Snapchat Advertising 101 FAQs

We are here to help as you begin your advertising journey with Snapchat.
1. What if I don’t have many images to pull from my website to create a compelling ad? 
You can check out Snap Publisher -- our free, self-service ad creation tool within Ads Manager. 
With Snap Publisher, you can convert existing videos from horizontal or square formats to vertical. It’s a great way to reuse content you’re already running for your business on YouTube or other platforms. You can also select from dozens of customizable templates as well as design an ad from scratch.

2. How granular can I get with my targeting?
We offer a variety of options to enhance your campaign targeting:
  • Snap audience match: Upload a customer list of emails or device IDs to find those users on Snapchat
  • Lookalike audiences: Expand your reach by finding Snapchatters who are similar to your existing customers
  • Pixel custom audiences: Target a group of high-intent Snapchatters who have engaged with your brand with a flexible lookback window.
  • Third-party custom audiences: Reach a highly targeted group of Snapchatters based on their past buying patterns or viewing behaviors.
  • Ad engagement audiences: Retarget Snapchat users who have interacted with your Snapchat ads in the past.
You can learn more on targeting here.

3. What data is used to provide Audience Insights?
Snapchat native data includes demographics, such as age and gender and locations, such as regions and DMA. Third party data is data provided by partners, such as Datalogix, and Experian, and includes insights on household income, and purchase behaviors. You can find additional FAQs on audience insights here.
4. How can I maximize my audience through Snapchat ads?
During campaign creation you will be able to view your targeted audience size as you add move through the creation flow. You also have the option to allow Snap to expand your audience automatically. When creating a campaign, you can click the checkbox in the ‘Audiences’ portion to automatically expand your targeting beyond the Snapchat lifestyle categories you have selected.
5. Can I import an email list to create a custom audience?
Yes, with Snap Audience Match. Snap Audience Match (SAM) matches data from your customer list (email, mobile advertiser ID, or phone number) with our community. Upload a customer list of emails or device IDs to find those users on Snapchat. Learn how to create a Snap audience match audience here
6. How much does it cost to advertise on Snapchat?
You can start advertising on Snapchat with as little as $5 a day. The exact cost of advertising on Snapchat can fluctuate depending on a number of factors such as your selected advertising objective, your selected budget, the duration of your campaign, your bid goal, and your bid amount. You can learn more on pricing here.
7. Can you set a daily budget, and how does that work if you can?
Your daily budget is the amount you are willing to spend on a specific ad set per day, while your lifetime budget is the amount you're willing to spend during the campaign's lifetime. Each ad set will have its own budget. You can set daily and lifetime budgets in the campaign creation flow. Learn more on ad set budgets here.
You can also set a campaign spend cap, which sets an overall limit on the amount of money your campaign can spend throughout its lifetime. Learn more on campaign spend caps here
8. How long do you recommend running an ad campaign before changing/optimizing it?
We recommend you wait until the ad set has 30 - 50 conversions that align with your bid goal. This can sometimes take a few days, especially for “low” funnel goals, such as purchase. If you find that you are having trouble reaching this number of conversions, we suggest raising your bid to see if you can increase conversions in the short term and better learn what Cost Per Action Snapchat can provide for you. You can find additional FAQs on ad performance here.

9. What is the difference between Instant Create and Advanced Create?
We recommend Instant Create if you’re just getting started with Snapchat marketing, as it allows you to create a single ad in minutes. Advanced Create gives you more control over your advertising objective, targeting and your bid types. Advanced Create also allows you to run multiple Ad Sets within one campaign.
10. What is the difference between the various “swipe up” options that can be placed on Snapchat Ads?
Ads on Snapchat can swipe up to many different attachments, such as web views, long form videos, text or call etc. We support many different swipe up actions that you can choose from depending on your objective and the action you’d like the Snapchatter to take.
For example, if you have a website you want to drive users to, you can have a user swipe up to that website. If you have an app, you can have users swipe up to visit the Apple or Google app store to download and install your app. If you want to drive leads to your business, you can have them swipe up to call or text your business. If you have a brick and mortar business and want users to learn more about it you can have them swipe up to your Place Listing.
In addition to goal based bidding for swipes, we offer additional goal based bidding for some pixel events such as page view, purchases and sign ups.
11. How can I see how many Snapchatters take action on my site after seeing my ad?
Snapchat offers a Snap Pixel, which is a piece of code for your website that allows you to measure the cross-device impact of your campaigns and see how many Snapchatters take action on your site after seeing your ad. With the Snap Pixel, you will be able to track the specific actions such as adding an item to their cart or purchasing a product.
On our Snapchat For Business YouTube page, we offer four step-by-step videos to help you create, set up, validate the Snap Pixel.  
12. Are there any targeting insights / recommendations you can give to e-commerce clothing brands?
We offer Audience Insights for all advertisers, this can be used with first party custom audience uploads or any targetable audience on Snapchat. Audience Insights includes:
  • Demographics overview: See age and gender breakdowns, languages, household income, education levels, and more
  • Locations overview: Discover region and DMA breakdowns
  • Interests overview: Learn about interests, both 1st and 3rd party
  • Devices overview: Understand OS, device and carrier breakdowns
13. Do you have any new or upcoming products to help e-commerce brands be successful on Snap?
We recently launched Dynamic Ads to give brands an automated way to create personalized shopping ads. Dynamic Ads are a simple way to create mobile ads at scale, while preserving the identity of a brand’s products through appealing mobile-native templates. You can learn more about Dynamic Ads here.
14. If the goal is conversions and purchases, is it better to target a broad audience with a high daily budget or a smaller specific audience with lower daily budget?
Ensure the bulk of your budget aligns with your target audience but set aside some budget to test other potential audiences. To begin, we recommend targeting broadly, and optimizing or narrowing down your audience leveraging. You can find additional information on Delivery Insights here.
15. Do you have app install attribution measurement tools?
Yes. When selecting the ‘App Install’ campaign goal, you need to ensure your app is integrated with a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP). Without a MMP, Snapchat will not be able to optimize your campaign towards install events or provide any app install reporting. Please see below for a list of approved mobile partners:
You can also verify app ownership by generating a Snap App ID and connecting it with your approved MMP. Snap App ID also unlocks Self-Serve Mobile App Custom Audiences, and a number of other upcoming benefits and re-engagement tools.
16. What are the dimensions for Snapchat ads, either still images or video? What is the time minimum/limit for video ads?
All Ad Specs can be found here.
17. How does the ads approval process work?
Ads on Snapchat must meet our Advertising Policies, Community Guidelines, and Terms of Service. You can view the status of your ad in the ‘Ads’ section of the Manage Ads table. Most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, although depending on a variety of factors, it may take longer.
Ads may be subject for rejection if they do not comply with our guidelines, or simply need a creative adjustment. For example, if your text is cut off, imagery is blurred or sound is broken. If your ad is rejected, you can view why on the same page where you can view the status of your Ads.
Editing certain fields such as brand name or headline may trigger re-review of some of your ads. If your ad is rejected, please review our policies, update your ad and resubmit. You can find more information on the ads approval process here.
18. How many campaigns can we run at the same time?
You can run up to 2500 campaigns in each ad account you create.