Dive Brief:

• Snap is bringing more automation into the media buying process on its platform with a new ad-tech format, according to a Tuesday announcement emailed to Marketing Dive. Advertisers globally can now buy multiple video formats in one ad set, helping marketers to optimize their media buys on the social media app.
• Multi-Format delivery aims to change how marketers think about buying media on Snap, shifting to a more multi-product approach to drive performance, per the announcement. The new system is different from single product ad sets in that Snap's machine learning tech will determine the best ad inventory to fill ad space based on format, goal, target audience and costs.
• Starting this week, marketers can use the tech to buy any of Snap's video formats. The social media company plans to expand Multi-Format delivery in early 2022 by adding self-serve augmented reality formats (AR), a move that could expose more Snapchat marketers to AR advertising and broaden the platform's appeal among buyers.

Dive Insight:

Snap's new Multi-Format delivery is the latest example of emerging technologies like machine learning and automation being leveraged to potentially boost the ROI of ad spend. The ad-tech product was designed to simplify the ad-buying process and enable marketers to bundle various creative options for placement across Snap's suite. The new system also streamlines campaign management by keeping all of a brand's creative elements in a single place, called an ad set.

Previously, a Snap ad set could only include one format, limiting the ease at which marketers could buy ad placements in a range of formats. The new system lets marketers more easily buy a variety of ad placements before the machine learning tech selects and places creative in available ad space based on the campaign's format, goal, budget and target audience.

"We have made Multi-Format delivery as simple as an advertiser giving us creative assets for all ad products, optimizing against their goal, and delivering superior results," Peter Naylor, Snap's vice president of sales, said in the announcement.

Automated systems like this allow for more efficiency in the ad-buying process, offering the potential for maximizing ad response. However, the new tech could reduce marketers' control over their campaigns, as it puts the onus on Snap's automated placements.

The new ad tech will reportedly allow marketers a better look at the analytics of their Snap campaigns. Multi-Format delivery ad sets will be broken out by ad format, so marketers can evaluate the efficiency of each format and how it contributes to overall campaign performance.

Snap's new ad tech follows moves made by Google and Facebook over the past few years to weave more machine learning into their ad networks, including through automated ad placements. The company may be working to beef up its advertising offerings as it looks to boost ad sales revenue at a time when Apple's changes are impacting its growth rate. Snap in October reported revenue was up 57% year-on-year in the third quarter, but still missed estimates partially due to changes Apple introduced on iOS over the summer that make user tracking an opt-in rather than opt-out feature.