How To Make Money On Snapchat

Snap Chat Logo

Social Media has become a mainstay in our society today and Snapchat is one of the largest. What started off as a way for individuals to share pictures and information between friends has now becomes a major part of both consumer and commercial communication. So the question everyone wants to know is …how to make money on snapchat?

Before we delve into anything about how to make money off Snapchat, let us first understand the concept behind the platform.

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is an app available for both iOS and Android devices. The main concept of this app is to let the users be able to share photos or videos to their connections. The biggest feature that differentiates it from other apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is that the photos or videos are only temporarily viewable. They become inaccessible after a short time.

Social Media

Size of the Snapchat Audience

According to the official Snapchat report, 2 billion videos were shared daily as of May 2015. This skyrocketed to 6 billion daily by November 2015. In 2016, 10 billion videos were being watched daily.

There were 10 million users in the UK by May 2016. In February 2017, the number has grown to 160 million daily active users globally.

History of Snapchat

  • Snapchat was conceived by a handful of Stanford graduate students. Between April 2011 and December 2012, the app was initially conceived and launched, with a trial user base.
  • Funds were raised in three batches between December 2012 to November 2014. $13.5 million, $80 million, and $50 million were raised for product buildout, further tests, and user base acquisition. By November 2013, there were 400 million daily snaps. This was also the time when the idea of monetizing the app was first announced.
  • By December 2014 and until August 2016, fundraising for the app was more aggressive than ever. It raised $485 million, $200 million, and $1.8 billion in separate bouts. Views continued to grow — its popularity along with it.
  • Since September 2016, Snapchat underwent rebranding. IT unveiled itself for an initial public offering in March 2017.

You can learn more about the creators of Snapchat and the app’s wild history from How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story, now available on Kindle and paperback.

Snapchat Ownership

Snap, Inc. is the parent company of Snapchat. It went public in March 2017. At the time, its valuation was at $24 billion. This made its CEO and co-founder Evan Thomas Spiegel worth $5 billion overnight.

Snap IncHow Snapchat is Monetized: How Much Money Does Snapchat Make?

So you are probably wondering at this point how you can monetize this social media app. In a nutshell, Snapchat monetization can be done through:

  • Snap Ads
  • Geofilters
  • Sponsored Lens Filters
  • Discover
  • Sports Partnerships

Snapchat took a turn from growing its user base to monetizing starting on 2015. Thanks to its Discover feature, paid advertising was made possible using short-form content from various companies.

Discover started with big-name partners during its launch, including CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central, and the Food Network. By June of the same year, advertisers were allowed to buy sponsored geofilters. One of the first who utilized these was McDonald’s. Its branded geofilter covered multiple locations in the U.S.

Using Live Stories in 2015, more ad revenue was pushed for by the company. Ad placements can be featured in a live story, which can be pitched by the advertisers themselves. A good estimate of a good ad’s reach? 20 million viewers in just 1 day.

Can You Make Money on Snapchat?

The short answer is: YES. You can definitely make good money from Snapchat.

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Why is it a Good Avenue to Make Money?

Snapchat is a great place to earn money online because it isn’t as saturated as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. By knowing the basics and doing your homework, you can monetize your Snapchat account.

How Snapchat Users Make Crazy Amounts of Money

There are different ways of monetizing this app. High-level earners used one of the following methods of earning:

  • Becoming a Snapchat influencer
  • Promoting a business through the app
  • Selling products directly
  • Making Snapchat filters

The Highest Grossing Snapchat Users to Date

Most of the highest earners in Snapchat are celebrities – whether in Hollywood or in the social media universe. These people take tons of time to build up their brand, their profile, and their followers.

Some of the notable ones include DJ Khaled, Blac Chyna, Chrissy Teigen, Logan Paul, Amanda Cerny, Gigi Hadid, Evan Garber, Christine Mi and Shaun McBride.

DJ Kahled
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DJ_Khaled_2012.jpg

 

How to Make Money with the Free Version of Snapchat

The great thing about Snapchat is that, like other social media platforms, it offers an entirely new array of monetization opportunities because of its unique format. Once you have enough followers and viewers, you can earn money either by working your way as an influencer or brand ambassador, or by promoting your business or product.

A.     Becoming a Snapchat Influencer

They say everyone is an influencer when it comes to Snapchat. However, it is no secret that some are more “influential” than others. Young snapchat influencers are able to amass huge follower bases and earn more than others.

What Do Snapchat Influencers Do?

Now, Snapchat isn’t just for teenagers. Adults are into it, too. A lot of Snap influencers built their careers on this app. But what do they do?

Snapchat influencers first build their online presence. They post regularly and make sure they get more followers by the day. Once they have a solid fan base, they can start acting as influencers.

