Knowing how to run Snapchat ads is a must for a retail brand’s’ social media strategy. And if you want to make a splash on Snapchat, you’ll probably need to pay to play.
Paid ads on Snapchat are one of the quickest ways to boost your snap’s reach. But how do they work? And what kind of results can you expect from your ad spend?
This guide will share everything you need to know about Snapchat ads to get your campaigns up and running, with tips and examples from brands that are nailing it.
What are Snapchat ads?
Snapchat ads are 10-second full-screen vertical videos that pop up between your friends’ stories. People can swipe up to interact with your ad.
How do Snapchat ads work?
As the advertiser, you can set the swipe up to link to your website, show a longer video, display an article, or prompt an app install. Think of it like an Instagram Story ad, but with Snapchat’s unique twist.
Just like Facebook ads, Snapchat’s advertising platform is self-serve. Anyone can create ads, launch campaigns, track performance, and tweak campaigns in the Snapchat Ads Manager. You can kick off ads for as little as $5 per day.
How much does Snapchat advertising cost?
Running ads on Snapchat starts at just $5 per day. You can set daily and lifetime budgets that work for you and adjust as you go. Snapchat even offers tools like Snap Publisher to help you create and edit ads in minutes.
Snapchat charges per 1,000 impressions (CPM) but also offers goal-based bidding. This lets you optimize your campaign for specific actions Snapchatters might take, like making a purchase or downloading your app.
Getting started on Snapchat is free—just create a Snapchat account, open an ad account, and you’re ready to start running ads.
Types of Snapchat ads
Snapchat’s got an ad format for every business, big or small. You can use different ad formats tailored to your business goals, whether you’re aiming to boost sales or rack up downloads.
Let’s check out some of the ad types you can run:
Single image or video
Single image or video ads are full-screen ads that work for lots of objectives. Just add an attachment, like a link to your website or app download, and Snapchatters can swipe up to take action. These ads pop up in between or after content like User Stories, Publishers, Creators, and Our Stories.
Your creative can be videos, photos, GIFs, or cinemagraphs. You can make an ad up to three minutes long, but since people’s attention spans are short, it’s best to keep it between three and five seconds.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type: .jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: 1080 px x 1920 px
- Length: 3–180 seconds
- Attachments: Website, app, long form video, or AR Lens
- Brand name: Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline: Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action: Add CTA text; Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad
Read more: How to Make Online Videos (In 30 Minutes or Less)
Lenses
Snapchat also lets you run fun, interactive augmented reality (AR) ads in its Ads Manager. With Lens Web Builder, you can pick from hundreds of 3D objects, animations, and effects to create your own branded AR lens.
Once you’re done, you can launch it as an ad for Snapchatters to play with and share with friends.
These AR ads come with a bunch of guidelines and restrictions. If you want to run them, check out Snapchat’s Lenses specifications to launch a successful ad.
Story ads
Story ads let you reach your target audience with a branded tile in the Discover feed. Snapchatters can tap into your ad and see a collection of three to 20 snaps. You could show off a new fashion line, product launches, or special releases.
Viewers can also swipe up to engage more with the ad and complete your goal, like buying something on your website.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type: .jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: 1080 px x 1920 px
- Length: 3–180 seconds
- Attachments: Website, app, long form video, or Lens
- Brand name: Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline: Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action: Add CTA text; Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad
The following specs are for the tile asset for the Discover section:
- Logo:
- File type: .png
- Resolution: 993 px x 284 px
- Image:
- File type: .png
- Resolution: 360 px x 600 px
- Story title: Up to 55 characters, including spaces
Collection ads
Collection ads have four tappable tiles that let Snapchatters browse and buy your products. You can feature a series of products and, if someone’s interested, they just tap to get more info.
Collection ads are perfect for ecommerce brands that want to give Snapchatters a smooth shopping experience.
Ad specs and requirements:
- File type: .jpg, .png, .mp4, or .mov
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: 1080 px x 1920 px
- Length: 3–180 seconds
- Attachments: Website, app, long form video, or Lens
- Brand name: Up to 25 characters, including spaces
- Headline: Up to 34 characters, including spaces
- Call to action: Add CTA text; Snapchat will apply the visual and place the CTA on the ad
Collection ads also need a thumbnail image, which has its own specs:
- File type: .jpg or .png (static image only)
- Resolution: 160 px x 160 px
- Each thumbnail image needs a URL
- URLs can be used multiple times
Filters
Geofilters are overlays that show up after a user takes a snap and swipes left or right. People can add them to their snaps to highlight neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, shops, and more. These ads usually target active users within a specific location, but can be refined by things like interests, gender, and age.
