Snapchat is looking to add another monetization opportunity for Snap creators, with mid-roll ads for Snap Star Stories providing a directly attributable revenue pathway for Snap’s biggest stars. As explained by Snapchat, soon, Snap creators will be able to switch on ads within their Stories, with a cut of the revenue generated by the ads going back directly to creators. It’s certainly an attractive way to keep their top stars on the platform.
Snapcash
Though the specific revenue cut here is not totally transparent, Snapchat does say that the revenue share from these ads will be based on its proprietary payment formula, “which may include a number of factors such as posting frequency and audience engagement”.
Snapchat already has one other functional payment formula attached to its TikTok-like Spotlights, which is appropriately named ‘Spotlight Funding’. Creator payments will then be allocated based on a range of factors that include:
“The total number of unique video views attributable to your specific Snap, the relative performance of your Snaps compared to other Snaps in Spotlight, and the geographic location of your Snaps and/or users viewing your Snaps.”
It would seem that inserting ads into Stories would be more attributable to each creator’s performance, as view counts are specific to that story. Snap is looking to tweak its approach a bit when it comes to funding, which potentially introduces more benefits to creators. Either way, Snap’s top creators will at least be able to get SOME money from Stories-embedded ads, while also allowing advertisers to reach more specific and engaged audiences with their campaigns.
The real focus here is to simply help more Snapchatters earn more money for their efforts. With the competition heating up, almost every social platform is now looking to win over creators to have them posting as much as possible, keeping the user more engaged, and eventually have them return to your platform to check out the latest content. TikTok was able to up the ante in this respect, getting more and more people into short-form video, with the only downside being TikTok’s rather juvenile monetization model.
The Wrap
Over the last two years, Snapchat has rolled out several monetization options to help creators get just a little bit more out of their efforts, and to of course help out in the retention of its most influential talents. These initiatives have helped strengthen Snapchat’s creative pipeline.
While some of these initiatives have proven challenging, with the Spotlight funding model facing several questions, its border impetus towards providing a more sustainable and functional creator ecosystem takes precedence, helping ensure that Snap can maximize its content opportunities.
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