In the past, if you wanted to run Snap Ads, you would need to go through one of their ad partners. Now, with the new self-serve tool Snapchat Ad Manager, you can create Snap Ads yourself.
The Snapchat Ads Manager is a valuable tool for any business wanting to create self-service ads on Snapchat. It is also where you can create, update, and view performance for all of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads. Additionally, Ads Manager is a secure way to manage your settings all in one place.
This includes ad accounts, members and their roles, and billing and payments.
What are Snap Ads?
Snap Ads are full-screen vertical video ads that can be up to 10 seconds long. Snapchat users (or Snapchatters) can swipe up, anytime when the video ad is playing, for more — watch a longer video, read an article, install an app, or visit a website.
Snap Ads appear in between friends’ stories and Snapchat curated content such as Snapchat’s stories or publishers’ stories.
Snapchat offers two other types of advertising: Snapchat Geofilters and Lenses. However, these cannot be created in the Snapchat Ad Manager just yet. You can create Snapchat Geofilters online or on the mobile app, while you have to work with a Snapchat partner to create Lenses.
What is Snapchat Ad Manager?
Snapchat Ads Manager is Snapchat’s native dashboard for creating, managing, and reporting on Snap ads and campaigns. The dashboard also includes the Campaign Lab, a testing platform that helps you improve your ads by learning what works best.
However, before you can use the Snapchat Ad Manager, you will need a Snapchat business account.
Here is how to set up a Snapchat Business account:
- Step 1: Head to Snapchat Ads Manager. If you don’t already have a Snapchat personal account, click Sign up next to New to Snapchat.
- Step 2: Enter your business details to create your Snapchat Business Account. From here, you can also create a public profile for your business on Snapchat.
How to create ads in Snapchat Ads Manager
The Snapchat self-serve Ad Manager offers two different ways to create ads: Instant Create and Advanced Create.
Instant Create
Instant Create allows you to create ads with just a couple of clicks, but it’s not available for all objectives. To get started, open Ads Manager and select Instant Create.
Step 1: Choose your objective
Choose one of the available advertising goals:
- website visits
- promote a local place
- calls & texts
- app installs
- app visits
Then, enter the relevant details based on your goal. For example, for website visits, enter your URL. You can also choose to automatically import photos from your website to make ad creation even easier. Then click Next.
Step 2: Add your creative
Upload a photo or video if you didn’t import content from your site. Enter the name of your business and a headline, then choose a call to action and a template. Once you’re happy with the preview of your ad, click Next.
Step 3: Select delivery options
Target your ad and set your budget and timeline. You can choose a daily budget as low as $5. Enter your payment details and click Publish, and your ad is good to go.
Advanced Create
If you want to drive purchases or build multiple ad sets, Advanced Create is the way to go. To get started, open Ads Manager and select Advanced Create.
Step 1: Choose your objective
There are 11 objectives to choose from, grouped into the categories of awareness, consideration, and conversions. For the purposes of this post, we’ll choose Engagement as the objective.
Step 2: Select your campaign details
Name your campaign, choose your campaign start and end dates, and select a campaign budget. The minimum daily campaign spend cap is $20, but in the next step you can choose a daily ad set budget as low as $5.
Here, you can also choose whether to set up a split test. This is an optional feature we’ll explain in the final section of this post. For now, you can leave split testing off.
Step 3: Create your ad sets
Name your first ad set, choose your ad set start and end dates, and select an ad set budget.
Then, choose your placements. For beginners, automatic placement is the best bet. If you have testing results to show specific placements that work best for you, you can choose the placements you wish to focus on. You can also use placements to include or exclude specific content categories or publishers.
You can target your ad set based on location, demographics, and device. This section also lets you use predefined audiences based on interests and behaviors, or add your own custom audience. As you work through your targeting, you will see an estimate of your audience size on the right side of the screen.
Finally, choose the goal for your ad – Swipe Up or Story Opens. If you choose Story Opens, you will have to create a Story Ad. You also choose your bid strategy here. In most cases, Auto-Bid is the recommended option. When you’re happy with all your selections, click Next.
