Snapchat brings AR Lenses to its self-serve ad tool, launches Sponsored Snappables & builds on its ecommerce efforts

During its earnings call for the first quarter of this year, Snapchat said one of its key priorities was to grow its online sales business.

“In order to onboard these advertisers, we have been rolling out our self-serve tools and investing to create a frictionless buying experience,” reported Snapchat’s chief strategy officer, Imran Khan.

The company is continuing to drive its ad business objectives with an announcement yesterday outlining a number of new ad initiatives. Snapchat introduced new programmatic purchasing for its AR Lenses, a new AR ad product connected to the platform’s Snappables games and what the company claims is its “largest push” for ecommerce advertisers.

Here is a rundown of Snapchat’s latest announcements.

AR Lenses now available via self-serve ad tool

With Snap Ads, Story Ads and Filters already available to purchase programmatically, Snapchat is now adding AR Lenses to its self-serve ad-buying tool.

Snapchat is making its AR Lenses available via its self-serve reach and frequency tool based on costs per impression, which run from $8 to $20, depending on various factors, including targeting.

Sponsored AR Lenses will include the same advanced demographic targeting available with Snap Ads, with 500 preset audiences around information like household income, parental status, lookalikes and audience match. The AR Lenses will also include full funnel measurement to track real-time metrics around pixel-based conversion attribution, mobile app installs and offline sales measurement.

Before making it available to all advertisers, Snapchat says test partners that were able to buy the AR Lenses programmatically experienced a 46 percent drop in CPMs.

New Sponsored Snappables turns Snapchat’s AR game into ads

In addition to bringing AR Lenses to its self-serve ad tool, Snapchat is rolling out a new AR ad product — Sponsored Snappables. The new ad product is a branded version of the messaging platform’s two-player AR selfie games that require users to make “funny faces in public” in order to play the AR game via the Snapchat camera.

The company recruited three well-known brands — Bud Light, Dunkin Donuts and “Candy Crush” developer King — to test the Sponsored Snappable before their official launch. Here’s what the Sponsored Snappables look like using the “Candy Crush” branding:

Snapchat’s latest ecommerce push

Snapchat is also building on its ecommerce offerings. In what it calls its “largest push for ecommerce advertisers,” the company is introducing goal-based bidding conversions — its first targeting optimization for ecommerce brands.

Ecommerce advertisers now can use Snapchat’s Pixel (the JavaScript code that helps advertisers measure campaigns) to create campaigns around direct-response objectives such as purchases or sign-ups.

Snapchat says advertisers will be able to see the total number and total value of purchases driven by their Snapchat campaigns, along with the exact return on ad spend (ROAS). It also plans to make conversion lift metrics available in the next few months.

The Snap Pixel, which launched last October, is now available to all advertisers behind a whitelist — meaning anyone can sign up to use it and take advantage of the goal-based bidding conversions. (Snapchat says the number of advertisers using its Pixel tripled between Q4 of last year and Q1 of 2018.)

Snapchat is also testing a new ecommerce ad product. After launching Shoppable Lenses for ecommerce advertisers in April, the company says it is testing Shoppable Snap Ads and Story Ads for ecommerce advertisers. The ads showcase a “tappable product catalog” that, when clicked, launches the advertiser’s website without leaving the Snapchat app.