How to Skyrocket Your Brand Awareness on Snapchat: Expert Tips from Snap‘s Own Product Marketing Manager

Are you looking to put your brand on the map with Millennials and Gen Z in 2024? Want to engage these valuable audiences in ways no other platform can match? If you‘re not leveraging Snapchat‘s innovative ad formats and immense reach, you‘re leaving major awareness on the table.

In this expert guide, we‘re going deep on how to use Snapchat to drive unparalleled brand awareness with your target audiences. We‘ll share key insights and actionable tips straight from Evan Orenstein, Group Product Marketing Manager at Snapchat, along with plenty of data, examples and best practices to maximize your impact. Get ready to take your brand presence to new heights!

Why Building Brand Awareness on Snapchat Needs to Be a Top Priority

First, let‘s set the stage with some powerful stats that showcase why Snapchat is THE premier destination for brands looking to boost awareness:

• Snapchat reaches a staggering 75% of Millennials and Gen Z globally
• The platform has 363 million daily active users worldwide as of Q1 2023
• 59% of U.S. Snapchat users are under 25, compared to only 16% of Instagram and Facebook users in that coveted age range
• The average Snapchatter opens the app over 30 times per day, offering brands frequent touchpoints

No other social platform comes close to offering this level of reach and engagement with younger audiences. As Orenstein puts it, "If you want to reach millennials and Gen Z where they are everyday, you need to be on Snapchat."

Even more key – Snapchat enables you to connect with audiences you likely aren‘t reaching elsewhere. Per App Annie‘s analysis for Q1 2020, 43% of Snapchatters 16+ in the U.S. aren‘t on Instagram weekly, and 86% aren‘t on Twitter weekly. "This is proof that if Snapchat is not part of your media mix, you are missing out on reaching all of your audience," says Orenstein.

6 Ways to Maximize Brand Awareness on Snapchat

Now that you know the immense opportunity Snapchat offers for brand building, let‘s dive into Orenstein‘s top strategies for awareness success:

1. Go big with a multi-format approach

Orenstein‘s #1 tip? "Take advantage of all our ad formats to ensure your brand is present in all areas of Snapchat to maximize reach."

Snapchat offers a variety of engaging placements to get in front of users across the entire app:

• Single Image or Video Ads
• Story Ads
• Collection Ads
• Lenses AR Experiences
• Filters

For maximum awareness, Orenstein recommends running campaigns that leverage multiple formats. "This full-funnel approach allows you to reinforce your message, build familiarity, and stay top of mind," he advises.

2. Target efficiently with Lifestyle Categories

To make the most of your awareness efforts, focus on reaching the right audiences. "Use broad audiences that align with your product by testing our unique first-party targeting segments called Snapchat Lifestyle Categories," suggests Orenstein.

Lifestyle Categories use Snapchat‘s rich user data to segment audiences based on their passions, interests, and behaviors – enabling you to efficiently reach your ideal customer profiles at scale. For example, a fitness brand could target the Lifestyle Category "Fitness Enthusiasts" to get in front of users who frequently engage with workout content.

3. Create thumb-stopping video creative

On mobile, you have just a few seconds to capture attention. To stop busy Snapchatters in their tracks, Orenstein offers this creative best practices:

"Make sure your ads are eye-catching and get your brand‘s key message across in the first 2-3 seconds. Most importantly, include your brand logo early so it‘s clearly featured."

Some more Snapchat creative tips to drive breakthrough:

• Ensure your video has audio – 64% of Snapchatters surveyed said they‘re more likely to watch a video ad if it has sound
• Keep videos short and snappy – full screen Snapchat ads have an average video length of just 7 seconds
• Add interactive attachments like Web View, Deep Link or App Install to make your ads actionable – these attachments drive 4-5x higher engagement than the average Snapchat ad
• Take advantage of Snapchat‘s full screen, vertical video format to immerse viewers in your brand story

4. Make ad creation a snap

Don‘t have an in-house design team or big production budget? No sweat! Snapchat offers two completely free, self-serve tools to help you create professional-grade ads in minutes:

Snap Publisher: Quickly transform your existing photos and videos into full screen vertical video or image ads optimized for mobile. Choose from Snap Publisher‘s huge library of templates, animations and licensed music to make your creative pop.

