As marketers, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to get our message in front of our target audience.
Snapchat has been the obsession among social media marketers for the past few years – and for good reason. Its functionality, ease of use, and easy-to-digest content has helped the app establish a significant user base, with users now sending more than 3 billion Snaps daily.
Given this growth, Snapchat is obviously a great medium for marketing right? Well, that depends on a few different factors.
If you have the luxury of only being responsible for branding, Snapchat could be a good addition. However, if you (like most people) have to justify your work through tangible business value, Snapchat might not be the best place to focus your time.
Here are 4 reasons why you should be careful with Snapchat, from a marketing perspective.
1.- “Successful” accounts already have brand equity
Lets you establish something – We are all marketing on social media to make money.
There are many “thought leaders” who will push you to become a mystical storyteller, full of human emotions that can captivate anyone with your content. This is false. You need to look at your overall strategy, figure out what your goals are, and execute tactics.
Most of the brands that are “doing it right” on Snapchat already have such great brand value that it would be impossible for them not to do it right. DJ Khaled, for example, already has a huge fan base, Gatorade has been around forever, and Gucci is one of the most iconic brands in the world. You are being very foolish if you think your business can operate like these brands do on Snapchat and see the value in the business.
Don't be fooled by people preaching all the theory and none the practice. – if you really want to add Snapchat to your branding package, do so knowing that you won't have the visibility or success that these brands have.
2.- Shocking advertising is expensive
Snapchat users, who are obviously younger, are digitally savvy, with 76% of them being active online shoppers. However, reaching exponentially more of these users in a targeted way can be very costly on Snapchat.
While Snapchat has just opened its advertising platform, previous Snapchat campaigns have quickly reached the tens of thousands at a basic level. If you're hoping to run an ad in Snapchat's Discover section, for example, you're looking at a minimum spend of $40,000. Do you want a sponsored Lens campaign? Be ready to spend at least $450,000.
As noted, Snapchat now offers more affordable options – there are Geofilters for example, which can be yours for as little as $50 per day, however users should be aware of their existence and actively use them to generate value.
And even if you have the budget to advertise on Snapchat, you should also be aware that 80% of 18- to 24-year-olds on the platform skip ads “always” or “often.” Additionally, 73% of users said they never interact with Snapchat ads to access more content.
If you have the budget to spend on prints, great. However, I recommend investing in a platform that can connect the dots between impression, click, and conversion. Snapchat is improving on this front, but they still have a way to go.
3.- Competition for attention
The blessing and curse of being a very popular social platform is the immense amount of clutter that is created by users – the more users people follow, the more competition there is for their attention. Facebook has dealt with this by implementing highly sophisticated algorithms that highlight individually relevant content based on engagement, however with Snapchat you're stuck with who you choose to follow, which can present a challenge in reach.
Speaking of which, did you know that 61% of users don't follow any news organizations, 50% don't follow sports publishers (like ESPN), and 57% don't follow popular entertainment brands like. If these historically popular brands are having trouble building communities on Snapchat, how do you think your small or medium business will perform?
Snapchat has so much going on all the time that users tend to focus on other users they know. The silver lining here is that a recent study showed that 69% of college students would be more receptive to opening a Snap from a brand to a person they don't know. There is some hope there, however you better have exquisite content, which you promote heavily on other social channels, if you are going to enter the Snapchat bubble.
4.- Lack of analysis
We don't get actionable data that we can use to refine and improve business results.
Sure, you can get impression data, completion rates, and even see the number of screenshots – however, if you were going to get the information in front of your CMO or a client, would they care? Probably not.
Snapchat is a great branding tool, however the reality of the marketing world is that we must constantly prove our value, and Snapchat, so far, hasn't provided much help in the same way that other social platforms do, from an analytical standpoint. . Their new ad platform includes a data dashboard and Snapchat is working to improve this element, but it's worth considering in your process.
Do not misunderstand. Snapchat is a great tool that can fit into the marketing mix for certain brands, however, the other 90% of brands trying to build and make a living could do more harm than good by treating Snapchat as the savior of social engagement. .
If your organization is comfortable measuring impressions, and they only do purely branding, definitely consider Snapchat. However, if you need to prove to a data subject that you are driving website visits, conversions, repeat customers, or even assisted sales, then you should take the time to ensure that Snapchat's data options provide all the information you need before move forward with a strategic expansion.
My best advice is to try Snapchat, but move forward with your goals, budgets, and limitations in mind.
