Slowly but surely, entrepreneurial types are turning to Snapchat with money on their minds. It’s used by hundreds of millions of people from all over the world and is growing in popularity all the time. The question is – how to make money on Snapchat and build a viable business on the platform?
Can You Make Money On Snapchat?
The short answer is yes – making money on Snapchat is perfectly possible. In fact, there’s a lot of money to be made on Snapchat in a wide variety of ways. Talented content creators have been using the Snapchat app to make money for years.
Some of which have stacked up massive personal fortunes, having learned how to create content that paves the way for profits. A few examples to illustrate just how much money can be made on Snapchat with the right strategy:
- Andrea Romo (27) – $0.5 million for a single upload
- Cam Casey (19) – total earnings of more than $3 million
- Dominic Andre (27) – takes home about $100,000 per week
- Katie Feeney (18) – paid over $1 million in two months
These are just a few of the people who are turning their Snapchat snaps into massive sums of money. Best of all, you don’t necessarily have to be a successful influencer to make money on Snapchat or have an established public profile everybody knows about. Popularity can help, but it’s as much about creativity and business savvy as it is anything else.
Ways to Make Money on Snapchat
There are really no shortages of ways you can earn money on Snapchat. Detailed below are just a few of these approaches, which can be tried out individually or combined into a multi-dimensional Snapchat strategy:
1. Promote Others
First up, one option is to seek deals with other publishers, promoters, creators, and sellers to promote them for payment. Seeking sponsorship deals typically means reaching out to established brands/businesses and convincing them to pay you to promote them.
Or perhaps, feature their products and services in your output in return for an agreed sum of money. Creating quality Snapchat ads for established brands and businesses can be particularly lucrative.
2. Sell Directly on Snapchat
Of course, another option is to promote your own products and services on Snapchat. Whether you are an established eCommerce seller or simply have a bunch of branded merchandise to market, Snapchat is the perfect place to spread the word.
Plus, Snapchat is renowned for its huge average click-through rate – pure gold for driving traffic to your website or online store.
3. Create and Sell Lenses
Creating and selling lenses can be an incredibly lucrative business venture on Snapchat if you get it right. Lenses hold huge appeal across all demographics and are used by businesses of all shapes and sizes to boost interest and engagement. Believe it or not, some brands have paid as much as $500,000 for a single sponsored lens.
4. Use the Snapchat Spotlight Feature
It’s not easy to make money on Snapchat Spotlight, but there’s good money to be made by those who make it happen. Snapchat currently hands out more than $1 million every day to popular creators via the Spotlight feature. However, Snapchat has a very specific (and strict) system in place to determine who gets paid and who doesn’t.
Spotlight snaps are similar to TikTok videos in many ways and must meet the following guidelines to be considered for payment:
- Vertical video with sound.
- Up to 60 seconds long.
- Must have a topic/hashtag.
- Must be appropriate for a 13+ audience.
- It cannot be a sponsored or promotional Snap.
- No controversial or offensive content is allowed.
Submitting your Snap to Spotlight couldn’t be easier – all you need to do is hit Spotlight at the top of the send to screen after creating your Snap and then tap the arrow to “Submit” it.
5. Create Geofilters
Non-business users can create and use geofilters for free, which can be great for promoting community events, public places, and so on. Business users, by contrast, need to pay for geofilters but can also generate a solid ROI by using them the right way.
A word of wisdom – master the art of creating quality non-business geofilters for free before you start experimenting with them for business purposes.
6. Use Snap Ads
The fact that Snap Ads have a click-through rate (CTR) five times higher than other social media platforms makes them a no-brainer. True, Snap Ads are a paid service, and you need to make the right decisions when creating your ads and deciding where to display them.
But as you’re pretty much guaranteed a steady stream of highly qualified traffic, you could be looking at a huge ROI. In any case, there are paid ad packages available to suit all budgets, starting from as little as $2.95 per thousand impressions.
7. Promote Affiliate Products
Last up, and affiliate marketing can be fantastic for taking full advantage of Snapchat’s enormous popularity. This is essentially where you promote products on behalf of other sellers and subsequently take a cut of every sale made via your recommendations.
Amazon runs one of the biggest affiliate programs in the world, where you showcase their products in your content, post links to their product pages, and get a 10% commission from every subsequent sale made. Quick, easy, and free of charge, but you do need to mention in your posts that they contain sponsored content.
More Tips to Make More Money on Snapchat
After choosing your preferred business model, it’s then a case of putting it into action. The approach you take to your content strategy on Snapchat will play the biggest role in determining how much you stand to earn. Or, to put it another way, it’s not about the approach you choose but how you go about it.
With this in mind, here are a few essential tips and tactics for making more money on Snapchat:
1. Increase Followers/Friends
Whichever approach you adopt to making money on Snapchat, a bigger audience translates to bigger profits. With all types of promotional content, the number of views a post accumulates will determine how much money it makes.
Consequently, it is important to prioritize boosting the size of your Snapchat audience from an early stage. Of course, the best way to increase Snapchat followers is to enhance the quality of your content and offer something your closest competitors cannot.
2. Share Your Snapchat Profile
Promoting your Snapchat profile and content via as many external channels as possible is essential. Use all of your social media accounts to your advantage, showcasing your latest posts and providing links to your profile page. Make it as easy as possible for your other social audiences to check you out, and give them a good reason to do just that.
3. Run Contests
Speaking of which, nothing drives engagement on platforms like Snapchat like a contest or competition. People, in general, are powerless against the prospect of a freebie – irrespective of how modest it may be. If you can get into the habit of running regular contests (exclusively for those who follow you), you’ll soon be stacking up plenty of organic followers.
4. Focus on Your Target Audience
Last up, keeping followers on board is just as important as getting them on board in the first place. On Snapchat, this means staying true to the interests of your target audience specifically.
Don’t stray too far from your main niche or area of interest, as to do so could result in followers heading elsewhere. Even if it’s trending at the time, it might not be right for your target audience.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Do You Get Paid Per View on Snapchat?
No – content creators do not get paid on a per-view basis on Snapchat. However, the number of followers you have and the number of people who see your posts play major roles in determining how much you can earn – particularly with sponsored content.
2) How Much Money Do You Make From Snapchat?
Snapchat Spotlight hands out more than $1 million per day to popular creators but doesn’t offer exact guidelines as to how much you can earn and in what way. Even so, some people are reportedly pocketing as much as $100,000 per week.
3) How Much Do Influencers Make on Snapchat?
It depends entirely on the number of followers they have and the type of niche they operate in. But it is not uncommon for Snapchat influencers to earn thousands of dollars for a single post. Again, the more followers an influencer has, the more they can charge for promotional/sponsored content.
4) How Many Followers Do You Need to Make Money on Snapchat?
Technically speaking, you don’t need many followers to make money on Snapchat. You’ll need a minimum of 100 subscribers to open a Creator account, after which it depends entirely on your preferred business model.
For example, if you use Snapchat to promote your eCommerce store’s products, you won’t necessarily need a huge army of followers.
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