Dive Brief:
- Snapchat added Moat as a measurement partner to offer marketers another independent source for metrics and analytics on the social media app.
- According to Snapchat’s own internal measurement, two-thirds of the videos its users watch, including video ads, are viewed with the sound on.
- One argument marketers have made against advertising on Snapchat was a lack of third-party measurement for viewability and engagement.
Dive Insight:
Among the issues marketers have with video advertising, sound has been one of them. The soundless default of some autoplay videos makes it so marketers have to get extra creative about how they can engage audiences under this setting. In addition to its metrics moves, for Snapchat to see that the bulk of videos are watched with sound could help the app win more advertisers over.
Moat’s CEO Jonah Goodhart told Business Insider, "The impression I got was that (Snapchat's chief strategy officer Imran Khan) was taking (measurement) very seriously. They're thinking about it the right way. They've raised a lot of money, it's a huge platform that's growing fast, and they need to put the right pieces in place. I'm very happy to work with Imran directly and happy that he's personally focused on this because there's obviously a lot of things on his plate."
Facebook partnered with Moat last September to measure its video advertising performance, a deal that rolled out globally this February. Both Snapchat and Facebook deliver around 10 billion videos per day.
Moat joins nine other measurement firms providing analytics for Snapchat advertisers including Nielsen, Millward Brown, Sizmek, comScore and Innovate. Snapchat also made two hires in March to directly address ad measurement and targeting on the app.