Snap Ads | Complete Guide in 2020

It is the hot traffic source in the affiliate marketing at the moment.

 

Snapchat blew the minds of many people with the results they achieved, from providing an amazing ad platform to breaking all forecasts for the stock price.

Impressively, they refused to sell the company to Facebook. Hats off for standing up to Facebook and saying NOOO!

And if that’s not enough, Facebook is copying Snapchat’s creative ideas, such as the ads story feature.

So if you don’t have the Snapchat app on your phone yet, you should download it now:

• Snapchat – Apple Store
• Snapchat – Android

Snapchat is an upcoming social network. It’s especially popular with teens who use it almost every day.

Snapchat users pretty much span every country in the world; however, the USA has the strongest presence, followed by Europe.

 

They are expanding like crazy. See this graph below – they’ve gone from 46 M active users in 2014 to 190 M in 2019!

Most of the users are teens, so if this is your target, you’ll be in heaven! There is also a significant amount of 30+ users too.

Most of them are female.

Many celebrities use it daily, making Snapchat even more popular.

I like Jimmy Fallon ?

If you are interested in Snapchat’s financial status in the market, here are some facts:

• Operating cash flow improved $166 million YoY to $(66) million.
• Free Cash Flow improved $190 million YoY to $(78) million.
• Change in cash balance improved $151 million YoY to $(70) million
• Revenue increased 39% YoY to $320 million.
• Average revenue per user increased 39% YoY to $1.68.
• Gross margin increased to 39%, compared to 17% in Q1 2018.
• Operating loss improved $76 million YoY to $(316) million

Long story short, you’ve got to try it before it’s too late. Right now, you can get really cheap clicks.

Look at this: for only $70, you can reach almost 25,000 users in the USA and have 359 visits to your link.

As a comparison – with Facebook, you will probably pay at least 5 times that amount for the same exposure.

This is what you need:

• Email address
• Credit Card or PayPal
• Domain and hosting to host your landing page (only if you are not direct linking)
• Video editing tools (I use Camtasia) – or you can outsource it

Here is the exact process to start:

1 – Visit https://business.snapchat.com and click on Create Account

2 – Fill in the standard information

3 – Fill in additional information about your business. If you are starting out and do not have a registered business, enter your full name as your business name.

4 – You will be directed to this page. You do not need to change anything here.

5 – Go to Billing and Payment

6 – Click on +Payment Method

7 – Choose between the PayPal or Credit Card option and enter the required details.

Note: The Apply for Credit option is for larger advertisers and takes days to get approved. If you want to start right away, choose Credit Card or PayPal.

That’s it! Now you’re prepared to launch your first campaign on Snapchat!

Before moving onto the fun stuff, you should know that you can create as many ad accounts as you want in Snap ads.

Why would you need multiple ad accounts?

It’s not a must, but having multiple ad accounts can be very convenient and make your life much easier. Here are a few reasons why you may need multiple ad accounts:

1. You’re an agency and would like to have a separate ad account for each client.
2. You’d like to use a different payment method per account.
3. You want to have a different ad account per ad type (e.g., story, snap, collection, etc.). I will explain later what these different types mean.
4. I personally use an ad account for each vertical – one for Nutra, another for lead generation, and so on.
   Other reasons I’ve not thought of. ?

Understanding Snap ads account menu

The account menu on the top left is divided into 4 main sections (listed below). We will take a closer look at each individual section.

1. Create
2. Manage
3. Assets
4. Business Settings

1. Create

1.1 Create Ads: This is the process flow to start creating your ads.
1.2 Snap Publisher: This is where all your Snaps are stored.
1.3 Help Center: If you are stuck with something, I am pretty sure Snapchat has an answer for it here.

2. Manage

2.1 Manage Ads: You will find all the campaigns you have created here.
2.2 Snap Pixel: This is where you can create an unlimited number of pixels for different events.

3. Assets

3.1 Creative Library: You can create and upload all your creatives here.
3.2 Audiences: The audiences you have created.
3.3 Catalogs: This is mainly for eCommerce stores. You can connect your store (Shopify) to Snap ads, or just upload all your products one time using Snap templates.

4. Business Settings

4.1 Business Details: Your business information.
4.2 Ad Accounts: A list of your ad accounts. You can also create unlimited accounts here.
4.3 Members: You can invite other people to manage your account here.
4.4 Billing & Payments: Your finance history can be found here.

Creating creatives

The first thing you need to do is create a video that goes with Snap standard and has a good angle for your offer.

There are tons of tools out there to create videos. I use the following:

• Camtasia
• InVideo

You can have 50% off for InVideo because you are our reader.

There are a lot of blogs explaining how to use them. I will focus here on how to create creatives using the Snap Publisher tool.

How to create Snap Ads that get approved?

1 – Choose Snap Publisher from the menu on the top left at Ads Manager.

2 – Create a Snap.

3 – Choose a ready-made template, or start from scratch.

4 – Edit your video. You can upload your own images, logo and text. Then click Review to preview your work.

5 – Confirm that you’re ready to publish your video.

