Will Snapchat Ads Become The New Best Ad Spot for Young Brands?
With its new private marketplace, Snapchat is changing the way advertisements serve its publishers and appeal to brands. The end of July marked the beginning of a series of beta testing for the new age of Snapchat ads. In competition with the dangerously similar and more popular Facebook-owned Instagram, Snapchat ads offers a different experience for advertising spots in their Discover section. One of the greatest changes taking place is the implementation of a private market place open to select publishers.
Private Marketplace Beta Program
The Snap private marketplace (PMP) makes ad inventory packages available for the involved Discover partners. Discover, Snapchat’s media section, contains publishers of digital magazine-like content and Snap shows approximately three to five minutes long. Due to this new PMP, brands and channels benefit from an immediate and direct approach offered by the Ads Manager programmatic platform. Some well known discover partners included in the beta testing are BuzzFeed, VICE, and ESPN.
Freedom for Discover Partners and Advertisers
As a result from these advertising changes, Discover channels and brands receive more opportunities for control in buying and selling ad space. Each Discover channel holds jurisdiction over which advertisers may access ad spots on its channel and the price point. Similarly, the new changes award brands more freedom to choose the specific publishers they advertise through. In doing so, Snapchat grants brands opportunities to reach their target audience more specifically by choosing ad space based off viewer demographics. Not to mention this is all in part of the programmatic self-serve ad option. Therefore, brands can buy spots directly from publishers through Ad Manager. And for the brands not keen on the self-serve process, Snap still offers salespeople as a liaison.
Six-second, No-skip Commercial Options
Additionally, after brands expressed displeasure with users ease to click through ads, Snapchat developed a no-skip, six-second commercial ad option. For the time being, commercial options appear solely in Discover Shows. Snapchat’s worthy response to these concerns exemplify its dedication to improve the experience not just for users, but also for brands and publishers alike. It’s likely this new commercial option attracts more brands to invest in advertising spots. Since these commercials are brief and unskippable, they’re likely to engage viewers and may be a power move for some serious ROI.
Although naturally compared to bigger social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, it seems Snapchat is beginning to differentiate itself with these new advertising options. The brands aspiring to reach this target market now receive more power on how they do so. Not only is this platform a known app for young people, but it also has a high and frequent user engagement. Therefore, categorizing it as a low-risk investment with these new changes.
It’s exciting to see what type of opportunities Snapchat has in store. Looking ahead, Snap’s PMP could generate a highly competitive advertising spot for younger brands. We look forward to optimizing any new changes to use this platform more effectively for our clients.