales | Selling products from your catalog | Purchases, return on ad spend |
Store Visits | Driving foot traffic to physical stores | Store visits, cost per visit |
Lead Generation | Generating quality leads and sign-ups | Lead volume, cost per lead, conversions |
Traffic | Increasing site/app traffic and actions | Clicks, CTR, conversions |
Engagement | Boosting likes, shares, comments | Engagements, brand lift |
Reach | Serving the largest audience possible | Impressions, total reach |
Frequency | Increasing ad exposures per user | Avg. frequency, brand lift |
How to Choose the Right Snapchat Ad Objective
When deciding on the best Snapchat ad objective, here are some tips to consider:
- Identify your overall marketing goals and required results
- Think about what response you want from your target audience
- Match objectives to where audiences are in the marketing funnel
- Start broad for awareness, then narrow targeting over time
- Consider using multiple objectives for layered campaigns
- Set benchmarks and metrics to optimize towards
- Analyze performance data and iterate on creative and targeting
- Allow time for testing and optimization across objectives
Snapchat’s variety of objectives provides flexibility to marketers. But avoid trying to achieve too many competing goals simultaneously. Focus your efforts on 1-3 coherent objectives and campaign elements that ladder up to your KPIs.
Test across different objectives, audiences, creative, offers and placements to gain learning. Iterate based on performance data. With continued optimization, you can achieve a diverse range of branding and conversion goals with Snapchat ads.
Conclusion
Snapchat offers powerful advertising capabilities, but only if you select the right objectives for your campaigns. Aligning your creative, targeting, and measurement with your optimization goals is key to driving results.
Test across different objectives while tailoring campaign elements and analysis to match. Consider both brand lift metrics and direct response conversions to quantify success. For optimal return, focus on 1-3 primary objectives and pour your efforts into perfecting those.
With smart goal-setting and ongoing optimization, Snapchat ads can move the needle for businesses across all stages of the marketing funnel.