Snapchat's Placed and Snap Map help deliver 73% rise in ad spend
The major social media platforms enjoyed an overall uptick in ad spend during Q3 2017 of almost one-third, but Snapchat was the clear winner in the quarter, with a rise of 73%, according to a survey from 4C Insights. It cited Snapchat's Placed and Snap Map features as big attractions for advertisers, and noted Instagram's Stories helped drive up its ad spend by 55%. Meanwhile, Twitter's Q3 results rose by more than a quarter, thanks to the travel industry, which upped its spend on the site by 250%, while ad spend on Facebook increased by 27%.
Colm is the editor of MarketingTech, with a mission to bring the most important developments in technology to both businesses and consumers.

A number of new offline features introduced by Snapchat have added value to advertisers, and led to the company having a mammoth Q3 2017.

According to data science and media technology firm 4C Insights, the social media company’s ad spend rocketed up by 73%. Instagram, which also implemented new features, saw its ad spend up 55% in the third quarter of the year.

4C analysed around $250 million in media spend from over 1,000 brands managed through its platform. Across the broad, there was a 31% increase in media spend on the major social media platforms.

So, what made Snapchat’s performance so extraordinary?

The company brought in a range of features that help advertisers better understand how consumers shop. Features like Snap Map, which allows users to share their location and see where their friends are, and geofilters, where people can add geographical information to their posts, are a hit with advertisers.

Of particular interest, though, is the ability to track users as they go into stores with ‘Placed’, which helps retailers understand how Snap Ads are actually affecting real-world business.

For Instagram, it is Stories that is driving ad spend growth. The feature has generated 220% year-on-year spend growth for the company.

"Vertical video provides brands with a full-scale canvas to test creative,” Emily Kramer, Senior Director, Media Services at Merkle said.

“Audience-driven optimisation becomes low-risk and high-reward, with lots of opportunity to scale learning across the media mix”,

The rise of integrated video

Facebook saw ad spend grow 27%. This was mainly driven by the platform’s detailed targeting and measurement capabilities, but also its growing video capability.

Video content is rising across many of the social media platforms, with Facebook watch, Snapchat’s Show and Twitter’s 24/7 all allowing users to watch video content on their chosen platform.

Louis Guerrero, Supervisor, Social Media, Havas Media Group, said:

“Twitter is pushing aggressively into the video space in efforts to keep themselves top of mind when promoting any video assets. Twitter’s Pre-roll placements and partnerships with television shows are emerging opportunities for brands.”

Twitter ad spend grew 26% driven in particular by the travel industry, whose spend soared by 250%.

It is likely that video will continue to be an area of technological and revenue growth for social media companies.

“Understanding visual content through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will add a new level of consumer understanding and help brands be more relevant at the right time and place,” Aaron Goldman, CMO at 4C Insights said.