Snapchat Pro Edition: How to Measure the Value of Your Snapchat Stories

May 9, 2019

Stephen Dawson

What types of marketing tactics are getting your Stories the most attention? Are you moving in the right direction? What can you learn about your audience?


Snapchat used to make it pretty hard for social media marketers to answer these questions—which led people to 3rd party analytics sites like Snaplytics. However, in early 2018, Snapchat introduced ‘Insights’, which allows users with large followings to analyze their ROI. While not perfect, it offers insight into your day-to-day promotions and the demographics of Snapchatters that see your content.

Accessing Snapchat Insights & How Each Metric Can Help You!

To get to the Insights page, click on your Bitmoji in the top left corner of the app’s main camera screen—then click on Insights! For now, this page is only available to users who have reached a certain threshold with their followers—effectively bestowing them with that coveted influencer status.

At the top you can see stats about your Views

  • Story Views: The total amount of views* you’ve received YTD (Year-to-date) starting January 1st. ‘Week’ includes the last 7 days. ‘Month’ is the last 28 days. This is an indicator of how popular your content is, ideally you want this to trend upward over time.
  • View Time: Time (in minutes!) spent viewing your stories YTD. Likewise under ‘Week’ will include minutes from the last 7 days. ‘Month’ includes times from the last 28 days

*A ‘Story view’ is counted as any time your Story was opened and viewed. So, if someone tapped on your Story to view it twice in Discover and once in Search, then you’d have three Story views.

In the middle section swipe to see info regarding your Reach.

  • Reach: The amount of unique Snapchatters who viewed your story on specific days. Watch and record your Reach to gauge how you’re growing over time. This can also help determine if you should emphasize certain days that your viewers tend to engage with you more.
  • Average View Time: How long these viewers watched your stories on average. This can help define what content is most compelling to your fans and how long you should make your content.
  • Story View Percentage: The amount of viewers that watched your Story from start to finish. You want to keep this number as close to 100% as possible. Also helps guide whether your stories are engaging enough all the way though.

At the bottom, you’ll see your viewers segmented into men and women along with the age range you are most popular with. Click the ‘See More’ arrow to get more detailed information on your audience.

  • Age: See what age groups you’re most popular with, segmenting between men, women or both.
  • Lifestyle: Snapchat has over 100+ different categories it sorts people into depending on their interests. Here it displays your top subscribers interests and how much they deviate from the average.
  • Popular Regions: Shows what area most of your viewers reside.

Influencers & Snap Ads

Not only can these metrics help you understand what content and tactics are most engaging to your audience, but it reveals details about your audience to you. This can be used to identify ideal targets for Snap Ads—and get you the most bang for your buck.

When working with influencers, you can request screenshots of their pages to help determine who’s a good fit to entertain your audience. People with similar demographic and interests can help you reach new people through Story takeovers!

Looking to stand out in a sea of social media brands? AccessAR is an Official Snapchat Lens Creative Partner. Find out how to get your own Snapchat Lens experience for your next campaign!

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