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Snapchat has apparently upped the number of ads it's showing between Stories already

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By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

August 10, 2016 | 3 min read

Snapchat announced back in June that it was doubling down on advertising. Part of the shakeup included the introduction of branded content being slotted between Stories on the platform – meaning messages from users' friends would be bookmarked with ads.

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Snapchat is reportedly increasing its ad load between Stories / Snapchat

At the time, Snapchat promised that it would "careful" about how many ads Snapchatters would see, capping the maximum number of skippable video spots displayed between friends to three promotions per-day.

According to Ad Week, however, this number has been steadily, and quietly, increasing in the two months since the move was first announced. Additionally, based on the publication's own tests every user on the platform is served the same number of ads regardless of how much content they watch in the Stories section.

Previously available to a select number of brands like Procter and Gamble and Verizon, Ad Week claims that the format has now been opened up to a wider group of marketers like Unilever-owned Simple and Starbucks; which have both run ads between Stories since the start of August.

Brands are keen to tap into Snapchat's, predominantly young, 150-million-strong userbase but so far the app has been careful to strike the balance between pleasing advertisers and keeping users eyes on screens.

It has yet to comment on reports about its ad load, but leaked documents obtained by Tech Crunch claim the company wants to generate $350m in ad revenue by the end of 2016, and increasing the number of slots it offers brands is one way to do this.

Snapchat's popularity has skyrocketed in the past two years, the platform now boasts 10bn daily video views, while rivals like Facebook and its sister platform Instagram have drawn inspiration from the messaging app's user toolkit recently, unveiling photo filters and Instagram Stories features.

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