Ad requirements:
- File type: .png
- Resolution: 1080 px x 2340 px
- Mandatory text, logos, and legal disclaimers can’t be placed within 310 px of the top or bottom of the canvas
- Visible brand logo or brand name
Commercial ads
Commercials are ads Snapchatters cannot skip for six seconds, and can be up to three minutes long. These video ads appear in Snapchat’s curated content, which are themed collections promoted in the Snapchat app. They help brands get a longer message across in a premium environment.
Ad requirements:
- File type: .mp4 or .mov (H.264 encoded)
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Resolution: 1080 px x 1920 px
- Length: 3–180 seconds
- Attachments: Website, long form video, or AR Lens
Dynamic ads
Most social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok let brands run dynamic ads.
These ads automatically promote your products to people based on their actions or page views on your website. For example, if someone abandons their cart on your site, Snapchat will create an ad for that person and show it to them on mobile.
Snapchat offers two formats for dynamic ads: single image and collection. They’re built using items from your product catalog and pre-set templates rather than being created manually each time.
How to advertise on Snapchat with Shopify
Snapchat and Shopify teamed up to make creating ads and setting up campaigns a breeze. In the free Snapchat Ads app for Shopify, you can:
- Deploy the Snap pixel
- Sync your products
- Run ad campaigns from your Marketing tab
PRO TIP: Join over 10,000 Shopify merchants using the Snapchat Ads app to market their ecommerce businesses on Snapchat. Download the Snapchat Ads app for free in the Shopify App Store.
How to create Snapchat ads in Ads Manager
To get started with Snapchat ads, first sign up for a Snapchat account. Once you’re in, head over to the Snapchat Ads Manager.
Next, pick how you want to create your first Snap ad. You’ve got two options: Instant Create or Advanced Create.
Instant Create lets you whip up a single ad quickly. Advanced Create gives you more control—you can create multiple ads within your campaign and build out funnels.
We’ll cover the more advanced setup in this tutorial, so start by clicking on Advanced Create.
1. Choose an objective
First up, decide on your objective. Think about what you want Snapchatters to do when they see your ad.
Here are the objectives you’ll likely use as an ecommerce business:
- Awareness ads help build brand or product awareness with new customers.
- Promote Places lets you promote locations.
- App installs drive people to download your app.
- Traffic objectives send people to a website of your choice, like a landing page or a product page.
- Engagement objectives get more users to interact with your ad.
- Video views will promote your video ad.
- Website conversions track meaningful interactions on your website, like purchases.
- Catalog sales display your product catalog.
Notice how these objectives fall into three big categories: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions. This is because customers typically go through these three phases before making a purchase.
- In the awareness phase, the customer is just getting to know your brand, service, or product.
- In the consideration phase, the customer is learning more about what you offer and thinking about making a purchase.
- The conversion phase is where the customer buys something or takes an action you find valuable.
When picking an objective, think about where customers are in your funnel and build ads that fit.
If Snapchat is new territory for you, start by nurturing customers at an awareness level, then retargeting the audience that interacts with your awareness ad and serve them an ad with a consideration objective.
2. Name your campaign
Next, give your campaign a name.
Come up with a naming system that makes sense to you. Make it easy to understand what the campaign’s about at first glance to stay organized.
The Status button is set to On by default. That means as soon as you launch a campaign it will start on the date you set.
Next up, you can choose to create a split test. This lets you test two variables side by side in identical campaigns to see which one works better—kind of like a sixth-grade science experiment, where you test a control group against an experimental group.
3. Choose a start and end date and decide on a budget
By setting a daily spend cap, you’ll spend no more than the daily amount you enter.
Lifetime spend is how much you’ll spend over the entire run of your ad. This means daily spend can go up and down. You can increase, decrease, or remove the lifetime spend cap whenever you want.
4. Create your ad set
On the Ad Set Details page, you can enable your Snap pixel, if you have one. The Snap pixel helps you measure how well your campaigns are doing and see what actions people take on your website after viewing your ad.
You can grab the code snippet from Ads Manager and pop it on your website if you like. This is handy for creating retargeting ads down the road.
Next, pick your ad placement. You’ll see the option for Automatic Placement, where Snapchat will help show your ads to more people, across multiple spots, where they’re likely to perform best.
