Snapchat has launched “audience filters” in an attempt to making its ad targeting services more specific and accessible to advertisers when targeting campaigns to audiences.
The update indicates Snapchat’s continued efforts to differentiate its ad offering and provide more value to clients, as it faces continued competition from biggest rivals Instagram and Facebook – both of which have made clones of its Stories feature.
This new ad tool which is being sold through the app’s recently launched Ad Manager has been introduced as an alternative to sponsored tool geofilters, where sponsored ads are only aimed at users in a specific location.
In addition to that, advertisers can now use filters to target specific audiences based on their age, gender and interests, as well as providing brands a much more accurate snapshot of audience insight and campaign performance.
Tough quarter
The announcement comes just days after its Q3 earnings announcement which revealed poor performance across the board, adding only 4.5 million users during the period, missing estimates of 181.8 million.
Financially the camera company earned $208 million in revenue with a loss of $0.14 per shared, falling short of its expected revenue of $237 million.
The app launched its Ad Manager in August this year, offering a range of analytic tools such as the sponsored filters for advertisers to better manage their ad performance. Industry members called this a “step in the right direction”, enabling better management of performance campaigns that require audience testing.
Earlier this month, the company also acquired ad tech startup Metamarkets for just under $100 million in further efforts to bolster its ad analytics.