Key Learnings and Takeaways from Snapchat’s Growth Journey…

Snapchat boasts of having more than 200  million active users on an average everyday. So, there are many opportunities for people looking to engage and share their content daily.

Snapchat is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world among the younger generation especially. There are more than 360 million active users monthly as per a report from January 2020 and the platform generates 3 million photos and videos every day. So, Snapchat has grown immensely in a very short period of time. The engagement levels are out of this world in addition to the massive user base. Over 75% of 13 to 34-year-olds in the US use the app, and over 5 billion Snaps are made every day. On average, people use the app 30 times every day, according to research.

Early history of Snapchat:

The Stanford University dorms have produced a bunch of thoughts and ideas throughout the years, but not all of them converted into successful billion dollar businesses, but Snapchat has overcome the odds. In a decade of highs and lows, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the company’s shares to soar as well.

In 2011, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy who were all students at Stanford University came up with the idea of Snapchat. Reportedly, it was Reggie Brown who came up with the idea of a social media app that can allow users to post photos and videos that can disappear from the site after a few moments. Brown kept approaching Spiegel with this brilliant idea and finally they both agreed on the notion of this social media platform which was modeled on the disappearing content. Then the duo decided to approach Bobby Murphy for writing the code and building the application.

To start, in 2011 the project Picaboo (the parent to Snapchat) was launched. Picaboo was then renamed Snapchat. After forcing Brown out of the business, Spiegel and Murphy rebranded it as Snapchat in September 2011. A startup was clearly onto something significant by the end of 2012. The company’s rapid expansion was fueled by a $13.5 million Series A funding in the beginning of 2013.

In September 2014, Brown reached a settlement with the two co-founders for a sum of $157 million, and he was given official co-founder status for Snapchat. Then, with a clear slate and this exciting business strategy, Murphy and Spiegel, the company’s CEO, set to work creating a young business.

Making the case:

In the first blog post by Spiegel Spiegel made a case for Snapchat as the new way of sharing the information that you wanted to see disappear. The blog communicated the following

It’s not the goal of Snapchat to capture the classic Kodak moment. It’s about connecting with the entire spectrum of human feeling, not simply what looks appealing or ideal. For example, when I think I’m good at mimicking the appearance of a star-nosed mole, when I want to introduce a friend to a girl I’m crushing on. It would be terrible in case the word goes out or when I’m away at college and missing my Mom, and my friends.

We’re creating a photo app that rejects idealized conceptions of beauty and perfection and instead creates a space for you to be silly, sincere, or however else you feel at the time you shoot and share a Snap.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Spiegel disclosed the real cause of Snapchat’s enduring appeal among young social media users. They did this because they never wanted their social media past to come back and haunt them. He asserted that they are creating a photo app that will challenge traditional notions of perfection and beauty and instead provide a platform for users to freely express themselves whatever they feel at the time of uploading the image, whether that be funny or sincere.

Therefore, whatever is uploaded ultimately disappears, and after some time, one can let it go. So, one should keep that in mind but not attempt to save it.

After a year of service, Snapchat increased the stakes and user accounts by adding the capability of video to the app, which was then available for purchase on the Google Play store. The launch of these 10-second videos was sufficient to drive the number of so-called snaps to 50 million per day even if they were short.

Snapchat introduced two new “Stories and Chat” features in 2013. Users have the option to upload a series of photographs using the story function, which may remain active or visible for 24 hours. With the introduction of the Chat feature, Snapchat revolutionized the social media landscape. Users were able to converse with one another and engage in live video chat thanks to the chat.

Another story function was released known as “Our Story” and it allowed the users all over the world to post videos and photos which included political rallies, concerts, ball games and various other public events.

Later that year, Snapchat came with another feature, Geofilters and users were able to customize the content because of that and post the location at the time of post.

In 2014, Company was very busy as in December, Snapchat came up with Snapcash which was a money transaction feature and it helped the site consumers to send and receive the cash from users and the money could be deposited into the bank account straightaway. In December 2014, The reach of Snapchat extended to the financial realm with Community Geofilters. Hence, the users could generate their own Geofilters and buy branded filters for their own use.

By 2015, every month the user base increased to 75 million users and advertisements were becoming pervasive which gave the Company a revenue stream. By 2018, 99% of Snap total revenue came from advertising as per internal financials of the company. The most widely used tool of the company was videos and just after three years of this feature, there were 6 billion videos daily.

Of all the aspects mentioned above, the idea of storytelling has likely had the biggest impact on the digital landscape. The way people share their lives online has changed as a result of disappearing short-form movies, which were initially used as a communications tool.

