How much do Snapchat ads cost in 2024?

As social media evolves, so does the landscape of digital advertising. In 2024, Snapchat re-emerged as a breakout platform for brands looking to engage with a younger, highly interactive audience. But as with any advertising strategy, understanding the cost dynamics is crucial for optimizing your budget and maximizing return on investment (ROI).

In 2024, Snapchat has become a key element in any comprehensive social media strategy. With its unique ad formats, including augmented reality (AR) lenses and interactive story ads, Snapchat offers brands a creative playground to capture attention in innovative ways. However, with these opportunities come questions: How much does it really cost to advertise on Snapchat? What factors influence these costs? And how can you ensure that your ad spend is both effective and efficient?

This guide, which draws on years of analysis and tens of millions of ad impressions as recorded in Gupta Media’s Social Media CPM Tracker, delves into the specifics of Snapchat ad costs in 2024, providing advertisers and brands with a clear understanding of the factors that influence pricing, as well as actionable insights to help make informed marketing decisions. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer looking to refine your social strategy or new to Snapchat advertising, this article is designed to equip you with the knowledge you need to succeed. 

How do Snapchat ads work?

Snapchat has carved out a unique space in the digital advertising ecosystem, offering advertisers a blend of creative freedom and precise targeting. Unlike more traditional social platforms, Snapchat’s ad offerings are built around the concept of engaging, immersive experiences that align seamlessly with the app’s core user behaviors: quick, visually-driven interactions.

Snapchat advertisers can choose from a variety of ad formats, each designed to capture attention in distinct ways:

• Snap Ads: These are full-screen image or vertical video ads that appear between user stories or in the Discover section. Snap Ads can include interactive elements like swipe-up actions, directing users to a website, app install page, or long-form video.
• Story Ads: Story Ads enable you to engage Snapchat users by presenting a series of ads either between content or through a branded tile within the Snapchat Discover section. When users click on the Story Ad tile in the Discover Feed, it opens a collection of 1 to 10 images or videos. This format is ideal for telling a more extended brand story or showcasing a range of products.
• Collection Ads: Collection Ads allow brands to showcase multiple products within a single ad. These ads feature two to four tappable thumbnails that direct users to specific product pages, making them particularly effective for e-commerce campaigns.
• Filters and Lenses: Snapchat’s Filters and Lenses are where creativity truly shines. Filters are static overlays that users can apply to their Snaps, while Lenses offer dynamic AR experiences. These formats are popular for brands looking to create memorable, shareable moments.

Snapchat ads are delivered through an auction-based system, where advertisers bid for placement in the app’s various ad slots. The system factors in bid amount, ad quality, and relevance to determine which ads are shown to users. This means that even smaller budgets can compete effectively, provided the ads are well-targeted and engaging. 

Audience Targeting on Snapchat: Precision Meets Creativity

One of Snapchat’s strongest selling points is its robust audience targeting capabilities. Snapchat reaches a highly engaged demographic, particularly among younger users. According to Snap’s public filings in 2024, over 75% of Gen Z and millennials — i.e., users between the ages of 13 and 34 — in over 25 countries are actively using the platform. This demographic alignment makes Snapchat an ideal platform for brands targeting these age groups, but the app’s targeting features go well beyond just age and gender.

Snapchat offers a variety of targeting options that allow advertisers to hone in on specific segments of the audience:

• Demographic Targeting: Basic targeting options include age, gender, location, language, and device type. These criteria help ensure that your ads reach users who are most likely to engage with your content.
• Interest-Based Targeting: Snapchat’s interest-based targeting allows advertisers to reach users based on their behaviors and activities within the app. This can include everything from entertainment preferences to shopping habits.
• Custom Audiences: For brands with existing customer data, Snapchat allows the creation of Custom Audiences. This feature enables you to retarget users who have already interacted with your brand or find lookalike audiences similar to your best customers.
• Snap Pixel and Event Tracking: The Snap Pixel is a powerful tool for tracking user actions on your website after they’ve seen your ad. This enables you to measure conversions, optimize your campaigns for specific actions (like purchases or sign-ups), and create retargeting audiences.

This range of targeting options, combined with Snapchat’s immersive ad formats, creates a potent combination for brands looking to build deeper connections with their audience. By leveraging these tools effectively, advertisers can ensure that their ads not only reach the right people but also resonate in a way that drives action. 

How much do Snapchat ads cost in 2024?

According to Gupta Media’s Social Media CPM Tracker, the current cost of Snapchat ads in August 2024 is $9.04 CPM (cost per thousand impressions). The average cost per link click (CPLC) is $1.27. And the average link click-through rate (LCTR) is 0.71%.