Now, define who you want to see your ads. You can choose specific locations and demographics to target. Snapchat also lets you pick a target demographic by location, and use advanced filters like occupation or interests.
You can also fine-tune your target group by selecting a predefined audience. These are ready-made audiences using Snapchat and third-party data you can use to connect with people based on what they’re into and how they behave. You can even get specific by targeting certain operating systems, like Apple iOS or Android.
Scroll down and you’ll hit the delivery section. Here, you can confirm how much you want to spend, how long the campaign will run, and your bidding strategy.
If you’re not sure how much to spend when advertising on Snapchat ads, start small. You can always bump up your budget if the ad is doing well.
5. Build your ad
On the next screen you’ll see the option to design your ad. Pick your ad format and the screen will change to match. For example, if you’re creating a single image or video ad, you’ll see the input fields below.
Upload your visuals, add your brand name, headline text, CTA, and any other info you need. You’ll be able to see how your ad will look on the right-hand side of the editor.
Once everything looks great, review your info on the next screen. Add your business address and payment details, then hit Publish Campaign in the bottom right corner.
Are Snapchat ads worth it?
Snapchat ads are a solid choice for ecommerce brands targeting younger crowds. Other perks include reaching an untapped market, powerful targeting abilities, and Snapchat’s love for ecommerce brands.
Untapped market
Snapchat’s numbers are impressive 400 million people use it daily. Advertising on big players like Facebook or Instagram can cost you more. You’re battling other brands for eyeballs here.
But Snapchat? It could be an exciting new advertising playground for your brand.
Powerful targeting
Snapchat’s data lets you zero in on users based on their demographics. You can target them based on their online and offline interests and behaviors. You can even plug in your own data to reach Snapchatters.
If you’re after a younger crowd, 81% of Snapchat users are under the age of 35. That could be a big win for you. But if your products or services aren’t for the younger crowd, this might not be your go-to platform.
Favors retail brands
Snapchat ads pack a punch for retail brands. Snapchat users are 45% more likely to tell their friends about brands they see in ads, and 34% are more likely to buy after seeing an ad.
Fashion, quirky items, and impulse buys do great with Snapchat ads. If you’re selling directly to consumers (B2C), Snapchat ads might be your new best friend.
Snapchat ad metrics to keep an eye on
The exact metrics you track depend on your Snapchat ad type. But here are the key metrics you’ll want to watch:
Impressions
Impressions count how many times your ad pops up on people’s story tile on the Discover page. Paid impressions are tallied when the tile is 50% on screen for at least one second. They tell you how many folks might have seen your ad, but not if they paid attention or took action.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate tracks how many people did what you wanted after seeing your ad, like buying something or signing up for your newsletter.
Cost per story open
This tracks how much you’re spending for each story open. A lower cost usually means your ad is doing a good job of grabbing attention.
Click-through rate (CTR)
CTR measures how often people click on your ad compared to how many times it was shown.
Paid reach
This counts the unique number of Snapchatters who’ve seen a paid impression of your ad.
Two-second video views
This counts meaningful video ad watches. It includes two types: when someone watches at least two seconds of your video without stopping, or when they click on the ad.
Video completions
This counts how many times people watched almost all of your video ads. Specifically, it tracks when viewers see 97% of your top snap (the main part of your video ad).
Snapchat ads vs. other social media platforms
| Snapchat | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| User age | 13-24 | 18-34 | 25 to 65+ |
| Ad placements | Stories, Discover section, between user snaps, and sponsored Lenses or Filters | Feed, Stories, Reels, Explore tab | Feed, Stories, right column, Messenger, Marketplace, and Audience Network |
| Targeting depth | Limited compared to Facebook | Extensive targeting through lookalike audiences and retargeting | Same as Instagram |
| Cost | 57¢ per swipe up | $1.17 per click | 59¢ per click |
Snapchat
Snapchat makes creating ads a breeze. Most ads are short and eye-catching. The special face filters (called AR Lenses) can be trickier to make.
Young folks tend to like Snapchat ads. They often play with the ads and share them with friends. Ads don’t hang around long on Snapchat, so people pay attention to them.
Creating Instagram ads takes a bit more effort because you need quality pictures or videos. You use the same tools as Facebook to make the ads, so you get access to more advanced targeting options.
Stories and short videos (called Reels) work really well for showing off products and making your brand look cool.
Facebook gives you the most ad choices, but this can make things tricky. You can pick exactly who sees your ads, but fewer people click on Facebook ads than in the past.
