Snapchat has been in the news quite a lot recently and apparently was the subject of an acquisition bid from Google. Its second quarter earnings release showed slow user growth, though on the positive side WPP is doubling its ad spend on the platform. Now, new data from Snaplytics [download page] offers some insights into brands’ use of the platform – and it’s not all good news.
Snaplytics’ report is based on an analysis of more than 1,100 brands, 32,000 stories and a total of 246,000 Snaps.
The analysis suggests that brand activity on the platform has declined relative to the same period last year.
During the second quarter, for example, brands averaged 13 stories per month. While that was slightly more than the first quarter (12), it was down from a high of 16 stories per brand in the year-earlier period of Q2 2016.
Moreover, brands are averaging fewer Snaps per story. During this past quarter, stories posted by brands averaged 9.3 Snaps, down from an average of about 11 in each of the prior 5 quarters.
The number of Snaps per story declined on a quarter-over-quarter basis across brands in most industries, particularly consumer services, consumer goods, and retail.
On a positive note, the completion rate for stories averaged 91% during the second quarter, consistent with Q1’s average and up from 87% in Q2 2016. Completion rates were relatively similar across industries: non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – which coincidentally posted the most Snaps per story – saw the lowest average of 87%, while food & beverage brands – which had the fewest Snaps per story – enjoyed the highest rate (95%).
Brands remained most active towards the end of the week, per the report with Fridays and Saturdays each accounting for 17% share of total Stories. Sunday (11%) and Monday (10%) remain the lightest days in terms of brands’ activity.
Trends and Benchmarks
This past quarter demonstrated a significant shift in how brands are adding followers. Whereas followers had added brands’ Snapchat channels primarily through their “Username” in prior quarters, Q2 saw the emergence of Deeplinks as the most common way for users to add a brand’s channel. In fact, a majority (57%) of users chose this way of adding brands’ channels in Q2, about twice the share (29%) from Q1.
The ratio of videos to images remains fairly constant, though. During Q2, brands focused more on videos (57% share) than images (43%), in line with the 54-60% range for videos over the past year-and-a-half.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were the most heavily dependent on videos (74%). Travel & leisure brands also posted almost 3 times as many videos as images (72% and 28% share, respectively).
By contrast, luxury goods brands relied more on images (63% share) than videos, as did food & beverage (59%) and fashion & lifestyle (56%) brands.
Influencers Mention Beauty Brands More on Instagram Stories Than on Snapchat
In a potentially troubling development for Snapchat, the report’s analysis of more than 800 influencers found a downward trend in the number of beauty brand mentions on Snapchat during the course of the second quarter. In fact, influencers mentioned brands more often on Instagram Stories than on Snapchat.
Notably, the analysis found that smaller brands have a larger share of voice on Snapchat than Instagram, with the reverse true for larger brands such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder.
Reporting from TechCrunch earlier this month noted that Instagram Stories has more daily users than Snapchat and more usage per day.
The full Snaplytics report can be downloaded here.
