Category: Snapchat

Facebook Takes a Page Out of Snapchat’s Playbook (Again) With Ray-Ban Stories

On By redzmudzienIn Facebook, Marketing, SnapchatLeave a comment

Timing is everything in marketing. Take QR Codes for example, which have literally been around for decades. When mobile devices and social media first started to really take off there was a push, mainly from marketers, to drive adoption of QR codes. The problem though was that at the time users still needed a separate QR Code Reader app and as we all know any additional friction for the consumer is often a death knell. Years later Apple integrated the ability to read QR Codes right into the iPhone camera, which made everything more seamless. But it wasn’t until the Covid pandemic that QR Codes finally took off and maximized their potential. Why? With people looking for more contactless options while out to eat, QR Code menus were the perfect coupling of timing and necessity.

I provide that diatribe to hammer home the fact that Augmented Reality glasses are far from a new idea, but Facebook (and Ray-Ban) are hoping to run where Google Glass fell.

Snapchat seemed primed to take the AR sunglasses baton years ago with the release of Spectacles back in 2016, but they never gained mainstream popularity despite a fever dream of a guerrilla marketing campaign that involved vending machines randomly popping up across the country.

Old heads like me who bought the original Snapchat Spectacles are looking at the new Facebook Ray-Ban Stories like Miranda Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire.

Facebook is no stranger to borrowing ideas from its competitors (see: Instagram Stories) so the social media giant is hoping to build upon the missteps of Snap in its latest venture. Snap Spectacles were nearly impossible to buy for months after launch due to an intentional and artificial scarcity and it may have been turned off curious customers who swiftly moved onto the next thing. Credit to Facebook too for the smart decision to partner with legendary sunglasses brand Ray-Ban to design something that people will actually want to wear beyond just the techies.

Time will be the ultimate judge here, but Facebook isn’t merely dipping its toes into the AR and VR market, rather its dove headfirst into the space with a huge bet on the metaverse. So with enough clout, marketing savvy, and some good timing Facebook could be the ones to finally bring AR glasses mainstream.

Snapchat Mobile App Install Ads: Swiping Over Tapping

On By redzmudzienIn Marketing, SnapchatLeave a comment

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In an effort to expand its slice of the social media marketing pie, Snapchat is expanding into mobile app install ads. The theory behind lots of Snapchat advertising is that the user is more engaged on Snapchat as opposed to passively scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed thus more likely to remember and respond to an ad.

Something that Snapchat has done that is a fresh new take on the app install ads is eliminating the need to *sigh* actually click the screen. With a simple swipe up, you’re already on the app download screen, which sounds small but in early tests is showing a huge return for advertisers. According to this Ad Age article, the micro investing app Acorns started running these Snapchat mobile app install ads and is seeing a 40% higher install rate than Facebook.

Say what you will, but Snapchat has lowered the barrier of entry with these ad types. As small as it may appear, requiring a swipe vs a click, it is faster and requires no new screen to load. This is something that Facebook itself already knows, evidenced by ad types like Lead Ads and Canvas Ads that remove the need to click out of Facebook. Or even Instant Articles which are pre-cached to remove any unwanted load times.

What may have started as a self-serving agenda by Facebook and others of keeping users on the social channels rather than clicking out to a website, is also seemingly having a huge positive impact on advertisers as it makes it even easier for users to respond and engage.

Snapchat Updates to Stories and Discover Will Massively Effect Advertisers

On By redzmudzienIn SnapchatLeave a comment

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Snapchat just made some huge changes that users may not initially notice, but advertisers definitely will. The Discover tiles have been moved down from their previous perch at the top of the Stories screen to somewhere much lower down the feed. Discover is where most big name advertisers buttered their bread with everything from ESPN and NFL updates, MTV hyping new artists or TMZ talking about the latest Kardashians news.

They were attractive and they were prominent. I found myself perusing Discover much more when it moved over to the tiles within Stories rather than when it was on its own tab originally. Now with the tiles moved much further down the screen it has many advertisers worried.

Oh well, these things happen. Remember how infuriated brands were when Facebook significantly pared down organic reach? Well then Promoted Posts came out and they became the biggest arbitrage advertising had seen in a long time. Then those got paired down and out came the massively underpriced Facebook Video and so on and so on.

Fear not though, Snapchat isn’t going to just abandon one of its best ad products without any kind of new features or improvements. And it seems like that may be coming as a result of Snapchat’s other update – Snapchat Playlist. Previously users could go to their Stories and just go through all their friends automatically, as soon as one story ended, Snapchat would automatically go to the next one. Now with Playlist, Snapchat is having users select which stories they want to see, rather than play them all at once. Does this make for a better user experience so you aren’t watching every person’s story, many of which you don’t care about? Maybe. But it also provides potential opportunities for advertising in between these selected stories. Now without the automatic jump to the next story, Snapchat has created an avenue to sell ad space like a commercial in between stories.

Expect more tweaks to the UI and UX as Evan Spiegel and team continue to grow the Snapchat ad platform and its potential. Especially now with competitors like Instagram Stories gunning for them.

Snapchat Just Made it Even Easier to Create Custom Geofilters

On By redzmudzienIn SnapchatLeave a comment

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Snapchat has just made it even easier for businesses to create their own custom Geofilters. Snapchat Geofilters are one of the best ways to quickly and easily get brand awareness. Of course just even making them for fun (or as a product to sell) works too. I recently made a Geofilter for a wedding, geofenced it to the block that the hotel was on and Bam, all my snaps had that extra flair. Plus these are super inexpensive if you are only targeting small areas, but they can get a bit pricey when targeting large parts of a city. So choose wisely as these may be better for specific events rather than an ongoing campaign based on your budget. The big update is that Snapchat now offers tools on the platform itself to create your own Geofilter without any design knowledge needed. So no more Photoshop skills necessary!

  • Go to Snapchat.com and click on the Snapchat Geofilter link at the top of the screen.

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  • Click On Demand to create and schedule a Geofilter for a specific time and location.

 

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  • Once you’re on the On-Demand Geofilter page click Create Now.

 

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  • Review the guidelines Snapchat has laid out for best practices

 

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  • Click Create Online (previously you would have had to build on one your own or use a generic template).

 

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  • Welcome to the Snapchat tools section, now experiment and create something!

 

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