Snapchat Ads for Small Businesses

Business account, Public Profile and ad account

Everything on this page comes from Snap's own Business Help Center and its advertising policies. Snap's order of set-up is: a Snapchat business account first, then a Public Profile, then one or more ad accounts. Snap says you can only set up an ad account "after your business has been created and you have established a line of credit, input a credit card, or set up PayPal."

Public Profile. Snap states that "Public Profiles are required for advertising" and that they are free; you do not need a payment method to use one. Its Public Profile set-up guide notes a few details worth knowing before you start:

• Each username needs its own email address, and the username is unique, because it is used to log in.
• The display name does not have to match the username and can be up to 30 characters. Snap also says usernames are hidden for verified brands in the app, so you do not need the exact brand name as a username.
• The profile photo must be at least 320 x 320 pixels (PNG or JPEG), up to 2 MB.
• The profile goes live and searchable as soon as you create it, so have your content ready.
• If your product legally needs a minimum age to view (Snap's examples include alcohol, dating apps, finance and pharma), you can set a minimum age on the profile.

Ad account. In Ads Manager you open Ad Accounts and click New Ad Account. Snap's ad account guide lists the choices:

• Whether you are an agency buying for an advertiser.
• Whether the account will run housing, credit or employment ads. If yes, Snap warns that ads may be rejected if they use age, gender or postal code level targeting.
• Whether the account will run political ads, which needs the paying organisation's name and a Political Ad Review Form.
• Billing type: Revolving (an ongoing funding source) or Insertion Order (a one-time campaign with a spend cap).
• Currency, time zone and the Public Profile to link.

Plan these carefully: Snap says account type, billing type, currency and time zone "cannot be changed after you've created an ad account." To change any of them you create a new ad account.

Who gets access

Give your team, freelancers and agency their own logins instead of sharing a password. Organization Admins assign roles per ad account, and Snap's roles and permissions page defines them:

• Account Admin: changes account details and manages all advertising collateral; can also view the Snap Pixel code.
• Agency Member: manages account details, payment methods and collateral, but cannot manage assets or members.
• Campaign Manager: creates and manages campaigns and ads.
• Data Manager: uploads and manages audience segments.
• Data Analyst: views collateral and pulls performance metrics.
• Creative Manager: creates and views creatives and media.

A sensible default for a small business: keep Account Admin for the owner, give an agency Campaign Manager or Agency Member, and give someone who only reports results Data Analyst.

The five campaign objectives

Snap has cut its objectives "from 12 to 5", per its objectives overview, and says the consolidated objectives roll out gradually, so your account may still show older names. The five are:

• Awareness and Engagement: reach and interest, including video views, calls and texts, and place promotion.
• Traffic: send people to a website or app.
• Leads: get people to share contact details, through a lead form or your website.
• App Promotion: app installs and re-engagement.
• Sales: product catalog sales and website or app conversions.

Former objectives now sit inside these as settings such as the performance goal, promotion type and conversion location. Pick the objective that matches what you can measure: Traffic works without a pixel, while Leads and Sales on your website depend on conversion tracking (see below).

Ad formats and specs

Snapchat is a full-screen, vertical app, so the main creative is a 9:16 image or video. The three formats most small businesses start with:

Single Image or Video. Snap's specs page gives a 1080 x 1920 px canvas at 9:16, video from 3 seconds to 30 minutes in .mp4 or .mov (H.264), up to 1 GB, and images in .jpg or .png up to 5 MB (minimum 720 x 1280 px). A still image is turned into a 5-second video. Each ad needs a brand name of up to 32 characters and a headline of up to 34. The brand name "must reflect the paying Advertiser and cannot be the same as your Headline", and the ad must be approved for viewing by a 13+ audience.

Story Ads. A branded tile in the Discover feed that opens to 1 to 10 images or videos, or a series shown between content. Snap's Story Ad specs ask for a 993 x 284 px PNG logo, a 360 x 600 px tile image and a tile headline of up to 55 characters. The tile is only needed when placement is automatic or in the Discover feed.

Collection Ads. A full-screen image or video with 2, 3 or 4 square product thumbnails near the bottom. Snap's Collection Ad specs require .jpg or .png thumbnails of at least 160 x 160 px and 2 MB or less, each with its own URL, plus a main click URL. Collection Ads can also be built from an uploaded product catalog.

Snap's creative tips for Collection Ads are short: get branding in before the 2-second mark, keep ads to roughly 3 to 5 seconds, and keep critical text and logos out of the bottom 450 px. Check the safe zones before you export any vertical video; our guide to video on websites covers producing and compressing it.

Targeting: people and places

Snap's standard targeting covers age and gender, language, location and device (operating system, carrier, connection type, make and model). Leave a field blank and it covers all Snapchatters. On top of that you can add Predefined Audiences, Advanced Demographics and Custom Audiences. Snap notes that some countries limit targeting by law; its example is that in Australia the age-targeted audience narrows to 16+ automatically.

If your product must be age restricted (Snap gives gambling and alcohol as examples), tick Regulated Content and select the legally allowed ages for each country.

Locations. Per Snap's location targeting page, an ad set defaults to your business's country, and you can add or exclude countries, regions, metros, postal codes, addresses and latitude/longitude pairs, up to 500 locations. If estimated reach drops below 1,000, the targeting may be too narrow to add. Since 25 July 2024, location targeting for new ad sets includes Snapchatters who are living, working and recently in the location.

