22 Feb New Custom Ads For Your Brand To Consider
Sorting out an advertising budget involves much more than managing dollars and cents. In the ever-evolving world of social media, it’s about balancing risk and reward. It’s reported that 13.4 billion dollars will be spent on social media ads in 2016, so you better believe that your brand’s ad needs to stand out among the noise – after all, last year’s ad trends could be this year’s Yellowpages.
Think beyond sponsored posts and tweets, and consider putting the power in the hands of your fans with these two custom social media ad buys:
Snapchat’s Sponsored Lens
If we had a dollar for every time we received a lol-worthy Snapchat lens selfie, well… we’d have enough to buy our own custom Snapchat lens. From puking rainbows to underwater aquariums, Snapchat fans love adding the lens feature to their snaps. And now, your brand can get in on the action.
While Snapchat can’t seem to make up its mind about how they want users to use lenses, they’ve decided (as of this blog post) on 10 lenses per day, and some of these 10 lenses will be sponsored. Essentially, these social media ad buys are putting the creativity in the hands of the consumer, with your brand’s ad coming straight from their friends’ camera. It feels authentic. It feels inclusive. It feels fun.
The most recent success story comes from Gatorade – they had over 100 million views on their custom lens for the Super Bowl, which had users dunk themselves with the sports drink.
#SB50 may be over but the #GatoradeDunk @Snapchat lens lives on with 100 million+ views! Get dunked today. pic.twitter.com/1b7FHwE7No
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) February 8, 2016
If you’re wondering if this could work for your brand and your audience, look ahead to where Snapchat is going in 2016. This isn’t just a platform for teens anymore, as the numbers are expected to soar in 2016 for users over 35. This user base grew 84% in 2015 alone, according to comScore. The cost depends on the day, but it’s currently set at $500,000 on weekdays and $750,000 for holidays and events. A high price, but a successful lens could get you even bigger views.
Twitter’s Hashtag Emojis
An emoji is worth a thousand words, and also a million dollars. Users young and old are obsessively using them on social. Seriously, obsessively. More than 13 billion emojis have been sent on Twitter alone to this day, so the opportunity to turn them into revenue was just banging on Twitter’s door.
Twitter recently introduced custom emojis for brands as their newest social media ad buy, and some big names have jumped right on it. The idea is that every time someone tweets a selected hashtag, Twitter will add a custom emoji to their tweet right after it.
Coca Cola was the first to get their own custom emoji last fall, and to say it was warmly welcomed by users would be understatement. Twitter recorded 170,500 mentions of #ShareaCoke in one day, and mentions of the hashtag continued for months. Having this much fun will cost you, though. Branded emojis for the Super Bowl were reportedly $1 million. Yes, you read that right. $1 million. For an emoji.
Dove, Starbucks, and Anheuser-Busch thought that price was well worth it, though, and they benefited from being one of the first brands to take advantage of Twitter emojis. So, if you have a spare million laying around in your social media ad budget, take a serious look at delighting users with your own custom emoji. If you don’t have a spare million laying around, start hoping Twitter lowers their price tag. By A LOT.
Obviously, these social media ad buys don’t work for every brand, every audience, or every budget, but you may want to seriously consider these new options in your 2016 plan. Don’t think for too long, though – being one of the first brands to use these innovative and interactive buys is what makes them worth their price tag. As always on social, staying in the front of the race requires innovation, risk, and (of course) a budget.
