Dive Brief:
- Snapchat has rolled out its highly-anticipated ad partner program and automated application programming interface (API), according to Fortune.
- Snapchat's partner program is made up of two tiers and 20 companies. The first tier, its Ads Partners program, will develop software help marketers purchase, optimize and analyze ad campaigns. The second tier, its Creative Partners program, will help marketers create ads in Snapchat's unique vertical video format.
- API inventory will be sold by third parties through "an automated, auction-based system," Ad Week reports.
Dive Insight:
A social media darling since its launch, Snapchat has now arrived as a top-tier social media platform, recently surpassing Twitter in average daily users and boasting as many (or more) daily video views than Facebook at around 10 billion. The video-sharing platform's user base is still a fraction of Facebook's, but the addition of its ad partner program and automated API stand to make advertising on the app easier and legitimize its new standing in the social media universe.
When the app first launched, Snapchat's attitude toward marketers seemed ambivalent at best. But lately, Snapchat has been actively seeking to improve these relationships by improving targeting and measurement for in-app advertising and offering an ad partner program. Snapchat also recently rolled out a redesign of its Discover portal with the intention of making its publisher partners’ content more enticing and allowing users to subscribe to Discover channels.
"Different marketers have different objectives, and we just want to make it easier for them to buy ads on the platform," Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan told Ad Week.
Snapchat is testing new ad units, according to Fortune, including one that allows viewers to swipe up to watch a longer version of the ad, another that sends viewers to an article, and a third that sends viewers to a website without having to leave the app. Snapchat’s vertical video ad units (once known as 3V) are now called Snap Ads.
All of these moves should make Snapchat an even more attractive outlet for advertising dollars and help marketers better reach its highly-coveted user base.
