How to Make Money on Snapchat

Snapchat: An Unexpected Phenomenon on the Web

Snapchat is a mobile app created by Bob Murthy and Evan Spiegel developed in 2011 to give users the opportunity to share images and videos.

It is unique in its spec to delete the message after seeing it. That’s why recipients cannot save or share it. Snapchat allows users to share weird and audacious images with complete confidence privacy.

This app is also amusing. You can do more than just selfies. You can add emojis, masks, or filters. It has the Discover section, where 16 solid media outlets (VOX, MTV, BuzzFeed, etc.) publish their news and other content from their websites as snaps. It permits the presentation material in a non-standard format. You can also make video calls via Snapchat.

The target audience admires this idea greatly because now they have a secure personal space and no limit to personal fulfillment. Now, let’s learn more about the Snapchat monetization model.

Snapchat Facts and Statistics That Marketers Should Know

1. There are about 306 million daily users on Snapchat.
2. Snapchat’s largest age group is 13-29 year-olds. According to Statista, Snapchat is the most popular social network of teenagers in the United States.
3. Female users prevail on the app at 54% (as of October 2021). 

4. According to Snapchat, there are 5 billion snaps created every day.
5. Active Snapchat Users take snaps with a Snapchat camera about 20 times per day.
6. There are about 18 billion daily video views on Snapchat.
7. Leading countries based on Snapchat audience include India and the United States.

Only about 5% of businesses are on the platform.

What Makes Snapchat a Good Monetization Channel?

1. The engagement rates are high on Snapchat, as users share photos and videos actively and log in multiple times per day.
2. As very few businesses have discovered Snapchat and started using it for marketing purposes, competition is very low.
3. About 10% of Snapchat users report using the app to follow businesses, while 42% report using the app for entertainment.
4. About 50% of Snapchatters watch videos in the Discover section every week.
5. Snapchat users are open to Influencer Marketing. 4 out of 10 Snapchat users report discovering a product or service thanks to the word-of-mouth recommendations of an influencer.
6. Snapchat has incredible earning potential for targeting generation Z, as this age group prevails on the app.
7. The app seems to be cut out for holding contests and sharing coupons.

However, you should collect the contact database before implementing the platform into your marketing. How does Snapchat monetize your activities? You can raise money from Snap Ads, sponsored lens filters, geofilters, sports partnerships and discover. Now, it’s time for details on types of earnings.

Ways to Get Money

This business model is based on the app’s ability to analyze the audience’s desires, to select the most engaging moments and to allow data use for getting profits. They use the psychological method that suggests temporary things are the most valuable. Sure, you’d like to consider how to monetize Snapchat in depth.

1. Snap Ads

More than 500,000 users look through ads during the day. It’s a relatively low amount (compared to Facebook Ads, for example), but you can deliver your message exactly to the audience you are interested in with Snap Ads.

There is a convenient ads manager inside Snapchat. Note, that it’s not accessible worldwide. If your country is restricted, change the location on your phone via Hola Fake GPS location, for example.

The app supports certain advertising formats:

• Snap Ad to watch, listen or do something else.
• Story Ad as a creative for Discover Feed (it is good for brand or mass media promotion).
• Filter – the images that overlap via carousel.

You can track and optimize the results after the campaign has been launched.

2. Geofilters

So, how do you monetize Snapchat with geofilters? You can make a free geofilter for a public place that is crucial to you and your niche (parks, cities, neighborhoods, etc.). It really works because users like sharing filters, even branded filters. You should create a geofilter when running an exclusive event or opening a new store.

How do you launch a geofilter? Just take a picture or a short video, swipe to view the accessible filters, and choose the appropriate one. By the way, there are two types of filters: personal and business. Do you intend to create a business geofilter? Okay, but the right to put in any logo, trademarks, etc. is required. It is impossible to use URLs, phone numbers, or contacts.

Don’t forget to customize your geofilter with the help of Snapchat’s templates in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator formats, or any service, and then test it with different images. Then you download your geofilter, set the time and date, choose a location, pay for the filter and confirm your order. The app offers some basic reports to measure your geofilters’ effectiveness.

