Snapchat Unveils New Dynamic Ads

In October of 2019, Snapchat unveiled its newest ad offering, which they termed 'dynamic ads', and which was similar in nature to those same kind of ads already being provided by Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. As with the other platforms, Snapchat's intent is to make it much easier for e-commerce stores to get their products placed in front of users so that purchasing would be easier.Advertisers making use of the Snapchat platform will thus acquire the use of some unique Snapchat features which will aid in the advertising process, namely Product Catalog and Snap Pixel. These features will help advertisers to reach out to users who are situated lower in the purchase funnel, by using personalized ads which appeal to them. Since Dynamic Ads will be rolled out to all Snapchat users at some point during the first quarter of 2020, it will definitely be worth your while to have an understanding of what's coming, so you can prepare your business strategy ahead of time and make maximum usage of this new feature.

Product Catalog and Snap Pixel

The way in which Product Catalog fits into Snapchat's new dynamic ads will be that information from that catalog will come into play when any kind of products are displayed in dynamic ads. The catalog will be a repository for information such as the product title, description, product link and a host of other details about any given offering a brand might have.Any company can establish its own product catalog within Snap Business Manager by simply uploading a CSV file, by connecting your data feed, or by working with a third-party like Shopify, in order to provide all relevant data on specific products. You should probably also include Snap Pixel in your arsenal for dynamic ads, because it can provide a great deal of value to the process by optimizing, re-targeting, and offering metrics on campaign results.By using Snap Pixel, you'll be able to monitor and track specific events which take place on your site, for example adding items to a shopping cart, beginning the checkout process, and making actual purchases. This will provide a ton of worthwhile information on where users drop off in the purchase cycle, and it can be used also to compile a list of individuals who are terrific opportunities for re-targeting.

Targeting approach

The funnel-based targeting approach used by Snapchat will include two different options, namely prospecting and re-targeting. Prospecting will give you the capability to compile a pool of potential customers by using information such as demographics, location, and pre-established targeting of audiences. Then by incorporating Snap Pixel, you will be able to use website re-targeting so that users who have previously visited your site can become part of your prospect pool. You should be able to close a number of sales simply by segmenting your re-targeted audience, and reaching out specifically to all those users who took the time to add something to their shopping cart, but for some reason failed to complete the purchase.

Broad Targeting

In proceeding along this line, you would first embark on a process known as broad targeting, which permits advertisers to boost their brand awareness and to reach a huge number of possible new customers. Because of the capabilities provided by social media, advertisers now have far more detailed targeting options than were ever available in the past through such channels as print or television.Before settling into the users' interest-based targeting, it's advisable to work with a broader category of individuals. In broad targeting, you generally rely on the delivery system of whatever social platform you're working with, in order to find the ideal candidates for viewing your ads. The good thing about this approach is that it will fully integrate the platform's ability to reach potential customers, and you may never have been aware of these capabilities before.By targeting broadly, you'll be able to assess audience insights and ads reporting, and this will tell you a lot more about the individuals who responded to your ads. Most marketing personnel consider broad targeting to be the first step along the customer journey, and it serves as an indispensable component when prospecting for customers, and for maintaining brand awareness in the minds of potential customers.

Lead conversion

Even if you're using paid media for funneling potential customers up to the point where they're considering a purchase, you're still going to need some motivator to accomplish a sales conversion. Surprisingly, the answer is again by using paid media. When you make use of lead conversion targeting, you will be able to find all those users who have previously expressed interest in either your product or your brand, but failed to complete an action on your website.

In the last phase of the purchasing journey, here's how you can build this type of audience, and then use it for moving forward in that purchasing cycle. With the data that has been gathered by pixel tracking, you can create a group of individuals who have visited specific pages, spent some kind of time on your website, or who have completed some kind of specific action like initiating a checkout or adding to their cart.By the time you reach this phase of the customer journey, it's very important to make use of exclusion targeting, so that you can identify all those users who previously dropped out of the purchase journey.

Using your audience list

When you've compiled an audience list of those people who may have dropped out somewhere on the customer journey, there are some important points which you need to keep in mind, so you can bring these individuals to the final phase of conversion. First of all, avoid applying too many targeting restrictions, because they will only limit your reach, and prevent you from finding all the qualified individuals.You can also avoid audience overlap by applying specific exclusions, so that your budget spend only applies to the intended users you're after, rather than other pools of individuals. Finally, when determining how much budget to allocate on these audience lists, remember that you should have a small audience which will not require a large budget, and if you do want to spend the entire amount of your budget, you'll need to generate a mix of audiences. In any case, it should not require a great deal of budget spend to effectively reach the audience on your list.