Dive Brief:
- Views for Snapchat Discover's portal publishers are down by as much as one-third after the social media app moved publisher content from the top of the Stories page to down below user stories, as reported by Digiday.
- Publishers, who spoke to Digiday under conditions of anonymity, noted that the news was expected, and some said that other measurements like repeat audience numbers trump day-to-day view counts.
- Snapchat defended the format reconfiguring with a statement noting that the daily number of users active on Discover stories has continued to the grow despite the changes.
Dive Insight:
After years placing a premium on user experience over the needs of marketers and publishers — the company once called tools like ad targeting "creepy" — Snapchat is going through growing pains as it tries to find a more steady middle ground. The app must not only retain users' attention to keep them from migrating toward growing competitors like Instagram Stories, but also figure out a better way to monetize its content ahead of the massive, $25 billion-plus IPO expected early next year.
The reported decline in publisher views mirrors news from just last week that viewabilty for brands on Stories was quite low, with video spots averaging less than 3 seconds of engagement. Lower viewability was also potentially compounded by format changes that ceded more control to users, with the app recently nixing auto advance Stories that would immediately skip into an advertisement.
As many of the metrics emerging around Snapchat engagements from both the media and advertising side might disappoint, the app is banking that publishers and marketers are willing to work around those issues to better reach Snapchat’s Gen Z and millennial-heavy user base. News that returning "core" audiences are strong, and are more important than raw viewership, might allay some concerns for the moment.
