Snapchat are Reaching Out to Small Businesses with Ad Manager

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One of Snap's primary aims at the moment is to turn Snapchat into one of the most versatile, malleable advertising platforms available. At the moment, they're doing very well, especially where video ads are concerned. New blue chip advertisers are coming to the platform on a consistent basis, but it's not just the big hitters they're interested in. Snap want smaller business to advertise on the app, and with the release of Ad Manager, they've made it that much easier.

Ad Manager allows business to buy ads directly through the platform, where previously it had to be done through a third party, usually for a fee. They've also introduced a new mobile ad performance tracker, and Business Manager, which allows companies to manage the roles of their team members by controlling who has access to what.

Snapchat will likely be a significant proving ground for smaller businesses. Much of the platform's audience is young, and a very high percentage of the user base is on the app every day, so to be effective, advertisers will have to be putting out new content constantly. Teenagers have very short attention spans, so keeping them interested is uniquely challenging. 

The bigger obstacle for smaller businesses, however, is cost. Creating polished video content is expensive and time consuming, so unless you happen to have an experienced videographer with all their own equipment on staff, it's going to take some budgeting. It's not impossible, and the upside is well worth the financial strain, but it will present businesses with a new, unfamiliar set of challenges that they wouldn't necessarily face if they were advertising on Twitter or Facebook.

Ad Manager also allows businesses to monitor ad performance, organise targeting and configure goal based bidding. It's a bit threadbare, despite this, but there's certainly scope for more options to be added once it's been out for longer. What Snap really need to be doing is teaching businesses how to advertise effectively on the platform, and given their current trajectory, that would be a logical and predictable next step.