Snapchat is looking to geofilters as the next source of growth for its advertising business.
The company has previously touted paid, on-demand geofilters as a consumer-oriented feature by showing how people can create custom filters for events like weddings and birthday parties.
Now, Snap is hoping to lure more big advertisers to the format by giving outside partners the ability to buy, manage, and report analytics on the new offerings.
From this week, as part of the update to its API, Snapchat's ad partners in Australia, as well as the US, UK and Canada, can buy the location-based geofilter alongside full screen video ads, as well as target specific customer segments.
Snapchat has paired with event marketing business Eventfarm, wedding planning platform WeddingWire and Hootsuite to help identify consumer segments and appeal to Fortune 500 advertisers.
Sponsored geofilters could previously only be purchased directly through Snapchat’s own self-service tool, which launched in February 2016.
Geofilters allow users to place filters over their photos and videos in certain locations.
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Snapchat works with more than a dozen ad partners including Amobee, VaynerMedia, VidMob, Kenshoo, Sprinklr and more.
According to the MediaScience Ad Attention and Engagement Study commissioned by Snapchat in April 2016, sponsored geofilters deliver a 3.5x higher lift, on average, than mobile norms for both brand awareness and purchase intent.
Snap has been increasingly building out its advertising offering to drive revenue following its IPO and to remain competitive against Facebook, who continues to copy its defining features.
Snap's share price is now US$21.34.
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