That’s it, your video is now published in your creative library, and you can run it as a Snap Ad.

If you are on STM Forum (which you should), there is a dedicated section for videos and creative. Check it out.

If you think designing and creating videos is not your thing, feel free to outsource it using marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork.

Types of Snap ads

There are 5 main formats of Snap ads. Your objective limits which ad type you can choose.

Obviously all of them are paid ads, however you still can start affiliate marketing on YouTube and spend ZERO dollars if you are ready to wait longer.

1 – Snap Ads (aka, Top Snap Ads)

Mainly used to drive traffic to a website or app store by asking users to swipe up. These are probably the most common type of Snap ad.

 

They can also be used for lead generation to ask users to fill in a form. See the example below:

 

2 – Collection Ads

These are usually used for e-commerce.

For example, you are selling sunglasses with different colors. You can show the main glasses in the ads and then 4 different colors in the bottom.

The good thing about this ad format is that you can link every image to a unique URL,

Or you can just show different images of the same products.

Here is an example:

 

3 – Story Ads

These are what Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) have stolen from Snapchat. Stories!

This is where the ads are placed – in the Discover section.

And it looks something like this:

 

4 – AR Lenses

I personally have not tried this format yet, but I will definitely do so very soon.

Here is what Snapchat says about it:

“AR Lenses close the physical gap between you and your customers. It’s total immersion by way of transforming people’s faces and the world around them.”

 

Snapchat claims to have over 70 million Snapchat users that play with AR lenses every day.

5 – Snap Filters

If you’ve ever used Snapchat, you must have come across a camera filter for a city or an event. It’s a very cool way to raise awareness, but you cannot use it to drive traffic.

You can literally hire someone on Fiverr for $5 to design a camera filter for you.

Now as mentioned earlier, your campaign objective will limit which ad format you can choose.

For example, you can use neither AR Lenses nor Snap Filter to drive traffic.

To clarify things for you, I created the infographic below specifying the available ad types for each campaign objective.

 

Review the above infographic again to see the different types of campaigns Snapchat provides.

Creating the first campaign on Snapchat

Snapchat ads start at the Campaign level, drill down to Ad Sets, then Ads.

This structure is very similar to Facebook and most other traffic sources.

I will show you exactly how to start your first ads.

Just follow the steps below:

1 – Click on Create Ads

2 – You have 2 options:

Quick & Easy and Advanced Create. I prefer the Advanced one because it gives me more control over my campaign. I recommend you use it too.

3 – Choose the campaign objective as explained in the infographic above. Most people use “Drive Traffic To Website” or “Website Conversions”.

If you are starting out, I would recommend “Drive Traffic To Website” unless you are promoting an App Install or other types of ads.

You are now at Ad Set level.

4 – If you are using pixels, turn this one. If you have no clue what pixels are, don’t worry. I will explain this in detail later on.

I also recommend starting your campaign with All Snapchat placement. You can optimize later on.

5 – Choose the Ad format you want

6 – Choose your target location

7 – Choose your target demographics

Under Advance Demographics, there are a lot of cool options that you probably need to test.

For instance, you can target people who earn more than $250K and are married.

7 – (Optional) Choose one or more predefined audiences by Snapchat. This is an amazing target feature if you know what you are doing. ?

For example, you can target shoppers who have been in a car showroom during the last 3 months! You know what you can do – sell them car insurance. ?

Or you can target people who have watched a specific network and TV channel.

The sky’s the limit.

There is also an option to target customized audiences, which we will come to later on when talking about pixels.

8 – (Optional) Choose device and connection target. This is very handy if you are promoting an app store or perhaps antivirus.

9 – Enter your budget and campaign Start and End dates. You can also choose a manual bid instead of auto. If you are just starting out, I strongly recommend Auto Bid.

Note that the minimum budget for a campaign is $20.

Now you are at Ad level.

10 – Here you need to complete 4 actions:

Name: This is your ad name. Only you can see this.

Brand Name: Pay attention here as most ads for newbies get rejected at this step. You need to enter the website name where users land.

For example, if users land on MyCoach.com, your brand name must be MyCoach or MyCoach.com, otherwise Snapchat will reject your ad.

Headline: Up to 34 characters to catch users’ eyes. This is usually your slogan or perhaps the post/article title.

And finally your Topsnap media (your creatives). You have 3 options:

Upload: If you already have a creative.
Create: Use the Snapchat tool to create a video in minutes. It is very easy to use.
Browse: If you have previously uploaded a creative to your Creative Library in your account.

11 – Choose your call to action and enter your campaign link.

There are also 2 cool features:

Autofill: This is used mainly for lead generation. Snapchat will autofill your form (if you have any) with user information. This will make it a lot easier for users to opt in. However, the lead quality is usually not that great.

Preload: Snapchat will preload your landing page for everyone who sees your ads. This will enhance the user experience because of the shorter page loading time.

Note: Use the preload option only if you are using a VPS or your own server. Shared hosting will crash in a minute.

And BOOM, that’s it! Now you need to wait for Snapchat to, hopefully, approve your ad.

