Snapchat usage is growing. With an average number of 363 million daily active users, Snapchat isn't as widely used as Instagram. However, 75% of people aged 13-34 use the app. That figure rises to 90% among 13-24-year-olds - making Snapchat a great choice for ecommerce brands that have a younger target audience.
Snapchat is a multimedia messaging app featuring ephemeral content (that disappears after it's viewed), such as photos, videos, and messages. Users can also add photos and videos to their stories, visible to friends for 24 hours. For businesses, it provides advertising opportunities through sponsored lenses/filters, geo-filters, and Snap Adverts within Stories.
The Snapchat app also often releases new features - like augmented reality shopping lenses - and has functionality tailored to ecommerce. As an ecommerce brand, understanding the metrics behind your Snapchat marketing is crucial for driving growth and engagement. But Snapchat metrics aren't the same as other social channels.
To make the most of Snapchat for your ecommerce business, it's important to track and measure your success on the platform. However, measuring success can be tricky - as Snapchat doesn't have the same metrics as other social channels. Fortunately, we're here to take you through the most important Snapchat metrics, plus what they mean for your ecommerce brand. We'll also cover the analytics tools that can help you measure Snapchat performance.
Snapchat engagement metrics to track
Snapchat engagement metrics are important for understanding the success of your efforts on the platform. These metrics measure how many people are actually viewing and engaging with your content, which can help you determine what type of content resonates most with your audience.
Story Views
Story views measure the number of unique viewers who have watched your Snapchat story or content for at least one second. Track unique views on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis to track performance. This metric is helpful in understanding how many people are actually viewing your content and engaging with it, regardless of how many times they watch it or for how long.
Knowing how many people view your content is important because it helps you determine the success of your efforts and the effectiveness of your Snapchat messaging -- which can help inform future Snapchat strategies. For instance, if you notice that your unique views have decreased, it could mean that you need to adjust the content or timing of your snaps.
Story View Time
Story view time measures the average amount of time people spend viewing your stories. Like views, you can see weekly, monthly, and yearly view time. You can also look in more detail at the average view time for each day of the week and how long viewers look at your story before clicking on the next one.
View time is important because it helps you understand how engaging your content is. If viewers spend more time with each story, it could mean that the content resonates with them, and they want to learn more about it. Looking at the length of time people typically watch your stories also helps you to determine how long your snap stories should be.
Identifying which days get the highest view time also helps you decide when to post your content so that it gets the most engagement.
Story Completion Rate
The story completion rate measures how many people watch your entire story from start to finish. Tracking this metric is important because it shows whether or not viewers are actually engaging with your content and if they're interested in learning more about what you have to say. If your completion rate is low, it could be a sign that your content needs to be improved or shortened in order to keep viewers interested.
Screenshots
If someone takes a screenshot of your content on Snapchat, it likely means they found it particularly useful or share-worthy. This is an indication that the content resonates with them and is valuable to them, either for their own use or to share with friends or followers. Tracking screenshots helps you understand which types of content resonate with your audience and what they're most likely to save and share with their friends.
Demographic Info
Understanding who your Snapchat audience is and where they're located can help you tailor your content to target them better. Demographics such as gender, age range, location, language spoken, and interests are all important metrics you should be tracking when it comes to understanding your Snapchat followers. On Snapchat, you can also see a breakdown of the interests of your audience, which can help you decide what topics or types of content to feature in your story. Demographic info from Snapchat can also help inform wider brand decisions, such as which products to release and which markets to target.
Snapchat Ads Metrics
If you're running Snapchat Ads, there are several metrics you should be tracking to measure the success of your Snapchat ads campaigns. The metrics you focus on will depend on the goals of your campaign and where you are in the campaign. For instance, immediately after launching a campaign, you'll want to look at how many people you're reaching with metrics like paid impressions and paid reach. You also want to see how well your ads on Snapchat stories are resonating by tracking things like video plays and video completions.
To track whether your campaigns are driving conversions, look at metrics like ad clicks, purchases, and sign-ups. You'll also want to check on your ad spend with metrics like effective cost per thousand impressions ( paid eCPM) and cost per lead.
Snapchat Analytics
Although Snapchat offers some built-in analytics (Snapchat insights), which provides you with data about your content, you can also use a third-party Snapchat analytics tool. Analytics platforms make it easier to track and measure Snapchat performance. They also help out marketers who need to do Snapchat ads reporting for their brands.
Tools such as Convivia and Mish Guru allow you to analyze your Snapchat data and also offer automation so that you can manage your Snapchat campaigns more efficiently.
By understanding which metrics to track and which analytics platforms to use, you can get a better understanding of the effectiveness of your Snapchat efforts and make more informed decisions when creating content.
Social for ecommerce
When it comes to deciding which social channel to use for marketing, Snapchat is often overlooked due to its unique nature. But with more sophisticated analytics and ad capabilities, it's becoming an increasingly popular platform for ecommerce businesses. However, it might take some time, experimentation, and research to figure out which are the best social channels for your brand. That's why we've created comprehensive guides for two of the hottest social media channels around. Check out the Emotive guide: How to Use Tiktok to Grow Your Ecommerce Store.