Additionally, the forward-thinking purchase of Looksery in 2015 assisted in introducing augmented reality to millions of consumers (AR). AR continues to be a big growth driver for Snapchat today, as marketers embrace the Lenses feature.

The company officially created a parent company named Snap,Inc. And started preparing for a public offering of $25 billion that would kick off in 2017.

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Growth Headaches faced by Snapchat:

Snapchat faced many growth headaches in 2013. It was hacked by an anonymous group that revealed personal information of 4.6 million Snapchat users. For the hack, the company apologized and also repaired the breach and it has been 7 years now and there is no other security breach incidence till now.

Snapchat reached a settlement with the US the next year. The Federal Trade Commission, which had accused the business of inflating the procedures it employed to preserve user privacy, noted that it couldn’t “promise” that user messages “would be erased in a certain timeframe.” Although the FTC didn’t formally penalize Snapchat, the firm will be scrutinized for the next 20 years.

After a 2015 lawsuit from a company employee named Anthony Pompliano, who quoted a few comments made by Snapchat creator Evan Spiegel that the company was mainly interested in expanding into “rich” countries and stay away from poorer countries like India, Spiegel found himself in hot water.

Following the lawsuit, Snapchat’s stock prices dropped by 1%, although the business did not sustain any long-term harm. Snapchat referred to the idea of restricting its operations to wealthy nations as “crazy.”

Facebook competition: A negative phenomenon

Snapchat’s potential was quickly recognized by Mark Zuckerberg. And when the company declined Mark Zuckerberg’s offer of $60 million to purchase it, Zuckerberg opted to release Poke, a new app that was identical to Snapchat’s services. Poke earned lukewarm reviews and was abruptly discontinued in 2014.

“I Hope You Enjoy Poke.” – Mark Zuckerberg, In An Email To Evan Spiegel

Poke ended up helping Snapchat and gaining more attention for the expanding app business. In an effort to steal the company’s thunder, Mark Zuckerberg offered $3 billion in cash to buy Snapchat, but his offer was once again turned down. As a response, Facebook tried to imitate some of Snapchat’s features by integrating them into Instagram.

Snapchat suffered significantly as a result of Stories because it was unable to compete with Instagram’s popularity. After the Instagram revamp, growth started to dramatically slow down.

Snapchat in today’s time:

2018 saw a decline in Snapchat’s share price to below $5 and a halt in user growth. Consequently, the sales of Snapchat’s Spectacles product generated bad headlines and reduced the brand’s cool appeal. Today, though, things are completely different. With a younger demographic and close to 300 million daily active users, the app has a very large market share.

The COVID-19 pandemic (or, at least, the rise in the consumption of digital content) helped numerous digital businesses, and Snapchat was one of them. As a result, the company’s stock price has reached all-time highs. A further encouraging sign is the company’s increasing average revenue.

The path for Snapchat is positive, but the taste of people in the social media world can keep changing and TikTok is still a significant competitor that has a lot of momentum, but Snapchat seems to have a great future ahead.

Today, it is used for many advertising and marketing purposes. So, let’s see more of how Snapchat is adding value to marketing and advertising, what are the brands that are active on Snapchat, the evolution of users and what is best used for?

How does Snapchat add Advertising and Marketing value and which brands experienced success on the platform?

In the advertising and marketing world, Snapchat may not be the primary choice for businesses but it can be an ideal choice for some businesses.

Between these two generations (GenZ and Millenials), Snapchat has a direct spending power of almost $1 trillion dollars. It’s a platform worth taking a second look at because one-third of customers are more likely to make purchases on their phones. Many businesses who have had great success with Snap Ads may be seen on Snapchat’s Inspiration page. Some Interesting business numbers that you would like to know about are given below:

• Depop has decided to devote 50% of its whole social media budget on Snapchat after discovering that it had a 77 percent cheaper cost per acquisition than other channels.
• With Snap Ads, Marriot Bonvoy saw a 3.4x greater ROI and 35% more bookings than other platforms.
• Using Snapchat marketing, GCCFriday saw a remarkable 150 percent increase in sales.

