Snapchat Redesign: Better Audience Targeting and Wider Reach

It’s been a strange news week for Snapchat.

On Monday, the popular multimedia app went down, affecting thousands of accounts. The outage lasted a few hours, sending panicked users fleeing to Twitter for answers.

At the same time, an internet rumour that the app would shut down was circulating. Citing copyright problems with other social networks, the notice said Snapchat would stop operating on 14 November. It gained such traction on the web that Snapchat was forced to tweet a denial. An entry on Snopes further cemented the tale as an official viral internet hoax.

It was only Tuesday and Snapchat’s week was not off to a good start. Spoiler alert: It was about to get worse.

On Tuesday evening, Snap Inc (the owners of Snapchat) reported a net loss of $443.2 million for the third financial quarter, exceeding projections of a $393.8 million loss.

The app added 4.5 million users in the last quarter, bringing the total number of daily users to 178 million. This is slightly less than the 180 million users analysts were expecting.

In response to the company’s struggles, CEO Evan Spiegel announced a massive overhaul to make the app easier to use. A key takeaway includes possible changes to how we find content on the app, with Spiegel adding that they are looking at ways to present content “in a personalized and more relevant way”.

In a statement, Spiegel said he hoped the redesign would help with better audience targeting: “We hope that showing the right Stories to the right audience will help grow engagement and monetization for our partners and for Snapchat.”

Snapchat, wildly popular with users under 30, is also aiming to appeal to a broader demographic and attract over-34 users across the world.

For some time now, industry experts have been calling on Snapchat to respond to the challenges which appear to be hampering its growth.

The biggest tasks ahead include:

Mounting a better defense against Facebook

Once in the running to buy Snapchat for a reported $3 billion, Facebook has settled for copying the app’s key features instead. Facebook-owned Instagram launched its own version of Stories, which resulted in an 82% drop in user growth for Snapchat.

Senior editor at the Atlantic, Derek Thompson, quips that the joke in Silicon Valley is that Snapchat is Facebook’s “product lead”.

Limited user data and analytics 

Another possible barrier to increasing ad revenue is the limited user data available on Snapchat, especially when compared to Instagram and Facebook. Research also shows social media influencers tend to favour Instagram ahead of Snapchat.

Despite these issues, I think Snapchat provides a valuable channel in connecting with your audience, provided that’s where they are. NASA is a really cool example of this. On an episode of Buffer’s Science of Social Media, NASA’s social media manager, John Yembrick explains that the space agency is on a mission to reach and inspire more young girls to consider a career in space exploration, and this goal makes Snapchat just the right fit.

Many brands are also producing great content and giving their users a behind the scenes view of their companies. Consumers can also interact with the content produced by brands, and place themselves at the centre of ads. Taco Bell earned more than 200 million views in one day for its sponsored lens where users could place a taco shell on their faces.

In media, journalists from the Washington Post post stories telling viewers more about where press conferences are taking place, and shots from the reporter’s perspective during the press briefings.

For marketers who are still unsure of whether to invest in the platform, Buffer gives a few pointers to help you decide, and does a great comparison to Snapchat rival, Instagram.  An important indicator – as with all your marketing efforts – is to determine whether your target audience is on a specific platform.

Everyone will be watching Snapchat closely in the next few months. For marketers who are still unsure of whether to invest in the platform, Buffer gives a few pointers to help you decide, and does a great comparison to Snapchat rival, Instagram. An important indicator – as with all your marketing efforts – is to determine whether your target audience is on a specific platform.

There are plenty of guides online if you’re keen on getting your brand onto Snapchat, and this is a really comprehensive one from Hootsuite.

Everyone will be watching Snapchat closely over the next few months. More than 3 billion snaps are being created each day, and “modest growth” of 4 million users in the past quarter tell us people are still tuning in, and will be for some time.

Image credit: Pablo