May 23, 2023 - General Availability

Snapchat has introduced a new placement called Spotlight. Spotlight is a section within the Snapchat app that features short videos, similar to TikTok or YouTube shorts. You can now choose Spotlight as a placement for your ads, which means that the ads in the ad set are eligible to appear in that section of the app. Please note that the 'automatic' placement includes all available placements, including Spotlight.

Key benefits

With an additional placement for your ads, you can reach a wider audience.

Changes in Smartly.io

When creating an ad set for Snapchat, you will now find a new selection under Placement -> Custom -> Between content: Spotlight

Limitations

Spotlight placement must be used in combination with either User Stories or Publisher & Creator Stories. You can't select it without either of the two others.

Impact and actions needed

No impact.

June 01, 2023 - General Availability

Automated Snapchat assets, including campaigns, ad sets, and ads, now have a configurable publishing strategy. When automation is enabled, you can choose how to handle conflicts between the automation blueprint and the asset. You have the option to either keep or override values that were changed outside the feed.

In December 2022, we introduced Automated Ads (AA) for campaigns and ad sets, in addition to the existing ad-level automation. Our initial release strategy assumed that the blueprint and feed were always correct. If a conflict arose between the asset and the blueprint, automation would rectify the ad to align with the blueprint.

For example, if an ad blueprint had an active status, but the customer manually paused the ad in Snapchat Ads Manager, the automation would detect the discrepancy during feed processing and restore the ad to an active state.

However, we quickly learned that this approach was not optimal. Customers expressed a desire for more control to override the actions set up by automation. In addition to managing things from the ads manager, this also prevented status changes or bulk updates in reporting and the use of Predictive Budget Allocation (PBA) in automated ad sets.

Key benefits

With the new publishing strategy, "keep values changed outside of feed," you can now:

• Update assets in Snapchat Ads Manager.
• Change statuses in the reporting view.
• Perform bulk actions in reporting.
• Utilize Predictive Budget Allocation (PBA) for automated ad sets.

By manually updating a field in an asset, you can inform the automation not to modify that specific field in the asset going forward. Any changes you make to that field in the feed will no longer be reflected in the asset. Other fields will continue to be automated. By switching to the "override changes" strategy, automation will resume for overridden fields.

Since most expect the ability to override automation, we have decided to make "keep changes" the new default strategy for automation. We have also migrated all existing blueprints to use this strategy. If desired, you can edit the blueprints and switch back to the "override changes" strategy to revert to the previous behavior.

Changes in Smartly.io

In Snapchat campaigns, when you enable automation for the campaign, ad set or ad, the asset will have an extra card called "Advanced publishing rules". With it, you can select if the automation should keep or override changes outside of the feed and blueprint.

Limitations

Currently no known limitations.

Impact and actions needed

All existing automated assets have been migrated to the "keep changes" strategy. This is what most want. If you want this publishing strategy as well, then no actions are needed.

If you want to go back to the "override changes" strategy, then you can edit the blueprint, expand the "Advanced publishing rules" -card and select "Override values changed  outside of feed." After publishing, the automation will revert all changes done to the assets outside of feed or automation.

Related articles

Make changes to Snapchat automated ads

Automate Snapchat ads

May 4, 2023 - General Availability

Creative Template Editor now supports changing the volume level for video and audio layers. The volume controller can adjust the volume in 2 ways, either by a volume fader or by input values. The values controlled are 0 - 100%. Once the fader has moved by the user, the input value changes as well and shows the volume level and vice versa.

The change recreates the audio or video file used in the layer with the new volume level. This allows the user to download the HTML5 bundle with the assets set at the correct volume levels.

Changes in Smartly.io

New Volume control in Creative Template Editor.

Limitations

• For now it is only possible to reduce volume.
• Volume modification comes into effect with a small delay, as a modified audio file is fetched from the server.

Impact and actions needed

No actions are needed from you.

Related articles

Volume Management in Creative Template Editor

In the Smartly.io reporting tool, you can now sort your report by multiple metrics:

1. First, sort your top dimension based on a column of your choosing
2. In the sorting menu of the Dimensions column, select "Lock top dimension sorting"
3. Now, sort the other dimensions by another column

In the example below, we have:

• first sorted the campaigns by highest spend
• then locked the campaign sorting
• then sorted the Date rows alphabetically (to have dates listed chronologically)

It is now possible to see your Server-to-Server (S2S) conversions, together with Meta statistics, broken down by the hour (in ad account time zone) in the Reporting view. Simply add the dimension "Hour (S2S & Meta)" to your report. It breaks down the S2S and Meta metrics (and those only) selected in the report, onto hourly rows titled e.g. "12:00:00 – 12:59:59".

Value-adds

With more granular insights into how your ads perform intra-day, you can:

• identify good & bad times-of-day for certain types of ads, to learn about user behavior, and take manual action

• use Triggers to pause ads based on their CPA for part of the day

• battle the global trend of Signal Loss in online advertising measurement

Requirements and limitations

• The dimension only breaks down server-to-server (S2S) and Meta metrics
  • Other metrics are grouped into their own row labeled "(Empty)"

• You need S2S data that is not aggregated

  • In other words, S2S events sent using the Aggregate Mode can not be broken down by the hour

  • On the other hand, if you are using the "regular" S2S API, you already have hourly breakdowns available

• The Hourly breakdowns for Meta stats are fetched live, so you have the regular limitations for fetching live metrics:

  • You can’t use other live metrics dimensions with this dimension

  • Large queries might take a long time and/or fail – avoid using this dimension as the top dimension

Read more about S2S metrics here.

Earlier, you could share reports to your colleagues in Smartly.io, but only the original owner of the report was able to make changes.

Now you can give company-wide editing rights to your report by using the same "Share" button. This makes collaboration in reporting a lot easier, as colleagues can improve on others' work. The report owner going on vacation is no longer a problem.

The "Share" button on the bottom left corner of Reporting view now opens a dialog that gives you 3 options:

• No access: the report is private to only you
• Can view: anyone in your company can find and view the report
• Can edit: anyone in your company can find, view and edit the report

Important to note:

• To view or edit a report, a user also needs access to the ad accounts included in the report
• Other users can still make clones of the report, that they now own, and are able to edit
  • Edits made in duplicates will not be reflected in the original report

Read more in the main article: Share your report with others

November 18, 2022 - Alpha

Keyframe is a point which determines certain transformation attributes of an object. In our use case the attributes are position, scale, rotation or opacity.

Keyframing is widely used to enable custom animations. 

What’s the value to you?

• Ease of use: intuitive and easy to use layer panel to define attributes to keyframe;
• Scaling: Use dynamic fields with data sheets preserving the motion graphics you created; 
• Creative freedom: control how you’d like your final creative to look like.

Limitations

• Currently you can’t use Animation Presets and Keyframes for the same layer;
• