Snap Begins Testing Sponsored Posts and Promoted Places

After previewing Sponsored Snaps and Promoted Places last month, Snapchat has now provided a few more details about its new ad formats, which will enable ad partners to reach users in the most engaging part of the app.

Snap’s inbox has long been sacred ground, free of sponsored content. But the arrival of “My AI” seemingly opened the gates, with Snap now looking to enable brands to push promotions direct into your chats.

[**]

As you can see in this example… wait, no you can’t, there is no example, because for some reason, Snapchat hasn’t provided an image of what Sponsored Snaps will look like. Which makes this a bit of an odd update, because as noted, Snap actually already announced these coming updates last month.

So today is mostly just a reaffirmation that these are coming. Or something.

Whsatever it is, Snap says that Sponsored Snaps will enable marketers to deliver full-screen vertical video Snaps, directly to their users’ chat inbox.

As per Snap:

“Snapchatters can choose to open the Snap and can engage by sending a message directly to the advertiser, or using the call-to-action to open a predetermined link.”

Sponsored Snaps will include a “Sponsored” tag to differentiate them in your chat list, while they also won’t be eligible for push notifications.

“If Sponsored Snaps are left unviewed, they will be removed from the inbox.”

It’s a risky bet for Snap, letting advertisers intrude on a more private element, but with the company looking to expand its business opportunities, it may need to get more creative with its ad options, in order to drive more spend.

Definitely, you can imagine that brand partners will be keen to reach Snapchatters’ inboxes, but I also anticipate a minor revolt, at least early on, which could be problematic for the app.

We’ll see what happens, with Snap initially testing Sponsored Snaps with Disney, then expanding them to more advertisers soon.

Promoted Places, meanwhile, will enable businesses to highlight their stores on the Snap Map.

Again, no visual example as yet, but Snap’s Promoted Places in Maps is initially launching with partners McDonalds and Taco Bell, which will give advertisers some idea of what they can get from their own Map promotions.

“With more than 350M Snapchatters using the Snap Map a month, Promoted Places will give advertisers the ability to reach incremental customers, gain visibility and engage with users in a new, local, and innovative way. We’ve found that marking Places as “Top Picks” drives a typical visitation lift of 17.6% for frequent Snapchat users relative to those shown a place without an annotation.”

It’s a more logical update for Snap’s ad tools, and again, you can clearly see the advertiser appeal. It may not be as responsive, and thus appealing as inbox messages, but it’s another way to reach Snap’s young audience.

Both are interesting, and have great potential, but there is also the lingering risk of over-commercialisation of what’s generally a private messaging app. Snap, of course, is always looking to expand on this behavior, but research shows that the majority of Snap users prefer the privacy and intimacy of the app.

Will inbox ads impact that?

We’re going to find out.