Just in time for the holiday season, Snapchat is rolling out Promoted Stories, an ad format which allows advertisers to push their stories to more users.
Snapchat's Story is a collection of photos and videos stitched together to create one extended thread. With the ability to disappear after 24 hours, it was one of Snapchat's most popular products, the product that was so influential that all Facebook's properties are copying.
Anyone on Snapchat can create a Story, including brands and businesses accounts. However, those Stories are only visible to the account's followers.
This is where Promoted Stories takes its role. As an ad format, advertisers can promote their stories as Promoted Stories using between 3-10 photos to create a more rich experience, to target specific demographic, for example.
The mini magazine-esque Publish Story ads will then appear on the Stories page inside the Snapchat app.
Promoted Stories are similar to an ad type Snap tested back in 2015. At that time, the company sold a promoted Discover channel to Sony Pictures, which pushed its upcoming James Bond movie. However, Snap didn’t ultimately expand that test.
HBO purchased the first Promoted Story in the U.S. to links to free episodes of "Game of Thrones," "Insecure" and "Westworld." Retailer ASOS has also bought the first ads in the UK and France.
According to Snap, more than 88 million people in the U.S. can see ads on Snapchat. The company excels at reaching a younger audience, with 47 million viewers in the age between 13 to 24 demographic.
"Our advertising partners have been asking for ways to tell deeper stories on mobile," Snapchat's Peter Sellis. ""Promoted Stories offer marketers access to the same Stories format used by our community, combined with the reach and placement enjoyed by publishers on the app."
Another addition, is the AR Trial Ads program. The ad is based on the social media service’s World Lens feature, allowing advertisers to create immersive experiences for users.
BMW for example, allows Snapchat users to place vehicles in their environment, resizing, and walking around different models
With the two type of ads, Snapchat is hoping that they will be skipped less by users (Snapchat's ad rates dropped 60 percent year over year). It's also an important step up for Snap, since the company hasn't been growing as quickly as people have expected (It only added 4.5 million users in Q3 2017 compared to expectations of 8 million).
What's more, the company also had trouble in selling its Spectacles, with reports saying that it has hundreds of thousands of unsold units.