Lens Web Builder: Create, launch and track your own branded AR Lens campaigns directly via web interface – no special design skills needed. Lens Web Builder makes activating immersive AR campaigns easy and accessible for brands of all sizes.

"Both of these tools are super easy to use and available within Ads Manager," says Orenstein. "Any brand can use them to build effective ad creative at scale."

5. Learn from top-performing campaigns

One of the best ways to inspire your own Snapchat awareness efforts is to look at real examples of brand success on the platform. "The brands that impress me most tend to have a few things in common," shares Orenstein. "They use creative designed for Snapchatters, and they leverage multiple immersive formats because our ad products work better together."

Some standout case studies:

• Truff: The luxury hot sauce brand used Snap Publisher to develop creative showcasing their product in action. By running this creative across Video Ads and Story Ads targeted to relevant lifestyle audiences, Truff achieved a 17 point lift in ad awareness and 5 point lift in purchase intent.

• Lay‘s: To build buzz for their "Smile with Lay‘s" campaign, Frito-Lay North America ran a National Lens AR experience that allowed users to interact with the iconic Lay‘s potato chip smile. The Lens reached over 16 million Snapchatters and resulted in a 26 point lift in brand awareness and 30 point lift in message association.

• American Eagle: The retail brand used Snapchat Lifestyle Categories to reach high-intent apparel shoppers, and incorporated Snap Ads, Story Ads and Collection Ads into their strategy. With this full-funnel, personalized approach, American Eagle was able to drive 3x higher return on ad spend vs goal.

For more campaign inspiration, check out the Success Stories on Snapchat‘s business site. Seeing how other brands are winning with Snapchat can help spark fresh ideas to inform your strategy.

6. Measure, optimize and scale

Finally, as with any awareness initiative, you need to define clear goals, track the right metrics, and continually optimize performance. "Have a measurable objective for your campaigns, whether that‘s improving brand lift, increasing message association, or hitting a certain reach and frequency goal," advises Orenstein.

Use Snapchat‘s measurement solutions to gauge success and glean actionable insights:

Brand Lift: Snapchat Brand Lift allows you to measure the impact of your campaigns on key brand metrics like awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent. By surveying an exposed group and a control group, Brand Lift quantifies how many Snapchatters took action after seeing your ads.

Reach & Frequency: Monitor how many unique Snapchatters you reached and how often they saw your ad with Snapchat‘s first-party Reach & Frequency reporting. "Look at metrics like reach, frequency, and vCPM to understand how your campaigns are driving cost efficient awareness," says Orenstein.

Snap Pixel & Advanced Conversions: While not awareness-oriented metrics per se, implementing the Snap Pixel and Advanced Conversions can help you track longer-term impact like site visits and purchases. Use these tools to measure end actions that strong brand awareness helps facilitate.

Based on your results, make use of Snapchat‘s Split Testing features to continually optimize for even greater impact. Test different creative formats, audiences, placements and goals to zero in on top-performing combinations. As you hone in on winning tactics, increase spend on your awareness initiatives to reach more of your target audience at efficient frequencies.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, Snapchat is an unparalleled platform for putting your brand top of mind with millennials and Gen Z. By taking advantage of its unique ad formats, precise audience targeting, and powerful creation tools, you can drive meaningful awareness that translates to all stages of the customer journey.

But don‘t just take our word for it. Experience the impact for yourself by putting these expert strategies into action. With Snapchat on your side, you can make 2024 the year your brand becomes a household name with the audiences that matter most. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start building your presence on Snapchat today!