Why Snapchat Video Marketing Isn’t Worth Your Time

Last updated on 22nd November 2023

When it comes to building a presence on social media, many marketers base their strategy on proven results and industry-wide statistics. That’s no different whether we’re writing a tweet or recording a Snapchat video.

The appeal of social video marketing is attractive for brands, especially considering that the average person watches over 17 hours of video content every week. Plus, 70% of businesses who don’t currently use video say they intend to start in 2023 (meaning it’s growing in popularity).

That makes it a fantastic opportunity to position your business in front of target customers, right?

However, it seems like brands are being selective when it comes to choosing which video marketing platforms to use. What may be even more shocking is that Snapchat, who’s rise was attributed to their use of video content, isn’t the platform of choice for many businesses. Instead, other social media giants are being favoured… Why is that?

In this article, we’ll explore some of the reasons Snapchat is being avoided by video marketers, while other platforms flourish.

The introduction of Snapchat video marketing

Snapchat, who are crowned as the holy grail platform for younger video consumers, was relatively new to the social advertising scene. They launched in 2011, which was considerably later than social advertising giants like Facebook and Twitter.

They offer several video content types, including:

Stories

The most popular type of Snapchat video content is Stories. When an account has been created by a business, they can film a 10-second video to show on their Story, which is visible to their Snapchat friends. It’s like any other social platform, where you can build your following and post content for your audience.

Self-confessed social media queen Kylie Jenner is a huge fan of using Snapchat Stories. Here’s how she used them to announce the launch of a new beauty collection:

GeoFilters

These days, it’s considered uncommon to scroll through a social media platform and not see at least one ‘selfie’ with a filter overlay. The majority of these filters come through Snapchat – and brands have the ability to create their own.

GeoFilters allow anyone within a certain proximity to overlay their photos with a branded filter. So, if you have a brick and mortar store that you want to raise awareness about, this may be a great way to promote your business through Snapchat!

Advertising

Similar to the content you see when scrolling through your Facebook News Feed, Snapchat offers video advertising to brands.

The placement of Snapchat Ads allows businesses to showcase their content in people’s feeds, and between the Stories of their friends.

Here’s an example of LG using Snapchat Ads, shown between a Story collection:

Why aren’t we using Snapchat marketing?

With so many video content formats to choose from and a staggering 332 million daily users, you might be surprised to learn that brands are bailing on Snapchat marketing.

In fact, only 13% of video marketers are using it in 2023.

In comparison, 79% of marketers use LinkedIn and Instagram for video marketing, and 86% use Facebook.

So, why are we bailing on Snapchat video marketing, and opting for the bigger platforms instead?

The demographics are limited

Successful marketing campaigns are tailored to their buyer personas and ideal customer profiles. If your ideal demographic isn’t millennials with a passion for social media, Snapchat is off the cards.

That’s because the Snapchat audience is extremely limited. Only 5% of users are over the age of 55, and the largest age demographic (by far!) is 15-25-year-olds, who make-up 48% of their audience.

The niche audience of Snapchat means not all businesses can exploit their audience with video content and advertising. Although it’s perfect for millennial-targeted content, brands would struggle to advertise products for people outside of that demographic – like kid’s bikes or dentures!

Snapchat is not ‘social’ for brands

Although Snapchat is defined as a social platform, it’s not as ‘social’ as some other sites. Audiences have limited ways to engage with the ads, which makes communication very restricted.

Social platforms, such as Twitter, allow audiences to like, share and comment on brand’s advertisements. They can Retweet the content if they enjoy it, or respond directly to the brand.

Either of these things give an added bonus: a reaction has been provoked, and the audience of the person who’s interacted with your video content can also be exposed to it.

In turn, that means you could get more eyes on your content… For free.

Because Snapchat doesn’t allow this social aspect, it’s difficult for brands to cash-in on their increased exposure.

Although Snapchat does prove to be an effective video marketing strategy for businesses with similar demographics, it’s not the first choice for many. Its’ usage among video marketers generally isn’t looking great this year, and many brands are opting for other social media platforms to showcase their video talents.

To learn more about the state of video marketing in 2023, head over to our study. We asked hundreds of marketers to give us their thoughts, opinions and plans for this year, and some of the results are very surprising!