Influencers can either reach out to companies or advertisers and pitch their accounts to them, offering shoutouts for certain brands or products. It can happen the other way around, too. Companies often seek out these influencers and offer them compensation for promoting their brand or product on their videos.

How Much Do Snapchat Influencers Get Paid?

It’s hard to put down a certain number when it comes to influencer earnings. The more popular you are – the more influential – your earnings will definitely be higher. A starter influencer may earn $500 per campaign, which ends in 24 hours.

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As mentioned, pricing greatly varies. It depends on these factors:

  • Number of fans and followers
  • Level of post engagement
  • Compatibility of the influencer and the brand or product to be promoted
  • Number of posts agreed upon
  • Types of post (photo, video, or both)
  • Effort needed from the influencer (i.e., are photos or videos provided, or do they have to shoot it themselves?)
  • Where the promotion will take place (influencer’s personal account vs. cross-posting)

Examples of Popular Snapchat Influencer

Here are a number of immensely successful Snapchat influencers.

  • DJ Khaled – known in Hollywood as a DJ and producer. He is hailed The King of Snapchat. He often posts videos or photos of his daily life in Miami.
  • Jerome Jarre – got his fame from Vine. He now has 1.5 million followers. He is infamously popular for turning down a $1 million influencer deal because it did not reflect his personal beliefs.
  • Jenna Marbles – got her fame from YouTube. Like Jarre, she follows some strict principles. She doesn’t take lots of sponsorships and endorsements. She says her biggest value is her fans who trust and love her.
  • King Bach – Vine also gave him his big start. He was Vine’s most followed account. Now, he continues to post funny shorts on Snapchat with a big following, too.

What Potential Money Can a Young Snapchat Influencer Make?

As mentioned, earnings vary due to different factors. Young and new influencers can get their headstart as “micro” influencers. These have authority in a specific niche, often with 10,000 (or even less) followers. Many companies seek them out because of the value they can bring to their brands.

How to Become a Snapchat Influencer

There are no rulebooks for becoming Snap influencers. But here are a few pointers to always keep in mind if you are just starting out on this venture:

  • Always be original with your brand, persona, and daily posts
  • Make sure your content is accessible to your target audience
  • If you have a website or other social media accounts, link them to your Snapchat profile
  • If possible, buy your own Snap filter (optional)
  • Only advertise or endorse brands that you personally believe in and support
  • Value your followers and give them rich content that they deserve

B. Promoting Your Business or Product on Snapchat

Another way to earn money via Snapchat is to directly sell your products or services. Again, this is contingent to the fact that you need to have a good number of followers and viewers. This can be tricky, since many users would not like to be sold anything – let alone if you do it multiple times in a day.

Make sure you sell something that reflects that values and voice of your personal brand. Try to limit your salesy language, and provide your followers with other valuable content – and not just Buy this, Buy that. Otherwise, you might just lose customers.

A nice way would be to try and post snaps of you and/or your friends actually using and enjoying these products, so that it is easier for your viewers to relate to it.

Snapchat is also a good way to connect to people who belong in your target audience – directly. If you are a niche (micro) influencer, then you can be sure that those who see your snaps are people who are potential customers.

Tips for Making Money with Snapchat Premium

Now that we have covered the ways to earn with the free version of the app, let us talk about how to make money with Snapchat Premium.

What is Paid Snapchat?

Paid, or Premium, Snapchat refers to accounts which require a fee before users can view their profiles and posts. Officially, there is not a separate premium Snapchat app. The one that’s available in the App Store or Play Store is 100% free. However, some users may ask for a fee before letting you get access to their content.

A lot of speculation revolves this area of the Snapchat universe. Many claim that it is designed for those who provide “adult” services, porn stars, and the like. They offer an array of services, each with a corresponding rate. There is no official and fixed rate, but a good estimate is around $25.

How Can You Earn from Snap Ads?

Half a million people look at ads on Snapchat daily. This is a major way to earn money in Snapchat. By opening your account for advertisers, you can earn cash while you keep on doing what you usually do: post and engage with followers.

These are the options for snap ads (found in their ad manager):

  • Snap ads (watch/listen/something else)
  • Story ads for the Discover feed (for massive promotions)
  • Snap filters

Making Money with Snapchat Pictures

This is great if you are an artist or a model. Simply promote and sell your photos here directly.

However, a more popular way of utilizing this feature is selling premium “adult” content. But it doesn’t have to be. Some influencers use it to promote and sell their coaching services and others.

What do you think of selling Snapchat pictures for money?