Snapchat’s advertising rates fluctuate throughout the year, due to supply, demand, and other variables (see “Key Factors Influencing Snapchat Ads Cost,” below). Last year, the least expensive month for Snapchat ads was January, and the most expensive month was October. But this year, patterns are changing. In 2024, Gupta Media tracked billions of ad interactions to calculate the daily, weekly, and monthly average CPM rates for Snapchat and other social media platforms for its report on the True Cost of Social Media Advertising. The figures below, taken from the report, show how TikTok’s average CPM changes from month to month during the year:

Table: Snapchat monthly average CPM, CTLC, LCTR. Source: Gupta Media Social CPM Tracker, August 2024.

Understanding the variability of costs associated with Snapchat advertising is crucial for planning and budgeting your campaigns effectively. In 2024, Snapchat’s ad pricing continues to evolve, influenced by factors such as ad format, industry, and campaign objectives. Below, we give a detailed breakdown of the factors influencing the cost of advertising on Snapchat, along with insights on how to navigate the headwinds and tailwinds of CPM rates during key seasons. 

Key factors influencing Snapchat ad costs in 2024

Understanding the nuances of Snapchat’s ad costs is crucial for optimizing your campaigns and ensuring that your budget is allocated effectively. Several key factors influence the cost of advertising on Snapchat, and by mastering these elements, you can fine-tune your strategy to get the most out of your ad spend in 2024.

Snapchat Ads Bidding Strategy: The Foundation of Cost Efficiency

One of the primary factors that determine the cost of Snapchat ads is your bidding strategy. Snapchat operates on an auction-based system, where advertisers compete for ad placements by setting bids for specific actions, such as impressions, clicks, or conversions. The amount you’re willing to pay for these actions directly impacts whether your ad is shown and how much you end up paying.

There are several bidding strategies to choose from:

• Auto-Bidding: This strategy allows Snapchat’s algorithm to automatically adjust your bids to achieve the most efficient cost per action (CPA) based on your campaign objectives. While convenient, auto-bidding can sometimes lead to higher costs if not monitored closely.
• Max Bid: With a max bid strategy, you set a ceiling for how much you’re willing to pay for a specific action. This gives you more control over your ad costs but requires a keen understanding of the competitive landscape to set appropriate bid amounts.
• Target Cost: This strategy focuses on achieving a consistent CPA by adjusting bids dynamically. It’s ideal for campaigns where maintaining a stable cost per conversion is more important than maximizing reach.

Choosing the right bidding strategy depends on your campaign goals and budget constraints. For example, if your priority is scaling reach with controlled costs, auto-bidding might be the best option. However, for performance-driven campaigns, setting a max bid or target cost could yield better results. 

Audience Size and Targeting Specificity: The Cost of Precision

The specificity of your targeting can also significantly impact your Snapchat ad costs. Broad targeting, where ads are shown to a large, general audience, tends to be less expensive on a per-impression basis. However, this approach may result in lower engagement rates and less effective campaigns.

In contrast, highly specific targeting—such as narrowing down to a particular demographic, interest group, or behavioral segment—can drive up costs. This is because you’re competing with other advertisers for the attention of a smaller, more defined audience, often leading to higher bid amounts.

However, the trade-off is that more precise targeting usually results in better engagement and conversion rates, making the higher costs worthwhile for performance-driven campaigns. As a best practice, regularly analyze your audience segments and adjust your targeting parameters to find the optimal balance between cost and effectiveness. 

Time of Year: Seasonal Demand and Ad Costs

Like many advertising platforms, Snapchat ad costs are subject to seasonal fluctuations. Certain times of the year see increased competition among advertisers, which can drive up prices across the board. Key periods include:

• Holiday Seasons: The weeks leading up to major holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s see a surge in advertising activity. Brands across all industries compete for limited ad space, leading to higher costs, especially for prime ad formats.
• Back-to-School: Another peak advertising period, particularly for brands targeting younger demographics, is the back-to-school season. During this time, the demand for Snapchat ads increases, particularly for retail, fashion, and technology brands.
• Major Events: Large-scale cultural, political, and social events, such as national elections, the Super Bowl, Olympics, or music festivals, also impact ad costs as brands seek to capitalize on heightened user engagement.

To manage costs effectively, consider adjusting your campaign schedules to avoid these peak periods or increase your budget during these times if the ROI justifies the higher expenses. 

5 Tips for Optimizing Snapchat Ad Spend

Optimizing your ad spend on Snapchat is essential for maximizing ROI and ensuring that every dollar contributes to achieving your campaign goals. As an expert performance marketer, you understand that a successful campaign isn’t just about how much you spend, but how effectively you manage your budget to achieve the best results. Here are some advanced strategies and best practices to help you get the most out of your Snapchat ad spend in 2024.

