Is Snapchat Becoming the New Go-to Social Media Advertising Channel?
Read this article to know how Snapchat is changing the advertising landscape by bringing it different ads formats that advertisers are loving. Know how these ads can benefit advertisers and can be a great offering for digital marketers.
If there is one technology that defines the 21st Century and marks it as distinct to what came before it, it is surely social media. No other technological innovation in recent history can claim to have had as profound an impact on the world around us as social media has. Social media platforms have changed the way that we approach the online world from both a personal and a professional perspective.
Given how deeply embedded social media platforms and their associated services are in our day-to-day lives, you would think that most of us would have a pretty good grasp of how to best utilize these platforms professionally. There are also tools and various ways how to automate social media management process. However, ask any experienced digital marketer, especially those who can remember the industry prior to the advent of social media, and they will tell you that using social media platforms as effective marketing tools is nowhere near as simple and straightforward as many people assume.
Not only do digital marketers have to learn how to use each platform individually, but they also need to be able to keep up with those platforms constantly jostling for first-place. It seems that every social media platform gets its own turn in the spotlight. Every so often, a new feature or a sudden influx of users means that marketers and the brands that they represent will shift their focus to whichever platform they think is going to bear the most fruit for them.Enter Snapchat
When Snapchat first arrived on the scene, it was one of those rarest of products - a product that solves an obvious problem that none of us knew we had. The original premise behind Snapchat was simple, users could exchange self-destructing media with one another, safe in the knowledge that the files would erase themselves after being viewed by the recipient.
Snapchat is not the only social media platform that revolves primarily around image sharing, Instagram also has its roots in enabling more efficient and interactive image sharing. However, Snapchat has set itself apart from its competitors in several ways. For one thing, Snapchat has eschewed the infinite scrolling that defines other platforms. Now, it is also setting itself apart with a killer new marketing feature.Dynamic Ads
Snapchat's recently-announced Dynamic Ads feature could be a game-changer for the platform's fortunes. Not that Snapchat isn't hugely successful already, it clearly is. However, no social media platform so far has been able to hold a candle to Facebook when it comes to pleasing advertisers. Facebook's advertising algorithms have enabled it to micro-target marketing at those most receptive to it.
Outside of Facebook, most other social media platforms have been trying to imitate the Facebook approach or formulate their own that is heavily inspired by it. There has been relatively little in the way of innovation when it comes to social media marketing; most of the developments have been to do with refining algorithms. Dynamic Ads, on the other hand, breaks the mold in a number of ways.
As the name implies, the Dynamic Ads feature produces ads that are put together on the fly. With a database consisting of hundreds of thousands of products and services, along with all the relevant details and features about them, advertisers can put together and serve up ads in real time. Once the ads have been created, they can then be served to micro-targeted audiences for maximum impact.Taking Advantage of Dynamic Ads
If your brand has been focusing its marketing efforts away from Snapchat and mostly on other social media platforms, then Dynamic Ads are a good reason to reconsider. There is no single platform or technique that can carry your brand to glory all on its own. If you want your social media marketing to be effective, then you need to take a holistic approach - identify the right platforms and techniques for the messages you want to send with each campaign.
Restricting your options will only limit the audience that you are able to reach. If you want to effectively raise awareness of your brand and have that awareness permeate through multiple different markets or audiences, you need to maintain a presence on as many social media platforms as possible.
In order to get the most out of tools like Snapchat's Dynamic Ads, you need to think carefully about what separates the audience you want to capture from the one that you have already caught. Of course, some of your marketing should appeal to existing customers. After all, you don't want people to spend money with you and then forget about you.
However, this needs to be balanced with the need to also acquire new customers. Using Dynamic Ads, combined with your own research and analysis, will enable you to identify common traits amongst your existing audience and use these to help you identify the best audiences to micro-target with dynamic ads.
Snapchat has traditionally been seen as one of the less-important social media platforms for marketers. That is a situation that is rapidly changing, though, and Dynamic Ads will only speed the process up.
