Remember when Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said that they wanted to avoid the ‘creepy’, intrusive ad tactics employed by other social networks?
The company’s opinion looks to have changed on this – Snapchat has announced that they’re now looking to roll out a new ‘Snap Pixel’, a conversion tracking tool which will enable advertisers to measure the traffic being driven to their sites via Snapchat ads.
Snap’s pixel will function much like similar options available on other platforms – by inserting the pixel code to relevant website pages, advertisers will be able to track conversion events as a result of Snapchat referral traffic.
As explained by Marketing Land:
“Advertisers will be able to select from nine predefined conversion events, but eventually, they’ll be able to create their own custom events. The currently available conversion events are:
- Purchase
- Save
- Start Checkout
- Add to Cart
- View Content
- Add Billing
- Sign Up
- Search
- Page View
Once installed, advertisers will be able to track their data via Snapchat’s Ad Manager, giving marketers more accountable, trackable data from their Snapchat advertising efforts.
Really, the addition makes perfect sense, just as it does that Snap Inc. would look to soften its previous stance on such ads. If Snap wants to compete with other platforms – which are increasingly focused on accountability and transparency through their ad content – then they need to move in-step, and facilitate more direct conversion data points.
And as detailed by a recent study, Snap does have some solid points of differentiation for advertisers to consider – research compiled by Sparkler found that Snapchat sees significantly higher engagement between groups of close friends than other social apps.
But in order to tap into those trends, and create content that drives action, marketers will increasingly need more data to prove their efforts are generating results. Snap’s pixel is a key step on this front, and while, right now, it will only be able to track referral data related to specific events, Snap says that advertisers will soon also be able to use it to re-target people visiting their sites, and create lookalike audiences, again, similar to other networks.
Snap Inc. looks to have a tough road ahead of it, with Facebook looking to pile on the pressure at every turn, but the development of their ad options will be key in the app keeping pace and capitalizing on its high levels of user engagement.
In addition to this, Snapchat has also unveiled a new type of promotional Lens as a tie-in with the second season of popular Netflix program ‘Stranger Things’.
As you can see, the new Lens, which is activated either in the regular Lens set or by using the Shazam functionality when the Stranger Things theme is playing, reveals a door you can walk through, which takes you into a virtual, themed world.
It’s an advance on the sponsored Lens options we’ve seen available in the app thus far, providing another option for advertisers to reach Snapchat’s audience in an organic, engaging way.