It’s a given that advertisers know they need to be in front of their audience to get their message across. Obviously, over the past decade, more and more of those eyeballs are moving online, which is causing a massive influx of ad dollars to the web. In the past two years, there has been an increasing concern in how effective web banners are, as many are being placed so low on a page a viewer never sees them.
When it comes to advertising on social media, Facebook is currently a leader due to the amount of time the average person spends on the website, mobile site and app every day. Facebook is able to incorporate ads and video ads amongst content that its users are actively looking for, in turn drawing eyeballs to these ads. As a result, Facebook is attempting to push its video ad format more heavily.
While Facebook is a great platform to market your business on social media, Snapchat is one that should not be overlooked by brands.
Snapchat for Business
The opportunity to leverage Snapchat for business is massive and currently unrivaled. First, the amount of content being consumed on the platform every day is booming and shows no sign of slowing down. Additionally, Snapchat content, whether content as a brand’s story or as a paid ad, is extremely likely to be viewed because it’s being intertwined within content from friends.
- According to Bloomberg, Snapchat is growing at a breakneck pace. From May 2015 to May 2016, Snapchat video views grew from 2 billion to 10 billion daily. By May 2017, this platform is expected to have 18 billion video views daily.
- As a result of this growth, 22 percent of ad executives plan to advertise on Snapchat this year
Producing successful content comes down to creating content that blends in with other stories that your target customer is already on the app to watch. This holds true for both ad content and simply putting up stories on your own as a brand. If a user realizes the content is from a brand that they are not interested in, they will skip the content with one click. However, if the content blends in, your brand has more time to earn the audience’s attention.
Also on StartupNation.com: How to Use Snapchat in Your Small Business Branding Strategy
Tips for producing great Snapchat content
- Much to the chagrin of photography purists, Snapchat is the home of vertical video. Ads or stories that are produced horizontally will stand out negatively and are more prone to being skipped.
- Don’t overproduce your video! When you consume Snapchat stories, you see that most of the content is shot in the moment and on the fly, which leads to a low production value. That doesn’t stop anyone from consuming it. Create your content using the same format, as this helps your content blend in. Just because it doesn’t have a high production quality doesn’t mean that it should be low quality content. Take this opportunity to show “behind the scenes” content from your brand to really connect with your audience.
Currently, the demographic age 18 to 24 is the largest segment on Snapchat, and the under 12 segment is the fastest growing. The younger market have voted with their thumbs and have declared that (at least for the time being) their attention is on Snapchat. If your business is marketing anything to this demographic and not giving this platform your attention, your brand will be forgotten like yesterday’s snaps.