For three days, Spinnaker Nordic experimented with Snapchat ads, and the results were astounding. The company’s $759.04 in advertising revenue resulted in more than 300,000 views of ads, 300 more swipe ups, more than 24,000 website users and 52 calls in all

What if you don’t have $700 to spend on advertisements? No issue. Spend as little as $5 to advertise on Snapchat. You can test, learn from, and optimize your ads on any budget with such a cheap daily minimum spend. So, you see that businesses have been able to make a lot of revenue because of Snapchat. The platform resulted in brand awareness along with improving revenue streams. So, lets see how it can be a right platform for businesses:

1. Connecting to dynamic young audience:

If your business is looking to connect with people under the age of 35 then Snapchat is the ideal place to be. As the social media platform reaches 75% of the millennials and GenZ where 23% of American adults are the users then Snapchat has the potential to outweigh both TikTok and Twitter.

The data shows that Snapchat is an engaging platform for younger audiences and on an average a user spends 30 minutes a day on Snapchat.

2. It allows the users to interact with your brand:

The current Snapchat design allows users to connect with friends via the “Chat” button on the left side of the home screen while also connecting with brands and content creators via the Discover symbol on the right side of the home screen.

When users connect with friends via Snapchat, they also discover new businesses. Therefore, users of Snapchat can view the content created by companies like MTV and Cosmopolitan magazine that use Snapchat as a marketing tool in the Discover area. 25 of Snapchat’s Discover Partners hit 50 million distinct global snapchat users in 2021.

3. Make a statement and exhibit the brand’s fun side:

Snapchat considers itself the app for #RealFriends, so this can be incredibly good for businesses to offer their services in a friendly way and make a personal connection with the audience. The Snapchat app was created to be informal and entertaining, and it’s about being true to what you deliver to the audience and not simply picture perfect.

Most of Snapchat’s features emphasize creativity and humor, and the app has introduced new methods for users and marketers to express themselves.

4. Polls add to advertising and marketing

Using polls should be a component of your Snapchat ad plan if you have developed one. Ask your audience to vote on the new product and color options. Utilizing popular social media trends like the Selena Gomez vs. Miley Cyrus rivalry, you can compare your items to one another.

Put your audience’s knowledge to the test with trivia questions, as everyone enjoys a good pub quiz night, and give your Snapchat advertising a game show feel. You can also direct visitors to your website. Poll your audience to learn what they enjoy so you can understand what they want from you and create content appropriately.

5. Use the goal based bidding:

With this capability, you could target your ad spending toward a particular action you want a Snapchat user to complete, like downloading your app or making a purchase.  Snapchat will display your adverts in the most effective manner possible to get the intended result by choosing this cost-per-action. Hence,  The people who are most likely to take the requested action will see your advertisements, and you’ll experience higher conversion rates.

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Some features Of Snapchat that can add on marketing and advertising:

After deciding on your Snapchat campaign objectives, you should think about the kinds of advertising that would best connect with and engage your target audience. These formats are all flexible.

1. Snap Ads:

What you must be thinking when you hear the words “Snap Ad” and “Top Snap” is that this is the typical advertisement that will cause you to swipe up. However, there are other types of Snap Ads as well.

The main point of action is that Snapchat advertising drives swipe, and they are live within the stories. It can drive users to a website in the app, a movie, an AR lens, and the app store. This is true whether it is in a snap tale or in the discover tab.

2. Story ads:

When customers tap the branded tile in the Discover section, it opens into a collection of advertisements with anything between three and twenty placements thanks to Snapchat Story Ads. Based on the assets you supply, Snapchat generates the design for this kind of advert for you.

Similar to playable or rewarded advertisements, Snapchat Story Ads are a form of branded content. Your top priority is to write a story that will rapidly captivate users. So, there is no need for an intro, just dive into the content.

1. Snapchat Filters:

There are so many creative filters like the dog filter which every advertiser thinks that they should have created something like this. Hence this filter can be used creatively to make content and represent your rad in a relevant and fun way.

2. Collection Ads:

Another interesting feature is Collection Ads. Snapchat launched Collection Ads as part of its programmatic advertising strategy. Advertisers can highlight a variety of products in these adverts. Additionally, this sort of advertisement offers customers an enjoyable, hassle-free shopping experience. A Collection Ad is a standard Snapchat video ad with a ribbon of thumbnail-sized products at the bottom, if you haven’t seen one in person yet.

Collection Ads may be constructed manually using uploaded tile images or they may be generated automatically from a product catalog, allowing the featured products to be dynamic. There are more forms to complete in Ads Manager for this ad type because it has more components than a straightforward Snap Ad. They will request special links, calls to action, and swipes.

Additionally, Snapchat lets marketers construct unique audiences and lookalikes, just like its social media advertising equivalents. Lookalikes may be based on a file of leads or website visitors from your own CRM. Custom audiences can retarget Snapchat users who have already interacted with your ads and target the same visitors or prospects as well.