3. Sponsored Lenses and Posts

This way of promotion is unique. The lenses of the user are getting more amusing and tender with only one tap, that’s why they adore them. You can offer your branded lenses but its creation is a prerogative of Snapchat. All you have to do is explain your goals and they’ll make a design with your logo or product. The audience will use your lenses and share them with other users. Getting a sponsored lens from a friend is like getting a direct recommendation.

More than a hundred sponsored campaigns are currently working on Snapchat. Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Pixar, Michael Kors, Starbucks and L’Oreal use brand lenses to increase their rates and sales. Millward Brown Company revealed the sponsored lenses to be more memorable and sure to increase sales faster than other channels.

Snapchat also displays your sponsored stories in the special section to make users see them by default while the user is looking through their friends’ stories. Your stories should be rather catchy to make sure you get their attention.

4. Affiliates

How else can you make money with Snapchat? This network is also a good tool for affiliate business. For this purpose, you should ask everybody to follow your account and activate Snapchat’s option to find friends nearby. Use your own contact database to invite followers to Snapchat.

For example, you can share your login via social media with a call-to-action, arrange the contest and write an article about it for your blog. You can also ask the authorities to promote your snap code.

Then, you can start writing exciting content, offer presents and discount flight tickets, introduce a new product, inform about special events, and show behind-the-scenes photos/videos. You can promote more than just a mobile website, (Aviasales and Hotellook both are optimized for the mobile traffic) but you can also send people to iOS and Android apps.

With Travelpayouts, you get a life-long commission when users buy tickets or book hotels via the app that was installed with your ID.

One more technique: broadcast live events. For example, if you are a travel blogger or vlogger, you can use Snapchat to create a live play-by-play of your journey, while recommending that users buy flight tickets via Aviasales or book hotels via Booking.com.

You can earn on these recommendations with the Travelpayouts partnership platform. Simply sign up on the platform and join travel affiliate programs of well-known travel brands, such as Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Kiwi.com, and many more, which your audience knows and trusts. Copy your partner’s link from your Travelpayouts personal account and share it via Snapchat. For each sale made via your link, you’ll receive a reward.

To get more tips on how to promote affiliate offers on Snapchat and other social media, watch this tutorial by Travelpayouts Academy.

Tips on Growing Your Snap Account

Most advertisers consider their product the best. There is no doubt about that, but it’s crucial to make others think so too. Therefore, you should grow your account before its monetization.

• An effective tool is offering to activate a coupon that provides a discount or cashback.
• Don’t neglect random followers on the first stage of your promotion, and be sure to interact with them.
• Since most of your friends may not hear about Snapchat, use the other social media opportunities to invite them to Snapchat.
• Be generous by promoting others and they’ll pay you back for that.
• Use crowd and content marketing to put your snapcode in articles and posts.

There are plenty of other methods to make your account grow. However, whether you create a Facebook ad with a snap code, or run a competition, it is crucial to constantly apply all the tools.

Advertising on Snapchat

Snapchat advertising used to be too pricey for most small businesses, but things have changed and become more affordable. However, brands are slow to advertise on the app. 

The Benefits of Snapchat Advertising

1. Snapchat allows marketers to reach out to an audience that is difficult to reach on other social media platforms.
2. Snapchat’s main age group has a considerable buying power.
3. The Snapchat Pixel allows marketers to track how consumers interact with their website after clicking on an ad.
4. You can have an authentic conversation with your audience and show an unusual side of your brand. Showing your brand being silly, funny, or casual can help you build a better rapport with your audience and relate to them.
5. Snapchat ads are easy to create.
6. Geofilters are a powerful tool for boosting and tracking sales by region.
7. The app install attachment can help you drive more app installs.

Snapchat ad types 

There are several ad types on the app. 

1. Snap Ads are full screen video and image ads that can be used for a variety of purposes. As a rule, such ads have an attachment and encourage users to swipe up to go to a website, install an app, watch a video, etc.