1. Efficient Budget Allocation: Prioritize High-Impact Ad Formats

Not all Snapchat ad formats deliver the same value for every campaign. To optimize your budget, focus on the ad formats that align best with your objectives:

• Snap Ads are versatile and cost-effective, making them ideal for driving traffic and generating leads. If your goal is to increase app installs or website visits, allocate a significant portion of your budget to Snap Ads with compelling creative and strong calls to action.
• Lenses and Filters offer high engagement rates but come at a higher cost. These formats are best suited for brand awareness campaigns where creating a memorable experience is key. If your campaign budget is limited, consider using these formats selectively, such as during product launches or major events, to maximize impact.
• Story Ads are great for telling a more comprehensive brand narrative. Allocate budget to Story Ads if your campaign involves multiple products or a longer message that benefits from a more immersive format.

By prioritizing ad formats that align with your specific goals, you can ensure that your budget is spent on the most effective strategies for your campaign. 

2. Leverage Snapchat’s Advanced Targeting Features

One of the most effective ways to optimize ad spend is by refining your audience targeting. Snapchat’s advanced targeting features allow you to reach the right users more efficiently, reducing waste and improving campaign performance:

• Custom Audiences: Use Custom Audiences to target users who have already interacted with your brand. This can include past website visitors, app users, or those who have engaged with your content on Snapchat. Retargeting these users often leads to higher conversion rates and a lower cost per action (CPA).
• Lookalike Audiences: Expand your reach by targeting Lookalike Audiences, which are users similar to your best customers. This strategy helps you tap into new potential customers while maintaining a higher likelihood of engagement.
• Geo-Targeting: If your campaign is location-specific, use Snapchat’s geo-targeting to focus your budget on users within a particular area. This is especially effective for local businesses, events, or region-specific promotions.
• Interest and Behavioral Targeting: Snapchat allows you to target users based on their interests and behaviors within the app. By narrowing your audience to those most likely to engage with your content, you can improve the efficiency of your ad spend.

Regularly review and refine your targeting parameters to ensure you’re reaching the most relevant audience with each campaign. The more precise your targeting, the less budget you’ll need to spend on reaching users who are unlikely to convert. 

3. Implement A/B Testing for Continuous Optimization

A/B testing, or split testing, is a powerful tool for optimizing your Snapchat ad spend. By testing different variations of your ads, you can identify which elements perform best and refine your campaigns accordingly:

1. Creative Elements: Test different headlines, images, videos, and calls to action to determine which combinations drive the highest engagement. For example, you might test a video ad against a static image ad to see which format resonates more with your audience.
2. Targeting Options: Experiment with different audience segments to identify the most responsive groups. This might involve testing broad versus narrow targeting or comparing performance across different demographics or interests.
3. Bidding Strategies: Test various bidding strategies, such as auto-bidding versus max bid, to find the approach that delivers the best results within your budget. Adjust your bids based on the performance of each test to optimize cost efficiency.
4. Ad Placements: Snapchat offers various ad placements, including within user stories, Discover content, and between Snaps. A/B test these placements to see where your ads perform best and allocate more budget to the top-performing options.

By implementing A/B testing as a regular part of your campaign management, you can continuously optimize your ad spend, ensuring that your budget is directed towards the most effective strategies. 

4. Monitor and Adjust Your Campaigns in Real-Time

One of the advantages of digital advertising on platforms like Snapchat is the ability to monitor and adjust campaigns in real-time. Use this to your advantage by regularly reviewing performance metrics and making adjustments as needed:

• Performance Metrics: Keep a close eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as CPM, CPC, CPA, and conversion rates. If you notice that certain ads or targeting options aren’t performing as expected, adjust your strategy accordingly.
• Budget Allocation: Be flexible with your budget allocation. If one ad format or audience segment is outperforming others, consider shifting more budget towards that area. Conversely, reduce spend on underperforming ads to avoid wasted budget.
• Campaign Timing: Adjust your campaign timing based on performance trends. For example, if you notice higher engagement during specific times of day or days of the week, concentrate your ad delivery during those periods to maximize efficiency.
• Creative Refresh: Over time, ad fatigue can set in, leading to decreased performance. Regularly update your ad creatives to keep your audience engaged and maintain high performance throughout your campaign.

Real-time adjustments are critical for maximizing the effectiveness of your Snapchat ad spend. By staying proactive and responsive to performance data, you can ensure that your campaigns remain optimized and cost-efficient. 