Radius. For a shop or service area, radius targeting draws a circle around an address, a pin or a place: 100 metres to 100 km (0.06 to 62 miles in the US). Housing, credit and employment ads have a 2.5-mile minimum.

Budgets and bidding

Budgets are set per ad set, daily or lifetime, as Snap's budget page explains. A daily budget works on calendar days: an ad scheduled from 1 PM today to 1 PM tomorrow gets the full daily amount on each of the two days. Dayparting (running ads only at chosen hours) needs a lifetime budget.

Snap's bidding strategies are:

• Auto-Bidding: Snapchat sets the bid to get the most goal actions for your budget.
• Max Bid: you set the most Snapchat may bid while it seeks the most efficient cost per action.
• Target Cost: Snapchat aims to keep your average cost per action at or below your amount.

New campaigns and ad sets go through a learning phase that Snap says "typically lasts anywhere from 1 to 7 days". It can take longer when you optimise for a lower-funnel goal or the ad set struggles to spend its budget, so avoid judging or editing a new ad set in its first days.

Snap Pixel and Conversions API

The Snap Pixel is JavaScript on your website that shows how many Snapchatters take action after seeing your ad, and Snap says it suits direct-response goals such as leads, subscriptions and sales. The Conversions API (CAPI) sends web, app and offline events to Snap server to server. Snap offers a direct integration, which "requires developer-involvement", or a partner integration if your shop platform supports it.

If you send the same events by Pixel and CAPI, give each event a client_dedup_id. Snap's deduplication guide says it gives "a 48 hour deduplication window", must be unique per event and must be the same across every tracker. Its common mistakes: a hardcoded value, a value that is too short, or one built from a timestamp. A UUID avoids all three.

Load the Pixel in line with your consent set-up; our cookie consent guide covers that, and Google Tag Manager is a common way to add both. Tag your ad links with UTM parameters too, so your own analytics shows Snapchat traffic separately.

Ad review and advertising policies

Every ad is reviewed against Snap's Advertising Policies, Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. Snap's ad review page says the "Majority of ads are reviewed within 8 hours", but it can take longer, and editing an approved ad or ad set may send it back to review. Another page tells you to allow about 24 hours for an ad that is In Review; the status and any rejection reason show in the Delivery Status column of Manage Ads. Submit a day ahead of your start date.

The Snap Advertising Policies apply to the creative and to the landing page. Points that catch small businesses most often:

• Snapchat is a 13+ app, and ads aimed at or likely to appeal to children under 13 are rejected.
• Landing pages are rejected if they are low quality (dead links, broken or not formatted for phones), disruptive, irrelevant to the ad, or unsafe.
• A privacy policy must be easy to find wherever you collect personal information, and ads may not collect sensitive data such as health or financial status.
• Regulated categories (alcohol, gambling, health, financial products, dating and others) have their own rules. Alcohol ads, for example, must target 18+ or the local drinking age, which Snap lists as 21+ in the United States.
• Ads must not imply knowledge of a user's personal data or precise whereabouts.

Influencer or creator content you promote also needs clear disclosure; see our influencer disclosure guide.

Before you launch

1. Create the business account and a Public Profile with a clear display name and a 320 x 320 px or larger logo.
2. Create the ad account with the right currency and time zone; they cannot be changed later.
3. Add team members with their own roles.
4. Install the Snap Pixel, add CAPI if your platform supports it, and use a shared client_dedup_id.
5. Choose the objective that matches what you can measure.
6. Export vertical 9:16 creative, with brand name and headline ready and key text inside the safe zones.
7. Send ads to a fast, mobile-friendly page that matches the ad; see our landing page guide.
8. Tick Regulated Content and set the right ages if your product needs it, and submit ads at least a day early.

Comparing platforms? Read our guides to TikTok ads, Meta ads, Reddit ads and X (Twitter) ads.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Public Profile to advertise on Snapchat?

Yes. Snap states that Public Profiles are required for advertising and that you cannot create a new ad account without selecting or setting one up. Public Profiles are free.

Can I change the currency or time zone of a Snapchat ad account?

No. Snap says account type, billing type, currency and time zone cannot be changed after the ad account is created; you would need to create a new ad account.

What size should a Snapchat ad be?

Single Image or Video ads use a full-screen 1080 x 1920 px canvas at 9:16. Videos run from 3 seconds to 30 minutes in .mp4 or .mov up to 1 GB; images are .jpg or .png up to 5 MB.

How long does Snapchat ad review take?

Snap says most ads are reviewed within 8 hours but it can take longer, and it asks you to allow about 24 hours for an ad that is In Review. Editing an approved ad can send it back to review.

Can I target people near my shop?

Yes. Radius targeting covers 100 metres to 100 km around an address, a pin or a place (0.06 to 62 miles in the US), with a 2.5-mile minimum for housing, credit and employment ads.

Do I need both the Snap Pixel and Conversions API?

The Pixel alone measures website actions. Snap's Conversions API sends events server to server; if you use both, send the same unique client_dedup_id from each so events are counted once.

Want ads that send people to a site that converts on a phone? See our website development service and all our services, or email [email protected].