Still, with more than three billion users, Facebook ads are still worth it. Videos work well, especially with older users. Facebook has some complex features that can boost your ads if you know how to use them.
Snapchat ad tips
Now that you know how to whip up a snap ad in the Ads Manager, here are some Snapchat tricks to help your ads convert.
Use retargeting ads
Moving an audience through a funnel with retargeting ads can boost your conversion rate more than just running a single ad. Retargeting is when you show an audience another ad or ad sequence based on how they interacted with a previous ad.
Snapchat calls this type of audience “ad engagement audiences.” It’s a retargeting strategy that’s all about actions people take on Snapchat ads.
Here’s how you might create a sequence of ads and use retargeting like a pro:
- Start with a seven-second video of someone showing off your product’s unique features. This is your brand awareness ad.
- Then retarget the people that swiped up. Pull this engaged audience into the consideration phase by showing them an ad about your brand’s commitment to sustainability.
- For folks who interacted with that second ad, hit them with a conversion ad featuring a sale and free shipping.
Discounts and free shipping are usually great ways to nudge people off the fence and into making a purchase.
Be consistent with your content on Snapchat
Slow and steady wins the Snapchat race. If you’re on a tight budget, spread it out. Don’t go all in during January and then vanish from February to March.
Of course, if your brand has specific reasons to advertise more heavily at certain times, go for it. Maybe you’re launching a skin care line and want to push ads to younger audiences. Or you might have a strategy for sprint-style advertising. Every brand is different, but generally, it’s best to keep your brand top of mind over a longer period.
“Create a full funnel structure as you would with Facebook ads or any paid social platform,” says Jack Shepherd, founder of social media marketing agency The Social Shepherd. “Use appropriate custom audience exclusions throughout your funnel to control which creative each person is seeing, depending on where that person is in that journey with your brand.”
Jack recommends the following tips for creating Snapchat ad content:
- Focus on one key message.
- Start strong. Capture viewers’ attention within the first second, or you’ll lose them.
- Keep creatives under 20 seconds.
- Create intrigue to drive the swipe up, but give enough context in the video to ensure you’re driving high-quality traffic.
Make your ads feel natural and not overly salesy
Create content that’s fun and exciting 80% of the time. Use the other 20% to push your products. Remember, people open Snapchat to share stuff with friends. Nobody thinks, “Hey, I want to see a great advertisement today!”
Team up with content creators and micro-influencers for videos that feel like user-generated content. It’ll come across as more authentic. Consider an underproduced look—skip the lights and studio for your Snapchat ads.
Start advertising on Snapchat today
There’s no doubt that ads are worth it if you want to make money Snapchat. Both big and small retailers and marketers can tap into the power of mobile shopping, showing commerce-ready ads and encouraging people to browse and buy on their phones.
Remember, success on Snapchat relies on authenticity. Make your ads feel natural by cutting out the heavy production.
Use retargeting to move people through your funnel. Test and optimize based on your ad metrics. Soon, you’ll start seeing more sales on your site thanks to Snapchat ads.
Illustration by Eugenia Mello
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Snapchat ads FAQ
How often should I update my Snapchat ad campaigns?
As a rule of thumb, refresh your Snapchat ad campaigns every to to four weeks to keep content fresh and keep your audience engaged. But keep a close eye on your ad performance and make tweaks sooner if you notice engagement dropping off.
What are the different types of Snapchat ads?
Snapchat offers several types of ads, including:
- Story ads: Branded tiles in the Discover section.
- Filters: Overlays users can add to their snaps.
- AR Lenses: Interactive augmented reality experiences.
- Collection ads: Showcasing multiple products.
- Commercials: Non-skippable video ads in Snapchat’s curated content.
What is the minimum budget for Snapchat ads?
You can get started with Snapchat ads for as little as $5 a day.
How good are Snapchat ads?
Snapchat is great for reaching millennials and Gen Z. You can run ads on the cheap, use powerful targeting features, and show off your brand with full-screen ads that inspire action and get results.
What are the three types of ads on Snapchat?
The main types are Story ads, collection ads, and single-image ads.
What is the best way to target Snapchat ads?
There are two top ways to target Snapchat ads: prospecting and retargeting. With prospecting, you can reach new audiences interested in your products. You can target by age, gender, interests, and more. With retargeting, you can reach people who’ve shown interest in your products by visiting your site in the past 30 days.
