Snapchat still holds a paradoxical place in e-commerce strategies: regularly part of the discussion, but rarely assessed at the level of its real contribution.
To move past preconceptions, tigrz ran a performance study over four consecutive semesters, analysing investments across five verticals: Beauty, Fashion, Retail, Premium Luxury and E-commerce. The aim: to measure, with data, the platform’s real business contribution.
Moving beyond the Google / Meta trade-off
Media management is often organised around the two major platforms. A natural approach, which nonetheless benefits from opening up to other levers of efficiency.
The study did not seek to name a winning platform, but to assess each one with its strengths and specificities, in order to identify the best combination of levers. In this logic of complementarity, Snapchat stands out: the platform reaches audiences with little overlap with Meta and Google, which can be mobilised in a genuine social commerce dynamic, and enriches the acquisition base without replacing existing channels.
Reading performance beyond last-click
The first lesson concerns measurement. Last-click, still central in advertisers’ management, captures only part of the value generated by social platforms.
The mechanism is well known: a user discovers a product in the app, adds it to the basket, then completes the purchase later on another device. The conversion is then attributed to another channel, and the platform at the origin of the intent no longer appears. Reading social solely through the lens of last-click thus leads to underestimating its real contribution, particularly for video formats that feed deferred intent.
The second, complementary lesson: the data reported by Snapchat is among the most aligned in the panel with site-centric data. The platform can therefore be fully activated according to market measurement standards. It is a sign of strong maturity: where the gaps between platform data and backend data were marked a few years ago, trends today largely converge, bringing optimisations closer to business reality.
Confirmed effectiveness in prospecting and retail
The last two lessons concern performance. In prospecting, Snapchat addresses complementary audiences and performs at several stages of the funnel, making it a useful lever to broaden acquisition.
In retail, the platform shows particularly competitive acquisition and add-to-cart costs, combining media effectiveness with cost control. All elements that shift the question: it is no longer about whether Snapchat works, but about defining the best way to integrate it into the mix.
Strategic recommendation
For advertisers, the stake now lies in integration. Rather than a one-off activation, Snapchat benefits from being part of a global media approach: defining upfront what you want to measure and incrementally drive, working on complementarities with Search, Meta and the other platforms, and adopting an incremental investment logic that supports prospecting.
Implementation has become much simpler: existing assets can be reused quickly, and product tools, DPA and AI solutions speed up deployment. The most effective path remains the same: invest with ambition, learn fast, and scale what works. Snapchat thus asserts itself as a mature, full-fledged growth lever in advertisers’ media mix.
Going further. This topic continues with our approach to tracking, first-party data and AI, our media effectiveness measurement methods and the Bouygues Telecom client case.
On the same topic: « Drive-to-store: when Snapchat makes it possible to measure the real in-store impact of campaigns for Bouygues Telecom » and « [Guide] Use Snapchat now to boost your year-end sales ».
Keywords