Making Money with Sponsored Lenses and Posts: Geofilters

GEOFILTERS

Some users want their videos to stand out: particularly influencers and celebrities. To do this, they use paid Snapchat geofilters instead of the ones available for free in the app.

If you have skill in creating and developing these, you can make and sell them on Snapchat as a mode of added income.

Sponsored Lenses are somewhat similar. Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Pixar, Michael Kors, Starbucks and L’Oreal use brand lenses to increase their rates and sales. This is because unique posts will always attract more audiences compared to generic ones. You may also create and sell your own lenses on Snapchat.

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the oldest ways of earning a decent income online. If you want to learn more about this method of earning money via Snapchat, check out this article.

affiliate marketing

You can also learn more about other ways to earn passive income!

How to Build Your Following and Grow Your Revenue Quickly

Becoming big and successful in Snapchat all begins with growing your followers. Here are tried and tested tips and tricks on how to get snapchat followers by the hundreds – and even thousands.

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Organic Techniques to Grow Your Snapchat Account

  1. Make sure you place your Snapchat link or handle on your website’s About page, as well in your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social pages.
  2. Download your Snapcode and use it as your profile picture across different social media pages.
  3. Make sure all your blog posts have a button or link to your Snap profile. You can also sign off using your Snap handle.
  4. Find like-minded accounts and collaborate with them. Post fun projects and quirky videos that will surely grab the attention of audiences.
  5. Offer content that is unique and exclusive in your Snaps. Offer value.
  6. If you are able, do a story takeover to gain access to other user bases and communities.
  7. Participate in Reddit threads and Facebook groups. Participate before you promote your account in order to gain their trust.
  8. Got business cards? Old school is still in! Print your snapcode on them!
  9. Customize your email signature so it contains your snapcode or Snapchat username.

Other Ways to Gain 1000 Snapchat Followers… or More

Organic ways not fast enough for you? Check out these alternative methods on how to get more followers on Snapchat and start earning Snapchat revenue.

  • Ask for shoutouts from successful influencers (you may be charged a certain fee for this).
  • Do Facebook ads to drive users towards your Snapchat profile.
  • Use premium and custom lenses and geofilters to catch the attention of high-traffic areas.

Whether you advertise your profile organically or via paid methods, at the end of the day it will still be about what you bring to the table. Make sure your account has something worth their while. What do your posts have that others don’t?

You don’t necessarily have something to sell – but having a good “brand” of your persona is something that audiences will appreciate. Snap followers need quality – not just quantity. And that will take a LOT of hard work and planning. Posting isn’t enough. Make sure your audiences are engaged well enough to follow you  on Snapchat, and to look forward to your next snaps. That is the key.

Do you know of other ways to grow your Snapchat account? Do share them with us in the comments below.

Resources

Here are resources that you can use to learn and master the art of using Snapchat for business. Get more Snapchat followers and build your platform to earn income.

Books

  1. Social Media: How To Kill It With Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram & Co.
  2. Snapchat: Snapchat Marketing Mastery – How To Turn Your Followers Into $$$

Training Courses

  1. Snapchat Tutorials and Marketing Guides from Lynda.com (from LinkedIn)
  2. Snapchat Mastery Curriculum, available at dscience.com
  3. Snapchat & Instagram: SMM Course at Udemy.
  4. Snapchat 101 at Product Hunt

Blogs

  1. Official Snap Webpage
  2. Snapchat Training Blog
  3. Social Media Articles on Later.com
  4. Inspired University Bloggers
  5. Food Bloggers of Canada: Snapchat for Bloggers
  6. Collective Edge
  7. Adespresso

Official Snap Tools

  1. Snapcode
  2. Discover
  3. Snap Ads
  4. Geofilters
  5. Sponsored Lenses

Third-Party Tools and Resources

  1. Snaplytics
  2. Ghostcodes
  3. Reddit Thread for Geofilters
  4. Snapchatters
  5. Peek
  6. Yellow

 

Conclusion

Using social media pages isn’t just for fun anymore. A lot of people have found different ways to monetize and achieve popularity through them. In similar fashion, Snapchat has become a great way to become a social media influencer and gain tons of followers by becoming creative and friendly.

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These are the ways you can monetize your Snapchat account. Whatever methods you decide to do, make sure that you are not violating any ethical principles. Provide your audience with good content that not only entertains, but is also unique and worth their while.

Quality and frequency of posting is important, but so is your branding. You may choose to advertise organically at first, and move to paid promotions later on.

We hope this article has been helpful in giving you a better idea on how to earn money through Snapchat. Please don’t hesitate to leave your comments and ideas in the section below!

Author
C. James

C. James is the managing editor at Wealth Gang. He has a degree in finance and a passion for creating passive income streams and wealth management.