5. Utilize Snapchat’s Ad Insights and Reporting Tools

Snapchat offers a suite of analytics tools that provide detailed insights into your ad performance. These tools are invaluable for optimizing your ad spend and making data-driven decisions:

• Snap Pixel: Implement the Snap Pixel on your website to track user actions after they view your ads. This allows you to measure conversions, optimize campaigns for specific actions, and retarget users who have shown interest in your products.
• Advanced Analytics: Use Snapchat’s advanced analytics to gain insights into audience behavior, ad engagement, and campaign performance. This data can help you refine your targeting, creative strategy, and budget allocation.
• Attribution Models: Understand the full impact of your Snapchat ads by using attribution models that track the customer journey across multiple touchpoints. This helps you identify which ads contribute most to conversions and optimize your spend accordingly.
• Custom Reports: Create custom reports to track the metrics that matter most to your campaign goals. Regularly review these reports to stay informed about your campaign’s progress and make informed decisions about budget adjustments.

Leveraging these tools allows you to gain a deeper understanding of your campaign performance and make continuous improvements to your ad strategy. 

Comparing Snapchat ad costs with other social platforms

In the competitive landscape of social media advertising, understanding how Snapchat’s ad costs stack up against other platforms is essential for marketers looking to optimize their budget. For instance, Snapchat and Instagram are both visually-driven platforms that cater to younger demographics, but their ad costs and engagement potential differ in several key areas. TikTok, like Snapchat, appeals strongly to Gen Z and millennials, making the comparison between their ad costs particularly relevant for brands targeting these demographics. And Facebook, of course, remains a dominant player in the social media advertising space, offering extensive reach and sophisticated targeting options. However, when it comes to creative engagement and cost, Snapchat presents a compelling alternative.

Here’s a look at how Snapchat ad rates compare to TikTok, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), YouTube, and Spotify in calendar year 2024. For more detailed comparisons, see our comprehensive guide to Social Media Advertising Costs, or access our real-time CPM dashboard, which compiles detailed breakdowns of cost across social media platforms and ad units. 

CHART: Social Media Ad Rates, January-September 2024, using 14-day trailing average CPM rates for Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, and Snapchat. Source: Gupta Media's Social Media CPM Tracker, where you can track and compare real-time and historic fluctuations in Social Media CPMs, including CPM rates for Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, Google Discovery, Google Performance Max, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

FAQs: Snapchat Advertising Costs in 2024

In this section, we’ll address some of the most frequently asked questions about Snapchat advertising costs in 2024. These FAQs are designed to provide quick, actionable insights for marketers looking to optimize their ad spend on Snapchat.

1. What factors influence Snapchat ad costs the most?

Several key factors influence Snapchat ad costs:

• Bidding Strategy: The approach you take—whether auto-bid, max bid, or target cost—directly impacts your costs.
• Ad Format: More immersive formats like Filters and Lenses tend to be more expensive than standard Snap Ads.
• Audience Targeting: Highly specific targeting can increase costs due to competition for a more defined audience.
• Timing: Ad costs can spike during peak periods like holidays or major events when competition is higher.
• Industry: Some industries, like e-commerce and entertainment, typically face higher ad costs due to increased competition.

2. What’s the best way to optimize my Snapchat ad spend?

To optimize your Snapchat ad spend:

• Prioritize High-Impact Ad Formats: Focus on the ad formats that align with your campaign goals.
• Refine Targeting: Use Custom and Lookalike Audiences to reach the most relevant users.
• Implement A/B Testing: Continuously test different creative elements, targeting options, and bidding strategies to identify what works best.
• Monitor Campaign Performance: Regularly review performance metrics and adjust your budget allocation based on real-time data.
• Leverage Snapchat’s Analytics Tools: Use tools like Snap Pixel and advanced reporting to gain insights and optimize your campaigns.

3. How do I measure the success of my Snapchat ad campaigns?

Measuring the success of your Snapchat ad campaigns involves tracking several key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Impressions and Reach: Assess how many times your ad was displayed and how many unique people saw it.
• Engagement: Track interactions like swipe-ups, shares, and taps to gauge how users are responding to your ads.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the percentage of users who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
• Conversion Rate: Track the percentage of users who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or downloading an app.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Calculate the revenue generated by your campaign relative to the amount spent to determine overall effectiveness.

Using Snapchat’s analytics tools, like Snap Pixel, will help you track these metrics and adjust your strategy for better performance. 

4. Can I run effective Snapchat ads without a large creative team?

Snapchat’s self-serve ad platform is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible even to businesses with limited creative resources. The platform offers templates and tools to help smaller brands create engaging ads to get started on the platform. Additionally, focusing on simple yet effective ad formats, like Snap Ads or Story Ads, can get small businesses up and running without requiring complex production efforts. However, most growth-minded brands will want to test-and-learn to optimize and refine their Snapchat creative over time, responding to developments both on and off the platform. For maximum impact, your internal team or your agency should have deep experience in social media creative optimization, and the ability to quickly adjust and iterate on the fly.  

By leveraging these insights, you can navigate Snapchat’s ad ecosystem more effectively, making informed decisions that optimize your budget and drive successful outcomes in 2024.