Snap Pixel – Everything you need to know

Snap Pixel is an astonishing way to track your conversions, visitor behavior and re-targeting.

What is Snap Pixel?

Pixel is a JavaScript code you place in any page of your website to detect user behavior, such as viewing content, signing up, purchasing, etc.

It looks something like the below example and must be inserted in your header page between <head> and </head>.

<!-- Snap Pixel Code -->
<script type='text/javascript'>
(function(e,t,n){if(e.snaptr)return;var a=e.snaptr=function()
{a.handleRequest?a.handleRequest.apply(a,arguments):a.queue.push(arguments)};
a.queue=[];var s='script';r=t.createElement(s);r.async=!0;
r.src=n;var u=t.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
u.parentNode.insertBefore(r,u);})(window,document,
'https://sc-static.net/scevent.min.js');
snaptr('init', '585781db-ko89-4859-8566-3lag1d3a198c', {
'user_email': '__INSERT_USER_EMAIL__'
});
snaptr('track', 'PAGE_VIEW');
</script>
<!-- End Snap Pixel Code -->

You can track any of the following events (user behavior) using Snap pixel:

For example, if you want to track a PURCHASE event, you will need to add the following code before in the above code.

You will need to add the code in your THANK YOU page so that when people complete a purchase and are directed to a THANK YOU page, the pixel will fire as one event.

snaptr(‘track’, ‘PURCHASE’)
Same goes for all other events.

You can also get more details and track more parameters in a specific event.

Using the same PURCHASE example, let’s say the price you are tracking is 100USD and the transaction ID is 500.

You can track all the above variables easily. However, you will need to add the following code before

snaptr(‘track’, ‘PURCHASE’,{‘currency’:’USD’,’price’:100,’transaction_id’:’500′});
Here is a list of all event parameters you can track using Snap Pixel:

You can find a lot of examples for Snap Pixel here.

How to generate your Snap Pixel code?
To be able to use Snap Pixel, you need to carry out 2 simple steps:

1 – Sign up for Pixel

• Log in to Ads Manager.
• Click the menu in the top corner and select ‘Snap Pixel.’
• Click ‘Create my Snap Pixel.’

2 – Enable Snap Pixel to your campaign

Log in to Ads Manager.
Click the menu in the top corner and select ‘Manage Ads.’
Select the Ad Set you would like to track conversions for.
Select ‘Edit’ and toggle the Snap Pixel option to ‘Attached.’

How to ensure Snap Pixel is installed correctly to your page

Ok, you installed your Snap Pixel and are ready to go. But wait! You have to make sure it’s working and that Snapchat can fire the pixel.

Download and install Snap Pixel Helper Chrome extension.

Then visit the page where you’ve installed the Pixel. If you see the icon notification shown at the right, Congratulations! You’ve installed the Snap Pixel correctly.

You may also click on the icon to see exactly what Pixel is getting fired.

Here is a video to quickly recap Snap Pixel. Please take a moment and watch it now.

One last thing about Snap Pixel. If you starting out, you will not be able to bid on conversions because Snapchat requires a minimum number of fired pixels per week to give you that option. Right now, it is about 100 conversions per week, but it says it will change over time.
You can see the latest updates here: https://businesshelp.snapchat.com/en-US/article/snap-pixel-faq

Snap Audience – leverage your Snap ads campaigns

1. Log in to Ads Manager.
2. Click the menu in the top corner and select ‘Audiences.’
3. Click on ‘Get Started’.

You will see 3 options:

First Option – Saved Audience

This is my favorite option in Snap Ads. Unlike other platforms, Snapchat shows you a detailed breakdown for your filtered audience.

Let’s say you want to create an audience to target home owners in Texas, USA, and their age is 20+.

As a result, Snapchat will show you the following data to give you an idea about your audience:

 

If you like what you see, press Save at the top right. Choose a name for your audience; for example, Household USA 20+ Texas.

That’s it. Now you have a saved audience that you can run ads to. Very convenient.

Second Option – Snap Audience Match (SAM)

This option is useful if you already have a list of your customers in hand. You can import them here, and Snapchat will find your customers in their platform.

Snapchat can find users by using one of the following values:

• Email
• Mobile Number
• Mobile ID

Like the previous example, choose an audience name and save it.

Third Option – Lookalike Audience

Very similar to the Facebook lookalike option. You can choose a list of Snapchatters here, and Snapchat will find similar users for you.

The trick here is that you must have an uploaded/saved audience from option 1 or 2 first to be able to use the lookalike option.

Otherwise, Snapchat does not have a foundation (aka, seed audience) to build on the lookalike audience.

After choosing your seed audience, you must choose a country and a lookalike type.

What is lookalike type?

It is a way to tell Snapchat how broad you want your audience to be. It has 3 options:

1. Similarity: Smaller audience that has the closest resemblance to the seed audience.
2. Balance: Mid-sized audience that balances resemblance and reach.
3. Reach: Larger audience that has the broadest resemblance to the seed audience.
4. Then enter an audience name and hit Create.