Snapchat has shared a new overview of how to create effective Snapchat ad campaigns, which covers all the fundamental elements, and provides some additional notes on what specifically works best in the app.

And the Snap team has come with some meaty stats to make its case:

“Snapchat has 375 million active daily users with $4.4 trillion in global spending power. What’s more, 75% of Gen Z and millennials say it’s the number one platform for sharing real-life experiences.”

Some big claims, which underline the potential of the app for maximizing brand awareness and promotion – but how can you tap into that, and create resonant, effective Snap marketing pushes?

You can check out all of Snap’s key tips here, but in this post, we’ll summarize some of the key notes.

First off, Snap provides a listing of best practices, which are largely universal digital marketing pointers:

• Choose the right ad format for your goals
• Showcase your product front and center in your ad creative
• Make your ads feel native to Snapchat
• Drive urgency with relevant messaging
• Design for sound on
• Link your ads properly
• Test ad creative and try new ad formats
• Use goal-based bidding to bid toward your desired action
• Broaden your targeting
• Understand your audience reach to optimize

I guess, the main points of note are ‘design for sound on’, which hasn’t always been the case on Snap, and ‘broaden your targeting’.

The increasing adoption of sound on consumption, led by TikTok, has opened up new opportunities for your ad creative, with a whole new element that can now be reliably implemented within campaigns.

And with Apple’s iOS 14 update restricting data collection in some apps, most are now calling on advertisers to expand their targeting parameters, in order to enable their ad delivery systems to showcase relevant content to the most valuable prospects.

That also puts more reliance on those systems to connect your promotions with the right audience, but mounting research, in several apps, now shows that expanded audience parameters can help to drive better outcomes.

Snapchat also advises marketers to ‘embrace the format’ and the uniqueness of Snapchat, by focusing on joy, and keeping your promotions under 10 seconds in length.

In terms of what not to do, Snapchat says that marketers need to have realistic expectations about the time it takes to develop their campaigns, and see solid results.

“We’d all love to flip a switch and watch ad engagement soar. But, real results? Those take time. Of course, launching a campaign and seeing positive returns in the first few days or weeks is possible. Typically, though, those results are reserved for the well initiated – businesses that have their targeting and creative locked in.”

Snap says that your first Snapchat campaign is more likely to be about collecting actionable data and making adjustments, with each push generally taking at least five days to provide any significant strategic insight.

Snapchat also advises businesses to engage their audience on a personal level, as opposed to push messaging, while brands should also be analyzing their performance data regularly to understand what’s working, or not.

Most of these tips are fairly general, but there are some handy, Snap-specific data points here, that could be of value in your planning, and could help to set you on the right path with your campaigns.

If you’re looking for ways to boost your Snap ads performance, or get started in the app, they could be worth considering.

You can check out Snapchat’s full ‘Do’s and Don’ts of Snapchat Advertising’ guide here.