Many small businesses are turned off from using Snapchat or Instagram Stories because they only last 24 hours. Before we dive into Geofilters, it’s important to clear this hurdle or it’s not worth your time to move forward (just being honest).
The power of Snapchat is that:
- With only 24 hours to see what you have to say, it creates urgency to view it.
- It has the attention of teens, young adults, and soon their parents. Attention is the key metric.
- It’s raw, making it extremely accessible to small businesses without the need of production equipment or editing software.
- You can build one on one relationships with your viewers.
We believe that Snapchat is an extremely powerful tool for businesses and is still full of opportunities that have barely been tapped.
What Are Snapchat Geofilters?
Snapchat Geofilters are image overlays that users can place over their photos or videos shot within the app, based on their geographical area. There are two subcategories of geofilters; On Demand and Community filters.
You probably see Community geofilters (Montauk picture below) associated with the town you are currently in or traveling through. They typically mark public spaces and neighborhoods. The On Demand filter (picture of TrustWorkz) is a paid ad through Snapchat. We paid for the square footage, the time, the day, and the popularity of the area for the ad below.
The Value of On Demand Geofilters
Around the country, football teams are getting ready to kickoff their seasons in small towns and big cities. During that time, businesses will be empty. While you could easily spend hundreds of dollars on brochures or banners across the stadium (that will surely be ignored), why not be where your customers pay attention while they enjoy their time at the game?
Let me phrase it a different way. Would you rather be part of the story or try to (and most likely fail) interrupt their fun?
If you can provide your customers with a fun filter that they will actually use, then within a few hours, hundreds of people could use your filter and thousands of people could see your brand thanks to that exposure on a medium that is currently attracting a significant amount of attention.
What’s the ROI of Snapchat On Demand Geofilters? If you target correctly and you use a fun filter design that puts the attention on the event and not yourself, then it could have massive ROI. As a small business owner, attention from your target market is everything.
