Snapchat Ads
Snapchat agency ad accounts
Advertising accounts for Snapchat, supplied through an agency relationship and available now. The account is assigned to your organisation and you run your own campaigns in Snapchat Ads Manager — but Snapchat is the platform we most often talk people out of, so this page starts with where it fits in a media plan rather than with why you should take one.
Snapchat Ads
Where Snapchat fits in a media plan
Snapchat is rarely anybody's first channel and is frequently their most efficient second one. It reaches a young audience at lower competitive pressure than the larger platforms, which for the right product means cost per result that the bigger auctions cannot match — and for the wrong product means spending efficiently on people who will never buy.
The format is the thing to understand before you commit. Snapchat advertising is full-screen vertical video appearing between friend Stories, inside Discover content and in Spotlight. It arrives in a stream of messages between people who know each other, so advertising that looks like advertising is dismissed faster here than almost anywhere else.
Campaign structure will be familiar if you have run Meta or TikTok: a campaign carries the objective, ad sets carry targeting and budget, and ads carry creative. Snapchat also offers formats the others do not, including Collection ads for product ranges and augmented-reality lenses that put a product onto the user rather than beside them.
New to agency accounts in general? What an agency ad account provider does covers the ground that applies to every platform, and our guide to these accounts explains the category itself without selling you anything.
Snapchat Ads
Who a Snapchat account suits
Narrower than the other three platforms, and worth being honest about — a mismatched product wastes budget here faster than anywhere.
Brands selling to under-35s
Snapchat's audience concentration is its whole argument. If your buyer is in that band the reach is genuinely competitive; if they are not, no amount of budget fixes it.
App marketers looking for cheaper installs
Install costs on Snapchat are often materially below the larger platforms for the same audience, which makes it a sensible second channel once a primary one is working.
Visually distinctive products
Beauty, fashion, food, accessories and anything that benefits from being shown on a person. Collection ads and lenses exist for exactly this and are wasted on products that photograph flat.
Advertisers already saturating Meta or TikTok
When frequency climbs on a primary channel and cost per result climbs with it, Snapchat is one of the few remaining places to find the same audience in a less crowded auction.
Snapchat Ads
What taking it from us adds
Snapchat is a comparison channel. Almost everything below exists to make that comparison possible rather than to sell you the account.
An honest view on whether it suits you
Snapchat is the platform we are most likely to advise against. If your customers are not young, we will say so rather than take the application.
Reporting beside your other channels
Snapchat's value is almost always relative — cost per result against your primary platform. That comparison needs both in one view, which is what the dashboard is for.
Provisioning handled properly
Account setup, Snap Pixel connection and the asset checks that make delivery work are part of assignment rather than a manual you are handed afterwards.
A cost figure that survives the comparison
Comparing Snapchat against a primary channel is only worth doing on a like-for-like number. Your dashboard shows what Snapchat charged and what the advertising actually cost once the service fee is counted, on both platforms, in the same currency.
What a package costs, and the service fee charged when you fund an account, are published in full on the pricing page.
Snapchat Ads
What Snapchat asks of your creative and your tracking
Lighter verification than Meta, heavier creative demands than any platform here.
- Full-screen vertical video built for Snapchat specifically. Reused TikTok creative performs better than reused landscape footage, but neither matches something made for the placement.
- The Snap Pixel, and the Conversions API where you can support it, for any campaign optimising towards a purchase or a sign-up.
- A mobile experience that holds up. Snapchat traffic is effectively all mobile, and a slow or desktop-shaped landing page loses the visit before the page finishes loading.
- The Snapchat app SDK if you are running app install campaigns and want installs attributed properly.
- A vertical Snapchat permits, and creative that meets its rules on age-restricted categories.
Creative volume is the requirement people underestimate. Snapchat audiences skip fast, and a single asset carrying a campaign will fatigue within weeks rather than months.
Snapchat Ads
How a Snapchat account is set up
Five stages, and the first one is a conversation that quite often ends with us pointing you elsewhere.
- 01
Tell us the audience and the product
Age range, markets and what you sell. Snapchat is the platform where this conversation most often ends with us suggesting a different one, and that is a good outcome for both of us.
- 02
We confirm where the account can be registered
Snapchat account countries depend on what our partner agencies currently hold, and the live list sits on the pricing page. Nothing is committed until you know which one you would be placed on.