User Evolution on Snapchat:

Data from the business’ most recent investor earnings report shows that Snapchat’s daily active users have been increasing consistently over the past six months, hitting 319 million users in January 2022. There are 45.4% men and 53.8% women among them. The majority of Snapchat’s advertising audience consists of users between the ages of 18 and 24.

1. Users As per region

Most of the Snapchat users live in Asia and most of these users are in Southern Asia where 144.8 million users are active users and 62.2 million users in Western Asia. and 16.5 million users in Southerneastern Asia. Brands from North America, Europe and Asia should look at targeting those markets which must consider Snapchat as  valuable to drive their online presence up and Snapchat can be a key element in audience conversations and concerns.

2. The audience reach with Snapchat advertising

Data from the company’s self-service advertising tools show that Snapchat’s advertising audience reach increased by 11.8% over the course of the previous 12 months. In other words, compared to last year, advertisers on Snapchat may anticipate reaching 59 million more consumers worldwide. As a result, by January 2022, advertisers could possibly reach a total of 557.1 million users.

According to Snapchat’s most recent marketing audience statistics, the app is currently used by 9% of all users worldwide who are 13 years old or older. The platform’s eligible adoption rate rises to 11.2% when persons in the same age bracket who reside in China, where Snapchat is still restricted, are removed.

Top Brands on Snapchat:

The secret to effective Snapchat marketing is establishing a common ground with your audience. A fantastic initial step is to look for parallels between these brands and yours. Consider how you may take some of their principles and use them in your own brand’s output as a clever hack for creating an awesome social media marketing strategy to engage Gen Z on Snapchat. Let’s see a few brands that are on snapchat and how they are making use of this platform.

1. Bumble:

Dating has always been difficult, but it was very hard during lockdown. Bumble made totally virtual dating possible and therefore established virtual dating where women message first as the norm. For a Snapchat campaign, Bumble and Cosmopolitan Magazine collaborated to produce takeover videos, the first of which featured Lockdown Love Lessons. These videos were then shared with Snapchat users. The younger generation and those seeking socially conscious and culturally sensitive methods of dating found it appealing.

Women like Cosmopolitan, and when they learned about online dating, it gave the practice more credibility and eliminated any embarrassment that could have existed. Since then, Bumble Snapchat stories have experimented with a fun and creative feature where they are filled with real life relationship tales and women discuss their dating experiences and talk about what it means to be single, in a relationship, divorced, and married in an open and honest way.

2. Taco Bell:

Tex-Mex fast food restaurant Taco Bell sells tacos, burritos, and nachos. They broke records a few years ago to establish themselves as one of the best companies on Snapchat, and they have since continued to lead by example for other brands on the platform.

Among the best examples? A record-breaking 224 million Snapchat users viewed Taco Bell’s Cinco de Mayo lens, which transformed users’ faces into enormous taco shells. In just one day, the Snapchat Cinco de Mayo promotion generated 12.5 years’ worth of plays.

Since then, they have produced hilarious AR lenses and content for everyone to enjoy, such as their most recent “Baja Blast” Snapchat lens made in collaboration with Mountain Dew. They are renowned for tying in significant cultural events, such as the US Super Bowl. Taco Bell builds on this enormous brand recognition by producing unique QR codes also called the snapcodes to provide their target market with special offers.

3. Amazon:

This e-commerce behemoth is using Snapchat to reach younger people. And they’re succeeding at it. How? A timely link to specific products is included in short promotional movies that Amazon has included in their tales.

Amazon has most recently joined the “back to school” trends to provide customers with product suggestions for their school/college lives. Their most recent Snapchat commercial, “Dorm Roomz,” is a frank examination of several Gen Zers’ university residences and the products they use to make their spaces uniquely their own.

How does it function? Each movie has an actual college student showing the videographer around their residence. Along with discussing pricing details, they demonstrate which items they use and explain why they are appropriate for them. With students considering their future and moving into housing, these shorts couldn’t have come at a better moment.

Final Words:

Snapchat has come a long way and it is amongst the top 15 social media platforms. Hence, the creative and interesting features of Snapchat can be a boon to businesses if they know how to speak the language of their brand through these features that the platform provides. The platform has an incredible user base and daily active users are also rising on the platform like anything.

Snapchat may be a good platform for your company if your target demographic is under 34, especially if you are in the direct-to-consumer industry. 60% of Snapchat users are considerably more likely to make impulsive purchases, indicating that the app can boost your sales, generate more revenue, and result in a positive ROI.