Snapchat has rolled out two new advertising formats—Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places—in an effort to enhance how businesses interact with its community. Partnering with major brands like Disney, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell, Snapchat aims to offer advertisers innovative ways to engage with users while keeping the experience seamless and non-intrusive.
These new ad placements are part of Snapchat’s strategy to expand the platform’s advertising capabilities, creating more personalized ways for businesses to connect with users.
Sponsored Snaps: A Direct Path to User Engagement
The Sponsored Snaps format allows businesses to send full-screen vertical video ads directly to users’ inboxes, creating an intimate and personal ad experience. However, users retain control—they must opt-in to open these Snaps, and they can respond in two ways: sending a message to the advertiser or clicking on a call-to-action (CTA) link to explore the product or service further.
These ads are designed to be distinct from regular Snaps in several ways:
- Visually Unique: Sponsored Snaps are easily distinguishable from personal Snaps, ensuring that users know they are interacting with an advertisement.
- No Push Notifications: Unlike traditional Snaps, these ads do not trigger push notifications, offering a more user-friendly approach without disrupting the platform experience.
- Temporary: Similar to regular Snaps, these ads disappear if left unopened, maintaining Snapchat’s ethos of temporary content.
Through this format, Snapchat hopes to bridge the gap between social media interaction and brand engagement by allowing users to directly interact with the advertiser in a comfortable, familiar way.
Promoted Places: Driving Foot Traffic Through Snap Map
The Promoted Places feature highlights sponsored business locations on the Snap Map, encouraging users to discover nearby businesses based on visitation trends within the Snapchat community. These highlighted spots will appear as “Top Picks,” designed to draw attention to popular destinations among local users.
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According to Snapchat, locations marked as “Top Picks” can see an increase in foot traffic, with 17.6% more visits from frequent users. This feature offers businesses a unique opportunity to promote their physical locations and measure in-person engagement with the help of Snap Map data.
Promoted Places also provides an opportunity for businesses to increase brand visibility in local communities, using data-driven insights to encourage foot traffic. Snapchat is positioning this feature as an effective tool for restaurants, retail stores, and entertainment venues to connect with nearby users and boost visits.
Exploring the Future: CRM Integration and AI Chatbots
Snapchat has expressed its commitment to refining these features based on user and business feedback, ensuring they evolve to meet the needs of the platform’s community. In the future, the company is exploring the integration of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and AI chatbots to further enhance Sponsored Snaps. These features would enable advertisers to offer personalized experiences, improving customer interaction and retention.
Additionally, Snapchat is investigating ways to incorporate customer loyalty programs into the Snap Map. This could enable businesses to reward frequent visitors through location-based perks, adding another layer of engagement to the platform’s growing suite of advertising tools.
Conclusion: A New Era for Snapchat Advertising
With the introduction of Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places, Snapchat is pushing the boundaries of digital advertising by blending user interaction with brand promotion in an organic and non-disruptive way. As these features continue to evolve, advertisers have the potential to reach audiences in creative and personalized ways, turning social media engagement into meaningful brand connections.
As Snapchat gathers more feedback and continues to innovate, these tools could become an integral part of digital marketing strategies for businesses of all sizes.