Step 4: Add your creative
Enter the name of your business and a headline for your ad. You can choose to upload visuals, create new ones, or select existing content from your Snap account.
Choose your attachment. While this is a bit of a confusing term, it’s simply how users will engage with your ad: Call, text, or AR lens. The attachment you choose will impact the available calls to action.
When you’re happy with your ad, click Review & Publish.
Step 5: Finalize your campaign
Review your campaign details, add a payment method, and click Publish Campaign.
Types of ads available on Snapchat
Snapchat has lots of options for customizing your ads, so it’s easy to produce a brand that’s totally on-brand while also melding organically with users’ experience on the platform.
Collection Ads
Collection Ads is the most recent development of Snapchat’s programmatic offering, enabling you to showcase a series of products in a fun and seamless shopping experience. They are essentially basic Snapchat video ads with a product thumbnail at the bottom. They are similar to dynamic product ads on other platforms.
You can upload your entire product catalog and feature them dynamically or upload them manually one by one.
Story Ads
With Story Ads, you can place a branded tile in Snapchat’s Discover section. When users tap the tile they’re directed to an aesthetic collection of 3–20 ads.
Story Ads are a branded content experience, forging a narrative that quickly engages users. No need for an introduction—just pique your users’ interest, then entice them into your marketing funnel.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads are an easy way to personalize your ads for your customers. You can use your product catalog, the Snap Pixel, or a mobile measurement app, to automate ad creation while optimizing toward the marketing goals that matter most to your business, like driving purchases online or in-app.
Filters
Filters are fun overlays that users can add after taking a Snap. They might feature bitmojis, apply artistic effects, or display practical information such as an event’s date, time, and venue.
You should use filters to represent your brand in an entertaining but relevant way. So when purchasing or even designing your own filters, always keep your customers front-of-mind: where and why would they be using these?
AR Lenses
According to one of Snapchat’s global reports, 200 million users engage with AR, and the platform’s AR Lenses are a fabulous way to draw on that widespread enthusiasm.
This AR feature drives engagement while helping users connect with your brand in a unique and impactful way. You can even create shoppable Lenses, enabling users to virtually try out your products before purchasing.
There are two types of AR Lens.
- World Lenses, which detects a user’s location and maps their surroundings, and the rear-facing camera gives them the ability to see their environment in a whole new light.
- Face Lenses, which leverages advanced technology to recognize a user’s facial features to transform them into characters from your brand.
Commercials
Commercials are non-skippable video ads that help you drive awareness and engage your audience within Snapchat’s high-quality curated content. Standard Commercials are 3–6 seconds long and non-skippable, whereas Extended Play Commercials are 7–180 seconds long, and only the first 6 seconds are non-skippable.
Snapchat Ads Analytics
The Manage Ads tab in Ads Manager shows you how well your Snap Ads are performing based on your chosen metrics. This tab is also how to see daily spending in Snapchat Ad Manager.
From Ads Manager, click Manage Ads in the left drop-down menu. At the top of the screen, you can use the tabs to see various graphs for the most relevant metrics based on the event your ads are optimized for.
Select Customize Columns to choose specific metrics to view in the Manage Ads table, then use those columns to create a custom report. Once you have the columns you want, click Download, configure your report, and click Export.
You can also create custom, emailable reports by clicking Reports in the left drop-down menu.
Snapchat’s Audience Insights tool within Ads Manager helps you better understand your target audience so you can create more relevant ads and organic content.
From Ads Manager, choose Audience Insights in the left dropdown menu. On the left side of the screen, enter your target demographics, location information, interests, and/or devices. As you do so, the insights will update for your selections.
You can gain some valuable information here. For instance, if you have uploaded a custom audience, you’ll be able to see (and therefore target) their top interests. You’ll also be able to see their demographic breakdown, which will help you better understand how to create relevant content and target future ads.
Snapchat Ads Manager features
Now that you know the basics of how to set up a campaign in Snapchat Ad Manager, let’s look at some of the more advanced features of this tool.
