Note: This was featured as part of our Web Wednesday segment on Charleston’s 105.5 The Bridge with Box in the Morning. You can catch us every Wednesday morning at 8:20 am ET for your dose of social media & digital marketing news. You can listen to the segment below:
When you compare Instagram Stories’ short eight months of life to Snapchat’s five years, it might surprise you to learn that the former has already beat out Snapchat in daily active users (DAUs). In fact, Instagram announced this month that it has over 200 million DAUs versus Snapchat’s 161 million DAUs.
It’s obvious that Facebook-owned Instagram is doing whatever it can to try to push Snapchat out the door. (They’re still salty that Snapchat refused their $3 billion offer to buy the company back in 2013.) Its newest replication is Pinning for Stickers, which is a clone of Snapchat’s 3D stickers that users can add to snaps and stories. Instagram Stories users will also see Selfie Stickers and custom geostickers soon, as well.
With all of this information, business owners are left wondering, is Snapchat still relevant?
The answer is YES, as long as your audience is using the platform! Although the two platforms are nearly identical (and are becoming more so by the minute), they still have two different user bases.
Plus, Snapchat is regularly adding more and more new advertising methods, including their new “Snap to Store” ad type that has proven to increase in-store conversions.
In fact, Wendy’s (who has been killing it on social media) recently tested this new advertising feature, which essentially uses a sponsored geofilter to promote their Jalapeño Fresco Chicken Sandwich. Snapchat can then track the users who saw the geofilter and use geotargeting to determine whether or not a viewer went to a Wendy’s store within seven days of viewing. And this campaign generated over 42,000 visits to a Wendy’s.
This new ad tech is revolutionary with helping social media platforms to track in-store conversions. Previously, online advertising platforms have struggled with this, and it looks like Snapchat has found the solution. This ad type is currently only available to a select few beta testers, but should be released soon, and we’re excited to see where digital advertising goes from here.
Snapchat is only able to track user locations when the app is active (and location tracking is the only way their custom and location geofilters work), but they’re able to get a good idea of what their users like and where they spend their time. For example:
- 80% of users are at restaurants
- 66% at shopping malls
- 50% at the gym
- 49% at airports
So Snapchat knows if its users love to travel, are fitness buffs, or big into shopping, and that will help you out with your ad targeting. If you’re looking for help with your digital advertising strategy, give us a call at (800) 759-7996 or fill out our free consultation form.
