The time is now for Snapchat to re-gain its momentum, and it’s wasting no time in rolling out new tools to encourage both advertisers, and now influencers, to make better use of the platform.
Following the expansion of their Advertising API availability, Snap Inc. is also giving selected creators access to in-depth analytics data to help them refine their Snapchat approach.
As reported by TechCrunch (and as shown above), the new analytics data includes:
- Total Story Views – Filterable by the past week, month and year to date
- Time Spent Viewing Stories – Listed in minutes, the past week, month, and year to date
- Daily Unique Story Viewers – Including average time unique viewers spent watching and completion rates
- Audience Demographics – With gender breakdowns, age brackets, and top geographic regions
- Audience Interests - including lifestyle categories relevant to your most engaged users
It’s a major step forward for Snapchat, which has long neglected platform influencers. In fact, Snap has traditionally made a point of not treating influencers any differently to other users – but they did start to soften this stance last year with the expansion of ‘Official Stories’ to a wider range of prominent users.
The move makes logical sense – with Snapchat refusing to acknowledge many of its rising stars, reports had suggested that major influencers had significantly dialed-back their Snapchat use. While Snap would ideally like to keep the app focused on relationships between friends, the truth is, they need influencers to keep using the app in order to boost engagement – even if the majority of Snapchat use is clearly focused on messaging between users (and not on Discover and other content tools).
The addition of detailed analytics is the latest concession on this front. Earlier in the week, Snapchat launched a web version of their Snap Map, with embeddable content, which will help provide more exposure for Snap content – and ideally, bring more users to the app.
Snapchat’s recently launched redesign is also focused on boosting exposure for popular Snap content – though feedback on the new layout thus far has been less than impressive.
But with the new analytics tools, popular creators will now have more reason to come back to Snap, with the capacity to quantify their efforts with actual data, while the new Discover layout will give them increased exposure to more users, adding to Snap’s appeal.
There’s still no monetization sharing system available, but maybe that too is coming, which would further boost Snapchat’s appeal as a key space for popular creators to showcase their talents.
In some ways, this update is long overdue – and it is worth noting here that the new Snap analytics are not yet available to all users.
According to TechCrunch:
“…tens of thousands creators who make official Stories or have large followings will start seeing a slew of view count and demographic analytics on their Snapchat profile.”
But at the same time, as with Snapchat’s recent performance numbers, which beat analyst expectations, the indications are that Snap Inc. is growing up, that it’s working out how to not only be a cool social app, but how to also be a viable business.
And this revelation could come at the perfect time, with more creators and publishers considering their options in the wake of Facebook’s organic reach declines. While nothing will be able to replace Facebook’s massive audience, the door's open for smaller platforms with niche audience reach to demonstrate why they’re of value, and how they can provide assistance to augment any Facebook traffic losses.
As noted, the time is now for Snapchat, and they’re doing all they can to seize the opportunity.