2. Story ads allow marketers to get more eyes on their ads thanks to a branded tile placed in Snapchat’s Discover section, which opens into a collection of 3 to 20 Snap Ads.

3. Collection ads are perfect for e-commerce as they allow marketers to feature several products. This ad type helps marketers provide a seamless shopping experience for their audience.

4. Filter Ads are illustrated overlays for images and video snaps. These ads are a great way to boost brand awareness and entertain your audience. Snapchat sponsored geofilters allow for the creation of filters based on a user’s location. Businesses can use them when hosting an event so that users can post photos from said event using the filter.

5. AR lenses help businesses create interactive snaps and boost engagement. This type of advertisement allows users to transform their face into a brand’s character or alter the environment around them.

6. Commercials are non-skippable video ads, which last 6 seconds and help brands boost awareness.

Setting up a Snapchat Ad

There are two main ways to create an ad in the Snapchat Ads Manager: Instant Create and Advanced Create. The former allows marketers to create an ad in less than 5 minutes, while the latter offers more advanced options, such as ad formats, objectives, creatives, and more.

How to Set up an Ad With Instant Create

Instant Create is a simple solution that allows for the creation of simple image and video ads in less than 5 minutes. To launch an ad with Simple Create, you need to do the following:

1. Choose your advertising goal based on:

• website visits 
• calls and texts
• app installs
• app visits

2. Add a URL you want your ad to link to

3. Upload a video or photo.
4. Add the name of your business, a headline to display in your ad, and a CTA, then choose a template and add your logo (which is optional).

5. Define the demographics and location for your ad. You can set up several advanced targeting options, including Interests, Customs Audiences, and Device Type.

6. Next, define the budget and duration of your campaign, and then enter your business address and payment details.

7. The last thing you need to do is click the Publish button. 

How to Set up an Ad With Advanced Create

Advanced create is a campaign creation flow that allows marketers to take full control of their advertising campaigns and achieve a wider range of marketing goals.

1. The first thing you need to do is set an objective for your campaign. You can choose from the following possible objectives:

• building brand awareness
• generating app installs
• driving more website traffic
• boosting engagement
• generating video views and leads
• increasing website conversions 
• driving catalogue sales

2. Next, name your campaign, and then set the status, start and end dates, and daily and lifetime spending caps.

3. The next step is to build ad sets and define the ad type. You can also add an attachment to your ad.

4. Next, choose the placement, location, demographics, and devices of your ad.

5. After this, set the ad budget, start and end dates, goals, as well as the bid and frequency caps.

6. Design your ad by naming it and adding a brand name and headline. You can also make the ad shareable and add an attachment to it.

7. You need to set your ad as Active or Paused.

8. The last step is to review your campaign, confirm its setup, and publish it.

How to Monetize Snapchat in 2022?

Let’s see discuss tips on how to make money with Snapchat after you’ve collected a decent base of followers.

1. It’s clear that this app focuses on the impulsivity of people. Therefore, the secret of a successful sale is to match the user’s mood and his energy level.That’s why the offer of an expiring discount that will vanish in a few seconds really works. It doesn’t mean an instant sale. You should direct the users to your LP via snapcode.
2. You can send videos to your followers to demonstrate the advantages of your product (material objects) and suggest they to sell it inside the app via snapcash.
3. If you have a solid audience, you can succeed with the affiliate marketing by recommending any product and getting the percentage from clicks or sales.

To become a skillful and successful seller or affiliate on Snapchat, you can’t forget about the audience – they are mostly young people between 18-34 years old. The goods/services you sell should relate to the users’ age and psychology.

Start Making Money – Three, Two, One, Now!

Now, it’s time to move from theory to practice. You should take some steps that don’t require much effort or skill to start gaining profits.

1. Enter Snapchat’s site to download the app and register.
2. Create a business account.
3. Build an audience.
4. Develop your own strategy.
5. Create content.
6. Enter Snapchat Ads Manager.
7. Click Snap Publisher and learn the drop-down menu.
8. Choose your type of promotions and make settings.
9. Launch your campaign.
10. Track the campaign to optimize it.

