Snapchat 'doubling down' on app install tech to drive ad sales
Snapchat is investing further in its app install technology, with new tools that will help advertisers better evaluate their spend on the platform, as it looks to take a bigger slice of the $5bn a year market.
Snap first rolled out its app install offering in 2016 with a view to taking on competitors such as Facebook
Amid growing competition from the likes of Instagram to sell vertical video ad slots within its Stories section, the Venice Beach-based firm is building out its capabilities in app install the space.
This comes in the form of fresh tools that will let brands and agencies link out to specific areas or levels in apps, as access well more granular measurement.
"Snapchatters are a highly engaged group interested in trying new things," said Peter Sellis, Snap's director of revenue product. "There’s an appetite for app discovery on Snapchat, and our team has doubled down on building tools for those advertisers. With this launch we can now offer more granular metrics and new ways to reach the right audience, and we’ll continue to do more."
Snap first rolled out its app install offering in 2016 with a view to taking on competitors such as Facebook, and for the first time ever it's released results around how these types of campaigns perform within its walls.
As well as deeplinking features, Snap's update also includes increased flexibility for the attribution windows used to measure if ads drove downloads. Advertisers will also be able to view post-install events in ads manager, meaning they will be able to track the in-app activity of individuals who downloaded software via Snapchat.
Most of the stats Snap revealed are around gaming apps. For instance, Playdemic found that installs of its Golf Clash game driven via Snap drove a return on ad spend to the tune of 27% above its goal while Peak Labs recently said it had driven 1.7 million downloads using Snap Ads in two months.
Retail app Zaful, claimed cost per-purchase on Snap was 20% lower than other channels across all of their global media spend.
The introduction of the latest tools indicates Snap leadership sees value in the media budgets of long-tail advertisers, in addition to the brand the app has managed to attract.
Such a strategy has been at the core of Facebook’s ongoing success, with the world's biggest social network porting that mobile ad sales accounted for 88% of its quarterly revenue – the majority of which are believed to be generated by app install ads