Ad templates
During the ad creation workflow in Advanced Create, you have the option to create your ad based on an existing Snapchat video ad template.
For each layer of the template, you can upload or import your own content, or choose from the Snapchat Ads Manager’s built-in stock library.
You can also upload your own template to make it easier to create consistent ads in the future.
Snap Pixel
The Snap Pixel is a piece of code you install on your website to measure the impact of your Snapchat ad campaigns.
To set up your Snap Pixel in Ads Manager:
- From Ads Manager, click Events Manager in the left drop-down menu.
- Click New Event Source, then choose Web.
- Click Confirm to create your Pixel, then choose whether you will install the Pixel on your website (Pixel Code) or use a third-party integration.
- 4. From the left drop-down menu, click Manage Ads and choose the ad set you want to track. Select Edit, then toggle Snap Pixel to Attached.
Don’t forget to install the Pixel code on your website.
Advanced Targeting
Snapchat Ads Manager offers multiple layers of advanced targeting to help you get the most from your Snap Ads budget:
- Locations: Select specific locations to include or exclude.
- Demographics: Target by age, gender, and language.
- Lifestyle: From Adventure Seekers to Home Decoristas to Techies and Gadget Fans, target people based on Snapchat’s predefined audiences.
- Visitors: Target people based on places they go while carrying their mobile device, from nightclubs to golf courses to banks.
- Device: Target by operating system, device make, connection type, and mobile carrier.
- Snap Audience Match: Using a customer list of emails, phone numbers, or device IDs, target customers who have interacted with you in the past.
- Lookalike Audiences: Target Snapchat users with similar characteristics to your existing customers.
- Pixel Custom Audiences: Target people who have interacted with your brand’s website (aka retargeting).
- Ad Engagement Audiences: Target people who have previously interacted with your Snap ads.
- Profile Engagement Audiences: Target people who have engaged with your Snapchat public profile.
Creator Marketplace
From Snapchat Ads Manager, click Creator Marketplace in the left drop-down menu to connect with creators who specialize in making Snapchat AR lenses. Click through on any creator’s profile to see examples of their work, along with their rates.
Once you work with the creator to develop an AR lens, you can include it in your Snap ads as an attachment.
Public profiles
Snapchat recently launched public profiles for businesses, a permanent profile page for your business that serves as a home for all your organic Snapchat content – including shoppable products. When creating ads through Snapchat Ads Manager, your public profile image and name appear in the top left corner of the ad and link through to your public profile.
To create your public profile:
Step 1: Go to Ads Manager and select Public Profiles from the left drop-down menu.
Step 2: Upload your profile photo, then add a hero (banner) image, bio, category, location, and website.
If you already have a public profile, you’ll need to link it to your ad account:
- From Ads Manager, select Public Profiles in the left drop-down menu.
- Choose your profile, click Settings, and then click +Connect to Ad Account. You can link one public profile to up to 100 ad accounts.
Split testing
Snapchat Ad Manager offers a built-in split testing option. You can use this tool to test the following variables:
- Creative
- Audience
- Goal
- Placement
When you create a split test, you’ll have a different ad set for each variable you want to test. Your budget is also split evenly across the ad sets, so you know each one is getting a fair shot. The results of your split test will tell you which ad set has the lowest cost per goal, along with a confidence score that tells you how sure Snapchat is about the results of the test.
The winning ad set will show a star icon next to it in Ads Manager, with a one-click Run option to create a new campaign based on the winning variable.
Benefits of using Snapchat Ads
Snap Ads are an exciting, largely untapped advertising channel for marketers. Here are some of its benefits:
Active user base
The 166 million Snapchatters who use the app daily, on average, spend over 30 minutes in the app and open the app more than 18 times per day.
Distinct audience
Huge percentages of Snapchat’s daily users are not on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other major social platforms, according to App Annie.
Powerful targeting
With Snapchat’s data, which includes data from Oracle Data Cloud, you can reach Snapchatters based on their demographics and their online and (even) offline interests and behaviors. You can also use your own data to reach your customers and similar Snapchatters on Snapchat.
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