Despite Snapchat's new brand marketing campaigns, it's still the same old story for advertisers. So I don't know what to make of the platform.
It's been a month since Snapchat launched a global social media counterattack with the tagline “Less likes, more Snapchat,” but will this have any impact on the company's advertising business? Please, marketers are none the wiser.
And it looks like we'll have to wait for a while yet.
That said, a Snapchat spokesperson told Digiday: More Snapchat. The brand campaign aims to help consumers and marketers alike understand why Snapchat ranks as the platform where people feel comfortable, happy and connected. Masu. We combine this message with customized strategies to help our partners efficiently and effectively reach his global audience of over 800 million people, and we have seen tremendous positive feedback since launch. We have received great feedback. ”
Still, most of the five ad executives Digiday interviewed for this story haven't heard the pitch yet.
A UK-based agency executive, who requested anonymity, confirmed that he had been informally alerted to the Snapchat campaign, but had not been formally briefed on the content of the messages.
“We're still waiting for official communication,” echoed another executive, echoing the sentiment of an advertising executive at a U.S. performance agency who asked for clarity from both Snapchat and internal teams. Admitted.
The radio silence seems intentional. Snapchat isn't required to disclose everything to advertisers, but it's also a missed opportunity. The launch of a new campaign aimed at rejuvenating Snapchat's long-standing claim that it's different from other social platforms could have been the perfect time to make a sophisticated pitch to advertisers.
Let's face it; they're not completely hooked on the platform, at least not enough to increase the social budget there. The failure to take advantage of this opportunity highlights one of Snapchat's core dilemmas. That means that for Snapchat to break out of its rut, it may need to emulate the very platforms it's trying to distance itself from.
“The problem is that even though Snap says it's not a social media platform, it's still competing for the same social ad dollars from investors and advertisers,” said Jasmine Enberg, principal social media analyst at eMarketer. ” he said. “If you look at the returns, some of the messages of this campaign seem to be somewhat at odds with some of the messages they're communicating to investors and advertisers.”
By the numbers, Snap posted a 5% increase in quarterly revenue to $1.36 billion and flat annual revenue growth of $4.6 billion in its last earnings release in February. That's not terrible, but it certainly dwarfs Meta (quarterly sales grew 25% to $40.1 billion, annual sales grew 16% to $134.9 billion) and other tech giants.
Essentially, Snapchat itself is like a square peg in a round hole. Resist conforming to typical social media platform models, but be successful with advertising by focusing on more public spaces, expanding demographics (to reach), and improving performance and analytics. We need to align more closely with industry norms, including: Capabilities established by platforms such as Meta.
Otherwise, you risk continuing to lose advertising dollars. Advertisers don't care about the nuances when comparing platforms like Meta and TikTok. They are simply seeking the highest return on investment.
When it comes to mobile messaging apps, advertisers often fall into two groups.
On the other hand, some advertisers go all in and invest without asking any questions. They simply see value in Snapchat's loyal audience and love what the messaging app stands for.
Snapchat, on the other hand, remains a second-tier platform at best, although it appears that the majority of advertisers are sitting here.
Their argument is often that if they can get the same audience and scale on TikTok, why invest in Snapchat?
This disconnect is a sentiment that marketers have echoed to Digiday over the past 18 months, and echoed in our interviews for this article.
Ad executives have consistently praised the platform's innovations, but are perplexed by its business narrative, lack of sophisticated measurement tools, and perceived disconnect from the advertising industry.
“We don’t[yet]see the fundamental changes that need to be made to the platform that address what agencies need to see,” said another UK-based advertising executive, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity. “I would have liked to have seen a campaign like this happen after we were in a strong position to show evidence that this approach works for us, our creators, and our advertisers. I'm worried that positioning it as 'not' will become outdated. ”
They may have a point.
Snapchat's image problem seems to lie more with advertisers than users.
One advertising executive at a major UK advertising group admitted that Snap is a tier two platform for agencies from a budget perspective, as it is much more difficult to sell to clients, and that the tier two classification is not a fair reflection. He said he thought there was no such thing. The platform, the audience, or the impact it has. “In some cases, we need to consider the effort and reward on our part,” they said. “And sometimes the reward isn’t worth the effort.”
Then there's measurement. Indeed, Snapchat has been working behind the scenes to improve its direct response business, as it accounts for about two-thirds of its revenue. This includes improving the analytics advertisers get from her Snapchat, investing in estimated conversions to improve the performance of model ads, and improving the quality of results by focusing more on click-through conversions. It is included.
But again, when compared to Meta, Snapchat seems to be five steps behind.
“Large advertisers that employ econometric models often find Snap's performance to be impressive. However, not all advertisers have access to such advanced measurement, and We rely on platform metrics and lift research to measure success,” said Samuel Redding, Head of Paid Social at OMD. “The lack of a cross-platform measurement solution can lead to subjective interpretations of effectiveness.”
So while it's difficult, it's not impossible, as some advertisers have proven.
“Snapchat's unique and engaged audience is one of the reasons advertisers are spending on the channel,” said Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly. He said the increase is 100% year over year. “It's no surprise that 95% of the 300 brands surveyed in a recent Smartly/World Business Review study advertised on her Snap.”
But some major holding companies have noticed a bit of a disconnect when it comes to Snap's relationship with advertisers. Snap executives sometimes appear to have a “big fish, small pond” mentality. As a result, advertisers may be less responsive to complaints and how to address them. Advertisers have emphasized this point many times over the past few years.
But it's not all bad news. Many advertisers have been able to maintain good relationships with the platform despite these occasional issues. And of course, not everyone encounters these problems.
For example, Redding highlighted how great it is to work with the platform and how his agency has not experienced a drop in service levels, despite continued layoffs across the platform since last year. did. Correcting the trajectory of the technology industry. In fact, he often receives tailored recommendations for his clients from Snap.
Still, Snap deserves credit for going into these meetings with enough confidence given its predicament. Snap has very limited influence in the market, especially compared to platforms like Meta, which consistently captures the lion's share of ad spend.
The numbers highlight this clearly.
“Snap's fourth quarter results show that if it wants to keep users invested in its platform and attract more users, it needs to do something. This is necessary to re-engage advertisers and, in turn, grow advertising revenue,” said Amy Rampler, senior vice president at Google. Basis Technologies Search and Social Media Services. “If Snap's campaigns can't influence users, I don't think advertisers will either.”
