Snapchat To Feature Ads In The Near Future

The co-founder and chief executive of photo-sharing app Snapchat has announced that ads will be coming to the app in the near future, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK reports. Evan Spiegel stated that the ads will appear as part of the Snapchat Stories feature but will not be targeted to specific users based on their tastes.

In a bid to begin making money from the app, rumours that ads would soon appear began circulating a few months ago – although an exact date is yet to be formally announced. Introducing ads to an app is often a delicate balancing act between keeping both users and marketers happy; too many ads will turn off users, whilst too few will generate little monetary value, an article on Digital Trends notes.

The Snapchat Stories section allows users to build a stream of photos and videos to create a timeline of what they have been sending. Advertisers will be able to pay to have their campaigns included within the stream.

Nevertheless, Snapchat will not allow highly-personalised ad campaigns immediately, as the app wishes to take this foray into advertising slowly to ensure it is done correctly and not to the detriment of the user. Spiegel described these first advertising efforts as “not fancy.”

One feature of the app that is likely to attract advertisers’ attention is the Our Story service, which allows users at a specific event to post photos and videos on one unified stream; advertisers would be able to target consumers attending a particular event, although the feature is geo-fenced which does limit the scope for advertisers.

The app has 100 million active monthly users and was launched in 2011. It has received widespread attention from a number of high-profile companies interested in investing in the company – although Spiegel has rejected a number of offers in order to remain independent.