Snapchat; the multimedia messaging app which has become an ever-growing social media channel to not only young people but businesses alike.
The messaging app allows users to send images and videos (snaps) which then disappear once viewed. Add these snaps to your story, and they become viewable for 24 hours. And it’s here where businesses can feature.
Audience reach
Last month, Snapchat shared its Q2 performance numbers which showed a 17% year-on-year increase in daily active users. These active users came to an astonishing 238 million. The potential for businesses to put themselves in front of this audience is crazy, right?
On the back of this announcement, Snapchat spent some time updating its audience reach module, which allows users to gain a more specific understanding and detail on regional audience numbers. This recent change could play a vital role in your Snapchat marketing approach for your business.
So what’s new?
Interestingly, when choosing your targeting audience, Snapchat now gives you a much clearer picture to target audience size and estimated weekly swipes as it identifies how popular the app is in each region.
Why the difference in audience size to the total number of active users? Snapchat has previously explained that the figures listed on its maps represent ‘addressable reach’, not active users on the platform.
There are a few variables to consider when looking at the potential audience reach. We can’t presume that this audience size is users who live in a specific region only, as this figure includes people who are travelling, users who have multiple accounts, etc. As a result, the audience size may differ from time to time.
Expanding audience reach further
The changes don’t stop there. In addition to the above change, Snapchat is also testing out a new ‘share’ option which will allow users to share its premium content offerings outside the app. This option will allow users to potentially maximise exposure and reach a much broader audience.
You may remember back in 2018, Snapchat made this an option to share certain types of stories outside of the app but this could only be done through share links or embed links. These links would send users back to the Snapchat platform to watch the videos etc. The content was limited to that produced by influencers or celebrities – but not anymore!
Business focused and change in approach
As Snapchat’s active users are continuously on the rise, part of its main focus has been to make the platform more accessible for these users. This is a step in a different direction for Snapchat – which takes them away from its original approach.
In 2016, Snapchat announced that it deliberately made the app somewhat ‘difficult’ to use in comparison to other social media platforms, to maintain its level of exclusivity. However, since the app has become more business-focused (as we’ve seen with other social media platforms), it realised a change needed to happen and the app was made more welcoming and user-friendly.
As premium content has grown in popularity, Snapchat had to make this area of its platform the best it can be for all – businesses and end-users.
Given its recent growth, it shows that Snapchat can attract more users and allow businesses to reach a much wider audience on the platform – win, win!
Watch this space for more updates from the platform.
