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Snapchat campaigns start by choosing an objective that aligns with your advertising goals. Your objective determines the optimization options available for ad squads and ads, including placements, bidding strategies, and creative formats.

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Objectives

ObjectiveWhat it’s for
Awareness & EngagementBuild brand awareness, reach, and engagement with your audience
TrafficDrive people to your website, app, public profile, or initiate calls/texts
SalesDrive online sales and conversions on your website or app
App PromotionDrive app installs and re-engage existing app users
LeadsGenerate leads through web forms, lead forms, calls, or texts
Some objectives support optional promotion types for specialized campaigns. For example, Awareness & Engagement can promote physical locations or TV shows, while App Promotion requires choosing between app installs or re-engagement.

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Bid Strategies

StrategyDescription
Automatic BiddingSnapchat optimizes your bids automatically to get the best results; no bid amount required
Lowest Cost with Bid CapSet a maximum bid while optimizing for lowest cost; requires a bid amount
Target CostMaintain a specific cost per result; requires a bid amount
Which strategies are available depends on your objective and optimization goal. Automatic Bidding is the default and recommended strategy for most campaigns.
Start with Automatic Bidding to let Snapchat’s algorithm find the most efficient delivery. Use Lowest Cost with Bid Cap or Target Cost when you have specific cost targets based on your business metrics.

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Budget Constraints

Budget TypeMinimumMaximum
Daily$5$10,000,000
Lifetime$50$10,000,000
Snapchat’s minimum daily budget (5)ishigherthanMeta(5) is higher than Meta (1) but lower than TikTok (20).WhentransferringcampaignsfromMetatoSnapchat,budgetsbelow20). When transferring campaigns from Meta to Snapchat, budgets below 5/day are automatically increased to meet this minimum.

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Campaign Types

Snapchat offers several campaign configurations to match different advertising needs: Standard Campaigns: Full manual control over targeting, bidding, and creative. Best for advertisers who want precise control over campaign settings. Goal-Based Bidding: Snapchat’s automated bidding strategies optimize delivery based on your chosen objective. Available strategies include Automatic Bidding, Lowest Cost with Bid Cap, and Target Cost. Special Campaign Types: Certain objectives support specialized campaign types:
  • Promote Places: Drive foot traffic to physical locations (Awareness & Engagement objective)
  • Promote Shows: Promote TV shows and entertainment content (Awareness & Engagement objective)
  • App Install vs Re-engagement: Choose between acquiring new users or re-engaging existing ones (App Promotion objective)
Snapchat campaigns use a three-tier hierarchy: Campaign > Ad Squad > Ad. Ad Squads are Snapchat’s equivalent to Meta’s Ad Sets or TikTok’s Ad Groups.

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Platform-Specific Considerations

Creative Updates: Snapchat supports updating existing ads, including creative changes. When you modify an ad’s creative, copy, or other properties, Whathead updates the existing ad via Snapchat’s API. The same ad ID is preserved, and changes are reflected immediately in Snapchat Ads Manager. Minimum Bid Amount: When using Lowest Cost with Bid Cap or Target Cost strategies, Snapchat requires a minimum bid of $0.005 per result. Regulated Industries: If your campaign is for Credit, Housing, or Employment, you must declare this at the campaign level. Snapchat will restrict some optimization goals as required by their policies.

Connection Setup

Connect your Snapchat ad account

Targeting

Configure your audience

Campaign Structure

Understand Snapchat’s hierarchy

Publishing

Publish campaigns to Snapchat