Snapchat Users Will Now See Ads Between Their Friends’ Stories

Whenever a new social media company comes around, ad-free and full of vim and vigor with a select group of devoted users, it’s only a matter of time before that clubhouse for the cool kids starts opening itself up to the masses… which in turn, leads to advertisers banging on the door. Snapchat is the latest social company to join its peers in opening up that door a little wider to advertisers.

After four years of allowing users to send each self-destructing photos, or post them to their accounts as a “Story” for pals to see, Snapchat will feature ads in between those individual stories, AdWeek reports. Thus far, ads have only shown up in the media section of Snapchat.

The ads are skippable and won’t interrupt, say, your carefully crafted story about your cat’s very busy day, but will pop up now and then, full screen, with sound (if your sound is on) when you move from one story to the next. For the first time, the ads will be sold by third parties as well.

Advertisers will have the option to add actions when users swipe on their content, like sending them to a longer video or another website or article, or to install another app.

Snapchat says it will review each and every ad submitted to the platform to maintain quality.

“Different marketers have different objectives, and we just want to make it easier for them to buy ads on the platform,” Snapchat’s chief strategy officer Imran Khan explained to AdWeek. “We want [brands] to have a place where they can tell their stories, you know, in a better way.”

The ads are expected to start appearing in story feeds in a few weeks.

Snapchat Launches a Colossal Expansion of Its Advertising, Ushering in a New Era for the App [AdWeek]

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