Important: At the beginning, you should point to your valid email address and figure out a unique username that won’t contain any private information. If you want to change the username later, you have to create a new account! That is why you have to be careful when initially choosing a name.

How Much Can You Earn With Snapchat?

In 2019, Snapchat reported that the total income was $404 million. That is almost four times more than in 2015. The predictions for 2018 claim a $2 billion revenue.

The size of your personal revenue depends on the monetization technique you’ve chosen. For example, Snap Ads are the most popular way of earning. Their average bid is from $1 up to $3 per “swipe-up” action. You can calculate your income by taking into account such parameters as the number of targeted actions.

The profit from sponsored lenses depends on the number of viewings. If you promote your product through the Discover sections, the income will depend on your content quality and the number of the subscribers.

Tips and Ideas to Monetize Snapchat

1. Implement the ideas on demand. If the pretty women and funny dogs captured the audience’s heart, use them in your own filter, lenses, ads, etc.
2. Define your personality consistently to provide the highest level of engagement.
3. Use Shazam integration to reach millions of new users.
4. Make your sketches funny and playful; stress the brand story not the product itself.
5. Share the best stories on YouTube and other social networks for outreach.
6. Add art to the snaps (Halloween masks, fancy dresses, etc.)
7. Present your product in different ways to avoid being dull and to find the most effective techniques.
8. Get access to a popular Snapchat influencers and let them use your account to motivate them to promote your product and guide customers.

Whatever you choose, you should always track the results and analyze them for further optimization. You should keep an eye on the number of followers, their actions and responses, the number of views and find out the most convertible content.

Two Secrets of Successful Monetization

Before developing and practicing any strategy, it is worth understanding the foundation of profitable Snapchat interaction. Interaction that, as a result, will permit earning money with low investments and will provide awareness, and increase the number of subscribers, views and sales. It deals with your audience and your content.

1. Build Your Audience

One of the most effective tools is to use influencer takeovers, and we’ve already described this technique above. One more way, is to use call-to-actions with teaser images and put them on other social networks to make following you to see the rest of the offer. What’s crucial is to show the users’ profit and to convince them of your ability to solve their issue in the best way.

Then, you can add your Snapchat username to your other profiles, wherever they are, and then to your email signature. You can put your stories on display on your YouTube channel. It is also necessary to put your snapcode wherever it is possible.

2. Create Great Content

Creating engaging Snapchat content is no less important than capturing and keeping the followers’ interests. An average person’s attention span is 12 seconds. So, you only have a short time period to build relationships with their audiences.

There are plenty of tools to customize the content and to make it attention-grabbing. Some tools are built-in on Snapchat: emoji, captions, doodles, stickers and other creatives. The creativity shouldn’t be chaotic or episodic, but permanent and based on your target audience’s preferences.

Here is a vivid pattern. GrubHub developed a story encouraging viewers to interact with the content and take part in a promotion. It worked for GrubHub and delivered the company awareness as one of the leading brands using Snapchat Stories.

What Is the Best Way to Gain a Profit From Snapchat?

How can you make money on Snapchat quickly and without any losses? Managing to do this means you have to understand that it does not deal with the best way of monetization, but with the most appropriate one. The choice depends on the business peculiarities. Any strategy must be integrated and coordinated.

For example, if you are a news blogger, it is rational to pay more attention to the Discover section to publish a series of snaps, as Cosmopolitan, CNN and ESPN do it. If you are keen on traffic arbitration, it is better to focus on Snap Ads. If you are related to the travel niche, then combine all mentioned methods with the Travelpayouts partnership platfrom.

Whatever you use, the crucial thing is to communicate with your followers and potential customers. Ask them questions and provoke discussions. Make a “collage” of their best answers and reactions, post them to other social media platforms or to your own Snap story. Add text or change locations to cause curiosity. Be creative and find your way to keep the audience interested.