Snapchat ads targeting: audiences, places and demographics

This guide is built from Snapchat Business Help: Standard Targeting, How Location Targeting Works, What are Custom Audiences? and Smart Audience. Setting up the account and campaigns is in our Snapchat ads for small businesses guide, and the tracking that website audiences rely on in our Snapchat Pixel guide.

Standard targeting: age, gender, language and device

Every ad set starts with standard targeting. Leave a field blank and it covers all Snapchatters.

• Age and gender: set an age range and gender. If the product or creative must be age restricted (Snap's examples are gambling and alcohol), tick Regulated Content and choose the legally allowed ages for each country.
• Language: reach people who read or understand a language, from a list of 21 including English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Japanese. Snap asks you to make sure the creative will be understood by the people you target.
• Device: operating system, carrier, connection type and device make and model.

Local law can limit targeting. Snap's example: "when targeting Australia, the age-targeted audience will automatically narrow to 16+."

Location targeting

Locations are set per ad set and default to your business's country. You can include or exclude countries, regions or states, metros or DMAs, postal codes, addresses, latitude and longitude pairs and, in the US only, location categories. Points to know:

• Up to 500 locations per ad set; a bulk upload is available for long lists.
• If estimated reach drops below 1,000, the location may be too specific and can't be added.
• When targeting several countries, you can only use targeting available in all of them.
• Since 25 July 2024, location targeting for new ad sets includes Snapchatters "who are living, working and recently in the location", except for regulated content.

For worldwide reach, add every continent. Snap doesn't recommend worldwide targeting for regulated content such as alcohol, financial services or gambling, because rules differ by country and the ads may be rejected.

Radius targeting

For a shop or service area, radius targeting draws a circle around an address, a latitude and longitude pair, a dropped pin, a city or a place of interest. The radius can be 0.06 to 62 miles in the US, or 100 metres to 100 km elsewhere. Housing, credit and employment ads have a 2.5-mile minimum radius.

Predefined Audiences

Predefined Audiences are segments Snap builds from Snapchat and third-party data, based on people's online and real-world interests and behaviours. There are four categories:

• Lifestyles: interest-based segments.
• Shoppers and Viewers: only for select advertisers in the US.
• Visitors: only for campaigns in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

A checkbox in the Audiences section lets Snap expand beyond the lifestyle categories you picked.

Advanced Demographics

Advanced Demographics target by household income, education, occupation, parental status or life event. They are only available for US campaigns. Snap offers first-party segments only for household income; the rest come from its partners Datalogix and Experian.

Custom Audiences

Custom Audiences use data unique to your business. The main types:

• Customer List: upload a .csv or .txt file with a single column of emails, mobile advertising IDs or phone numbers (not mixed). Phone numbers must include the country code. There's no hard file size limit, but Snap recommends staying under 1 GB.
• Website Custom Audiences: people who triggered your Snap Pixel events. Snap creates one automatically for each Pixel event once it reaches 1,000 matched users, with a 30-day lookback (13 months for Sign Up). You can also build your own from up to 11 events with a lookback of 1 to 395 days. Every website audience needs at least 1,000 Snapchatters to be used.
• Ad Engagement: people who clicked an image or video ad, completed a video, opened a Story Ad, shared or saved a Lens or Filter, were served a paid impression, submitted a lead form or opened a Sponsored Snap, in the whole ad account, one campaign or one ad set. They are kept for 13 months, can take up to 48 hours to populate, and can't be edited.
• Mobile App, Profile Engagement and Third-Party audiences: app users through a mobile measurement partner, people who engaged with your Public Profile, and segments through Snap's partnership with Nielsen.

Remarketing with audiences like these, on Snapchat and elsewhere, is covered in our remarketing audiences guide.

Lookalikes and Expand Audience

A Lookalike Audience reaches people similar to an existing Customer List, Pixel or Third-Party audience, in the countries you choose. There are three sizes:

• Similarity: the smallest audience, closest to the seed.
• Balance: a mid-size balance of resemblance and reach.
• Reach: the largest audience, with the broadest resemblance.

Expand Audience is a checkbox that lets Snap widen the reach of the Predefined or Custom Audiences you selected. Snap compares it to Lookalikes, with one difference: it uses machine learning to adjust the audience over time, while Lookalikes "are static, created at one point in time." It takes one click in the buying flow, with no separate audience to create.

Smart Audience

Smart Audience lets Snap's machine learning find more people based on your targeting. It splits your inputs into two kinds:

• Control targeting: limits the audience, so people outside it don't see the ad.
• Suggestion targeting: serves your audience but may go beyond it if that is likely to improve performance.

It is available for Leads, Landing Page Views, Pixel-based and app-based optimisation goals. Snap recommends it for those goals except remarketing: "For remarketing, we recommend reverting to manual targeting and targeting an uploaded custom audience."

Target audience size

Ads Manager shows a Target Audience Size, an estimate of how many Snapchatters your ad could reach over 28 days with your targeting and placements. Snap says it "is not the same as monthly active users", may vary with performance and seasonality, and may not predict results for your dates, budget and optimisation. Use it to compare targeting choices and to spot an audience that is too narrow.

How we set up Snapchat targeting

This is our own practice, not Snap's guidance:

• We set locations first on every ad set, then keep age and interests broad and let Smart Audience or Expand Audience find buyers.
• We tick Regulated Content whenever a client's product could need it, rather than waiting for a rejection.
• We upload customer lists early, so they are matched and ready as seeds for lookalikes.
• We run remarketing on manual targeting with Pixel and engagement audiences, as Snap advises.

If you want help with Snapchat or other paid social campaigns, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

What targeting options does Snapchat offer?

Age, gender, language, location and device, plus Predefined Audiences, Advanced Demographics (US only), Custom Audiences, Lookalikes, Expand Audience and Smart Audience.

How many locations can a Snapchat ad set target?

Up to 500. Radius targeting can be 0.06 to 62 miles in the US, or 100 metres to 100 km elsewhere.

How big must a Snapchat website custom audience be?

At least 1,000 Snapchatters. Snap creates one automatically for each Pixel event once it reaches 1,000 matched users.

What is the difference between Snapchat Lookalikes and Expand Audience?

A Lookalike is a fixed audience created once from a seed. Expand Audience widens your selected audiences and adjusts automatically over time.

Can I target by income on Snapchat?

In the US, yes: household income is one of the Advanced Demographics, along with education, occupation, parental status and life events.

For targeting on other platforms, see our guides to Reddit ads targeting, TikTok ads targeting and Pinterest ads targeting.