The ephemerality of messages sent through Snapchat is what makes the app so popular among millennials. But there’s this one thing that the current internet-frenzied generation genuinely hates more — advertisements. I hope you’re getting what I’m hinting at here.
Snap Inc had previously been opposed to the abundant flow of ‘creepy’ ads, which surface on other online platforms. CEO Evan Spiegel had said that Snapchat would never adopt this ‘creepy’ strategy to pull in wads of money. But, the company now plans to allow advertisers to use third-party offline sales data to target their ads towards specific users on Snapchat, reports WSJ. This development also comes on the heels of the company’s upcoming $25 million IPO, scheduled to launch in March.
The company has struck a deal with Oracle to enable advertisers on Snapchat to use its Data Cloud (previously known as Datalogix). This will provide them with sophisticated data and insight into what users tend to buy offline. The advertisers can then use this data to target ads for a particular set of users and demographic on Snapchat. TechCrunch further adds that the company already rolled out ads a couple weeks ago. It is currently allowing advertisers to target nearly 100 different customer demographics, like ‘smartphone shopper’ or ‘cosmetics shopper’
This advertising campaign is also expected to work in a vice-versa manner, where marketers can measure if the ads converted to sales in real life or not. And if they did then this is even more good news for Snap Inc. It will enable the company to attract more advertisers, thus pulling in more marketing dollars. It will then possibly also reign on a turf, it didn’t even plan to step foot into a couple years ago.
Thus, one can soon expect your favorite ephemeral messaging app flooded with ads similar to those you see on Facebook, Twitter or Google. Starting from a new approach, Snapchat had decided to position itself differently from other social platforms. It was focused on preserving the privacy of individuals on the platform but it is now willing to let that go to cash in on their popularity. But, you need not worry, Snapchat has provided you with the option to opt out of it.
The company had already ad targeting for marketers through an update last year. This feature is called Snap Audience Match and it enables advertisers on the platform to upload their own contacts to target users. But, Snapchat is now allowing them to also use outside third-party data to better target user on the messaging platform. To opt out from the same, all you need to is make a small change in your settings. You need to navigate to Settings > Manage Preferences > Ad Preferences and uncheck the Snap Audience Match option.
