Snap Publisher opens up to everyone

The ad creation tool had previously only been tested by a handful of small businesses.

The makers of the photo- and video-sharing app Snapchat have opened up its Snap Publisher ad creation tool, making it available to anyone on the platform.

Dubbed part “Final Cut” and part “After Effects” by Snap Inc., the browser-based tool allows users to edit and animate Snap Ads for user’s feeds.

The tool had previously been tested by only a handful of small businesses, according to the company. It can convert horizontal videos into Snap Ads, enhance videos with text, images and animations and provides templates aligned with Snap Ads best practices.

Snapchat posted revenue of $149.65 million for Q1 of 2017, nearly tripling that from Q1 2016 ($38.8 million), but missed expectations for the quarter – the first time it reported financials as a public company. While ads from major brands in the app’s Discover section accounted for approximately half of that Q1 revenue, the Snap Publisher tool now expands the pool of potential advertisers on the platform to anyone with a web browser.

According to Millward Brown figures from Q1, Snap Ads were 1.6 times above its norms for brand favourability and 1.5 times above for intent to take an action. Snapchat reports that it has approximately 65 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada. The company doesn’t break out app users for Canada publicly.

According to its IPO, Snapchat has approximately 160 million active users opening its app 18 times daily. However, it has faced increasing competition from rival Instagram in recent months, with the Facebook-owned company adding similar options like disappearing stories and face filters to its own products.

Snap Publisher is now accessible within Snap’s Ad Manager.

Image: Shutterstock