Snapchat Ads: Learn the key points about audience segments

When we talk about the Snapchat audience, we are referring to approximately more than 347 million users globally. The countries with the most Snapchat users are: India, with approximately 116 million active users; the United States, with 106 million; and France, with 24 million. 

Find your target based on their interests, locations, demographics and more. Through its targeting options, the platform helps you unlock greater reach and relevance with custom audiences for your brand. 

If you are looking to increase your visits, generate awareness or boost your sales, don't miss the opportunity to include Snapchat in your digital marketing strategy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction to Snapchat audience targeting.
• How to find your target audience on Snapchat?
• Snapchat Ads Audience Targeting Best Practices
• How to do retargeting on Snapchat? 

Introduction to Snapchat audience targeting

Using Snapchat's targeting options allows businesses to connect with users on the platform based on their online and also real-world interests and behaviors. Target your Snapchatters by geographic location, age, gender, language, device type and more. On Snapchat you can find your audience in different ways:

• By location, demographics, interests, etc. Reach your users based on their shopping behavior and lifestyle.
• Optimize your campaign with Snapchat's ad targeting options. Use Snapchat Custom Audiences to make a lasting impression. Combine the customer data you already have with specific behavior on the platform so you can create targeted, optimized campaigns to meet your goals.
• Use retargeting audiences and get more conversions or engagement by staying top of mind with interested Snapchatters. Re-engage with users who have already viewed your website, interacted with your ads, downloaded the app or purchased in the past.

How to find your audience on Snapchat?

Snapchat offers the ability to connect with more than 200 million daily active users. Its targeting capabilities help you get the most out of your campaigns, so it's important to understand how the platform's targeting options work. 

In order to find your audience, you can combine existing customer data with observed behavior on the platform in order to take full advantage of the power of Snapchat audiences.

If you want to optimize your campaigns based on data unique to your business, product or service, these are Snapchat's custom audience options:

• Snap Audience Match
  Target customers using a list of phone numbers, emails, or device identifiers. Reach out to users who have interacted with your brand before and re-engage them to achieve your goals. 
  
  
• Lookalike Audiences
  Expand ad targeting on Snapchat to achieve greater reach by finding Snapchat users who are similar to your current Snapchat users. The Lookalike Audiences tool identifies Snapchat users who are similar to your existing customer base on the platform. With this option, you can increase site traffic, drive new customer growth or boost sales.
  
  
• App Customer Audience
  Mobile app custom audiences are actively updated audiences generated from your app data that your Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) sends to Snapchat. They are created through Snap's Ads Manager and are the best option for retargeting users who have already installed your app to redirect them to your app. 
  
  
• Pixel Custom Audiences
  With this targeting option, we will be able to impact users who have previously visited our website or searched for our products online. This audience is ideal for retargeting campaigns to users who have expressed interest in your Snapchat ads.
  
  
• Ad Engagement Audiences
  This audience reaches users who have previously interacted with your ads. It retargets users who have Swiped Up on an image or video ad, watched a full video ad, opened a story ad, or shared or saved a lens or filter. In this case, these audiences are ideal for retargeting campaigns to users who have expressed interest in your Snapchat ads, and also to increase traffic to your website or increase your sales.
  
  
• Third-party custom audiences
  Build on the buying patterns or behavior of your users. Leverage a broad data mart to develop an audience segment for an individual campaign, object, product, or service. This audience is used to reach a very specific group based on their buying patterns or behavior. 

Best targeting practices in Snapchat Ads

Here are the best targeting practices in Snapchat Ads so you can reach your audience effectively and faster, optimizing your ad campaigns.

Optimize your targeting with Snap Pixel

With the Snapchat pixel active you can access more powerful targeting options to optimize your ad campaigns. It is a piece of code that lives on your website and provides information about user activity: page views, visits to product content, or what has been added to the shopping cart. Implementing the Snap Pixel also unlocks additional goals. 

Follow these four steps to ensure a successful installation:

1. Create your Snap Pixel: Log in to Ads Manager, click "Snap Pixel" in the navigation, then select "Create my Snap Pixel". Select the ad accounts you want to share the pixel to by typing the name of the ad account in the search box. On the top right, click the "Configure Pixel" button and click "Pixel Code".
   
   
2. Enable pixel tracking: From the drop-down menu, select the pixel you want to associate with the campaign. 
   
   
3. Set up dynamic ads: To run dynamic ads, you must upload a product catalog or feed and connect your Snapchat pixel. If you need more information about the requirements, you can review Snap Pixel Helper where the process is explained step by step. 
   
   
4. Verify the implementation: use the Snap Pixel Helper to make sure the pixel events are set up correctly. Log into the "Ad Manager", click on the top corner menu and select "Event Manager", and finally, check the traffic activity.

Once you've finished setting up your Snapchat pixel and verified that it's working, you're ready to optimize your targeting strategies within your campaigns. 

Test and optimize to scale campaigns

Once you've identified which audience targeting options work best for your business, create audience groups with Saved Audiences. Use this tool to quickly find and apply audience templates to optimize your campaign targeting on the platform. 

How to use retargeting options on Snapchat

Snapchat helps you easily run retargeting campaigns so you can grow your audience and meet your goals. Below, we show you the different ways of retargeting on Snapchat: 

Retargeting past, subscribed, or interested customers

Target customers who have interacted with your brand in the past. Use customer lists with emails, phone numbers, or unique identifiers so you can build an audience in Snapchat Audience Match. 

Retarget Snapchatters who have been on your website

Track user activity on the platform and measure the impact of your campaigns across devices by installing the Snap Pixel. You can create custom pixel audiences to retarget users who have been to your website and browsed your products online. 

Re-target Snapchatters who have already installed your app

With Custom Audiences for Mobile Apps re-target Snapchatters who already have your app installed. These are dynamically updating audiences that are generated from your app data that a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) has transmitted to Snapchat.

Retargeting Snapchatters who are interacting with your ads

Target users who are already interacting with your ads on Snapchat with Ad Engagement Audiences. Connect again with these users who have already swiped on an individual image or video ad, watched a full video ad, opened a story ad, shared/saved a lens or filter, or received a paid impression. 

Personalize your retargeting ads with dynamic ads

With dynamic product ads, create a personalized shopping experience on Snapchat. These ads are created directly from your product catalog and adapt to users based on their browsing behavior. 

As we have seen, Snapchat's targeting capabilities help companies connect with the platform's users based on their interests and online behaviors, making it much more effective.

In Adsmurai we have a team expert in boosting the performance of your campaigns on different social platforms such as Snapchat. We were the agency that helped SikSilk become the first brand to launch dynamic ads with Snapchat in Spain. The campaign combined this type of ads and retargeting strategies, which allowed us to improve ROAS by up to 57%, and increase the purchased ticket by 54% compared to other platforms.