01 Aug Back to School with Snapchat
With a new school year right around the corner, Snapchat has made it a little easier for brands to ace the start of a new school year with the release of a detailed set of tips on how to better use the app for Back to School marketing. According to the Snapchat Back to School article, US users spent over 130 million hours on the app during the back to school time period last year, making it a great place to reach the app’s young audience of school goers on mobile.
Back to School is considered the second largest shopping season of the year, so it’s important for brands to plan effective campaigns pushing your brand’s school-related promotions.
To make better use of Snapchat during this time, follow these three key takeaways from the article:
Put a Filter on It
One of the features that Snapchat called out was their customizable photo filters. Snapchat filters can be useful to brands when they consider the context of the time period that they’re in and figure out how to thoughtfully incorporate their product into that frame. The right filter with a creative graphic and sharp text callout can encourage users to share, driving awareness and spreading the brand’s Back to School message to their followers. This friend to friend method of ad sharing was successful on Snapchat last year, seeing a 20% increase in views each day during the Back to School season.
Launch a Campaign
Another effective way of engaging users on Snapchat is to launch a campaign. This branding method for retailers can start with a Snap ad, a photo filter or both. Using both formats to launch your campaign can be a great way to tell a story and reach users. Campaigns that take advantage of these methods during the Back to School season have the advantage of high visibility on Snapchat during this time.
When creating a campaign, be sure to tell interesting stories that are valuable to the viewer. For instance, Five Star used Snap ads to promote their #StrengthNotStress campaign that shared students’ stories of effectively dealing with stress. One of the videos ads prompted users to swipe-up for more, which sent them directly to the full-length story. This swipe-to-video method saw success on Snap Ads with a completion rate of 23.8%, which drove users directly to the brand’s site or promotion.
Drive, Drive, Drive
No matter what type of campaign your brand decides to go with, it’s important to create an interesting combination of pieces that drive relevant users to action. When putting out content, you should be sure to use Snapchat’s Ad Manager to target those who will be interested in your products in categories that are relevant to back to school. Using the location category of “Colleges & Universities” and targeting those in the lifestyle category of “Parent & Family” are some specific ways to help leverage your Back to School content. These are your core group of important shoppers who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Need more ways to engage users on Snapchat this Back to School season? Contact us
