Since going public, Snapchat has been increasing efforts to ease the life of advertisers through the platform. The good news is that it’s made advertising for small businesses easier and more accessible through a self-serve tool.
Previously, when businesses were looking to advertise through Snapchat, they had to purchase ads through a member of the Snapchat sales team, which was costly and time-consuming. Now companies of all sizes can do it all on their own with Snapchat’s ad manager.
The ad manager allows advertisers to buy and manage their campaigns directly, without needing a third party. But for those who need some strategic input, Snapchat also created a Certified Partners program in which it highlights its top ad tech partners — such as Strike Social — that can work with advertisers to ensure the best use of Snapchat for business. Another helpful tool is the ability to export data from Snapchat Ads, such as campaign performance, demographic insights, and advertising metrics, which can be integrated into other platforms for deeper analysis and reporting.
But we’re here to talk about what comes in the packaging of the Snapchat self-serve ad manager, so let’s dive into that.
Related: Check out all you need to know about Snapchat for business.
How to sign up to Snapchat ad manager
Fill out the form available on Snapchat’s website to get access to their self-serve ad manager tool.
Snapchat ad manager is available in the U.S., U.K, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and 17 other countries.
What’s inside the Snapchat self-serve ad manager
The Snapchat ad manager dashboard shows the performance of your Snapchat advertising campaign. It displays stats such as your ad spend, costs per goal and how many goals have been achieved.
It can also break down the results by campaign, ad set or show an overview of all of your ads. Tapping the button in the upper right-hand corner gives you the option to create an entirely new campaign.
How to create ads on Snapchat self-serve ad manager
To start creating a campaign, set an objective that you want it to accomplish. Snapchat for business gives you the options of increasing awareness, driving traffic to your website or driving app installs. You can also name your new campaign on this starting screen.
The Ad Sets tab is where you set your audience, budget and schedule. The Snapchat ad manager allows you to choose the geography and demographics of your target audience, with the ability to narrow it so far down as to picking the device type the viewer is using.
Your budget is set for a daily spend, and the price you pay depends on how you set your goal-based bidding. You can set a goal to be an impression, app install or a user swiping up from a branded snap to view a long-form video, article or website. The budget and goals are completely customizable.
Once you’ve completed the above steps for creating a campaign, it will take you to the Ads tab where you can create a new ad or choose an existing one.
The Creative Builder tab is where you upload the creative for your snap ad. With Snapchat’s self-serve tool, you have the ability to create a campaign in your web browser. Start by choosing the type of Snap Ad you’d like to create and name it.
Lastly, upload your creative and publish it. You can choose that ad to run once the ad manager takes you back to the ads tab or you can choose to upload another one.
From there, your Snapchat advertising campaign is ready to launch.
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Manage your Snapchat ads from anywhere with the mobile dashboard
Snapchat mobile dashboard sends out helpful notifications and updates about your campaign. It allows you to review and change the status of your ads from a smartphone or tablet.
Logged into your brand account, you can click to active, pending, rejected or completed ads and check their performance, such as ad spend, reach and impressions. You can also create a new ad on the go since inspiration doesn’t always come while in the office.
Taking your Snapchat advertising farther with the self-serve platform
Snapchat has really upped the ante for small businesses looking to advertise through the platform. With this new tool and the assistance of Certified Partners, there are more opportunities available to companies of all sizes and to those who might have a smaller budget.