- 03
Tracking is connected first
Snap Pixel or app SDK verified before the account is assigned, because a Snapchat campaign without conversion signal optimises towards swipes rather than sales.
- 04
The account is assigned
It appears in your dashboard with its status and history, and you get access to build campaigns in Snapchat Ads Manager.
- 05
You fund it and launch
Money moves from your AF Ads wallet into the account with the fee on that transfer shown before you agree to it. Start small here: this is a channel worth proving against your primary one before it gets a real budget.
The stages that apply whichever platform you choose — review, assignment, funding, delays and what happens if an account is suspended — are set out in how it works.
Snapchat Ads
What your dashboard shows for a Snapchat account
The money is ours and is exact. The campaign figures are Snapchat's, and the Snapchat connector is not built yet — so for now they are loaded from Snapchat's own reporting rather than arriving on their own.
- The funding you have put in, the fee on it and what this channel has genuinely cost — ours rather than Snapchat's, and exact from the start
- Account status, assignment history and balance
- Campaign, ad set and ad performance in the same dashboard as your other accounts
- Impressions, reach, swipe-ups, click-through rate, CPC and CPM
- Conversions and cost per conversion, subject to Snap Pixel or app SDK reporting
- Period-on-period comparison and CSV export
Until the Snapchat connector ships, campaign figures are imported from Snapchat's own reporting and your dashboard shows when each account was last updated. Snapchat also counts a view on a shorter threshold than the other platforms and reports swipe-ups where others report clicks, so its raw engagement figures look different by design. Cost per conversion is the metric that compares honestly across platforms, and it is the one the dashboard leads with.
Snapchat Ads
Before you put budget into Snapchat
Worth being realistic about sequencing here, because this is a second channel and behaves like one.
Have a primary channel running first
Snapchat is at its most useful measured against something. Without a working benchmark you cannot tell a cheap install from a worthless one, and the decision to scale or stop becomes guesswork.
Budget for creative, not only for media
Cut for the placement rather than reusing what you have. The advertisers who do well here treat production as a running cost, and the ones who do not fatigue a single asset within weeks and conclude the platform does not work.
Questions
Snapchat accounts, asked and answered
If yours is not here, ask before you apply rather than after.
Will Snapchat reporting sync into my dashboard automatically?
Not yet. TikTok is currently the only platform with a live API connection, so Snapchat figures are loaded into your dashboard from Snapchat's own reporting until the Snapchat connector is built. Funding, the service fee and your total advertising cost are our own records and are exact regardless.
Is Snapchat worth running if I am already on TikTok?
Often yes, as a second channel rather than a replacement. The audiences overlap but the auctions are separate, so Snapchat can pick up the same buyer at a lower cost once TikTok frequency climbs. If TikTok is not working yet, fix that first — a second channel does not repair a creative problem. Both accounts sit in the same dashboard, which is what makes the comparison worth making.
Can I reuse my TikTok creative on Snapchat?
As a starting point, yes, and it will outperform anything landscape. But the platforms have different pacing and different conventions, and advertisers who treat Snapchat as a TikTok mirror generally see weaker results than those who cut for it specifically.
What are Collection ads and lenses?
Collection ads show a video with product tiles underneath, so several items can be browsed without leaving the ad. Lenses are augmented-reality experiences that place a product onto the user through the camera. Both are strong for visual products and both need more creative production than a standard video ad.
What does it cost to run this properly beyond the media budget?
Production. Snapchat's stronger formats — Collection ads and lenses — need more than a video file, and even the standard placement wants assets cut for a full-screen vertical frame rather than borrowed from another channel. Advertisers who treat that as a recurring line rather than a launch cost are the ones who are still here six months later, and it is the reason a cheap auction does not automatically mean a cheap channel.
My customers are over 40. Should I bother?
Probably not, and we would rather tell you now. Snapchat's reach in older brackets exists but it is not where the platform is competitive, and the same budget will almost certainly do better elsewhere. That is not a sales answer, but it is the true one.
We are not an official, exclusive or certified partner of Snapchat. We supply advertising accounts through our own business relationships and third-party agency providers, and we operate independently. Snapchat and its logo belong to their owner.
Open a Snapchat account
Tell us the audience, the markets and what you sell. If it is the wrong platform for you we will say so before you apply, and if it is the right one the account is available now.