Snapchat Is Launching A Self-Serve Ad Manager For Brands Of All Sizes

Snapchat is looking to become more like Facebook, introducing a new self-serve ad manager for buying video ads on the platform.

Snap Inc., the owner of Snapchat, has this week launched a new advertising tool that enables brands “of all sizes” to buy video advertising on the app.

The platform is currently being tested with 20 brands, and will be available in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia and other European markets from June.

The release also includes the Snapchat Mobile Dashboard, which lets you track campaigns on a mobile device, and Business Manager, which allows admins to manage things like ad accounts, roles, permissions and access levels.

In terms of advertising, Snapchat offers three options – a video-based Snap Ad, sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses.

The Snap Ad begins with a short video, of up to 10 seconds long, then the option to show one interactive element after the video – either an article, app install, long-form video or web view video.

Sponsored geofilters allow companies to add their own branded filters to users’ Snapchats, based on things like events, national campaigns, or specific retail locations.

Snap’s final ad type is sponsored lenses, which lets users take videos with a branded overlay using its augmented reality tech.

Of these three ad types, only the Snap Ad will be available to purchase through Snap’s new self-serve ad manager, however.

The other two ad types will still have to be purchased through a third party ad partner.

You can sign up to be a part of the early access on Snapchat’s site here.