Snapchat tightens brand safety net with more manual controls, verified influencer accounts

Dive Brief:

Snapchat is offering advertisers tools that provide more manual control over where their ads appear, Adweek reported. The platform is opening up the ability to deselect six types of content from ad buys in both its Discover portal and for user-generated content (UGC) stories, including news, entertainment, science and technology, beauty and fashion, men's lifestyle and general lifestyle
Two other control options include buying on premium Discover inventory with a category filter, such as removing news content. The other only targets ads at user stories.
In other Snapchat news, Digiday reports that the platform is also now offering verified Official Stories accounts to influencers, a feature that previously was limited to public figures such as celebrities and athletes. The move offers those accounts perks like customized filters and a boost in search visibility.

Dive Insight:

The two pieces of news show that Snapchat is looking to avoid the type of brand safety crisis that hit YouTube earlier this year, where major advertisers boycotted the platform after finding ads running next to inappropriate videos. Snapchat content has, in the past, been difficult to monitor given its ephemeral nature, where many videos disappear after 24 hours. Earlier this year, in March, The New York Times also reported on the prevalence of offensive and pornographic UGC on Snapchat — an issue that led WPP's GroupM agency to send a memo to its clients warning that they should stick to ads on the Discover portal or lenses and filters.

More manual content controls and verified accounts for the influencers who create the type of UGC brands do want to advertise on brings clarity and safety assurances to Snapchat, and also makes the platform more structured in a manner akin to its social media competitors. These updates are necessary for a platform that's seen sluggish financial and user numbers since going public in March and must win over the business of more advertisers to sustain growth and prove its value to investors.

Earlier this week, it was reported Snapchat was also offering discounts and reimbursements in a bid to attract small business marketers, who've been relatively absent from the platform given the often high ad rates for signature formats like sponsored lenses and filters.

Snapchat adding verified accounts for influencers is also significant, as the platform has been viewed to have spurned them in the past and lost a good deal of talent to competitor platforms like Instagram Stories.