[eMarketer] Snap doubles down on direct response to weather tough ad market

At a recent Snap’s Investor Day event, the company behind Snapchat reinforced its commitment to augmented reality (AR), said it was working to improve its direct-response ad business, and announced significant user growth.

CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel said Snapchat now has 750 million monthly active users—up from 600 million in April 2022—with more than 150 million, or 20%, in North America.

Snap is coming off a tough Q4, and its business outlook is still grim. The company repeatedly mentioned the difficult economic environment, challenges from Apple’s privacy-related changes, and increased competition.

Snap is pulling lots more levers to support direct-response advertisers, which account for about two-thirds of its revenues.

According to eMarketer, investors had questions about Snap’s reliance on AR, which many advertisers still consider experimental. Spiegel reaffirmed that AR is vital to the company’s future, adding that one goal is to move advertisers toward using it on an ongoing basis, rather than one-off activations.

Read the full eMarketer article here

www.emarketer.com