Swiping left on ads
Using social media for marketing is a no-brainer, but Snapchat may be a waste of your advertising dollars, according to new statistics from customer acquisition firm Fluent.
Fluent surveyed over 3,200 U.S. adult Snapchat users and found that the vast majority are swiping to skip ads on Snapchat. Of those surveyed, 69 percent said that they “always” or “often” skip ads. Within the 18 to 24 age range, that number goes up to 80 percent.
Next, please
CMO of Fluent, Jordan Cohen, says that 69 percent is a “big number for ad-supported companies.” Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., reported advertising as its primary source of revenue.
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Many prime slots are prohibitively expensive, and even if you can afford an ad, most users will skip it. Cohen also says that Snapchat is missing out on profits because they don’t have “much propriety data” to share with brands who buy their ads.
What makes Snapchat less than ideal for advertising is exactly what users love about the platform–short-form content created by their friends and favorite celebrities.
Unlike Facebook, Snapchat doesn’t double as both social network and news source for many of its users. According to Fluent’s survey, 61 percent of users don’t follow new organizations on Discover, while less than half follow sports or entertainment brands.
Go organic
Cohen says that, for millennials, Snapchat is “really about exclusive short, fun content. In addition to communicating with friends, they follow celebrities. They don’t really engage with ads or mainstream news outlets.”
If you still think there might be some value to advertising on Snapchat, Liam Copeland of Movement Strategy recommends filming ads as though you are making a Snapchat selfie. “The more organic the ad feels and the later the branding appears,” explains Copeland, “the more likely a user is to swipe up to view long-form content or web content.”
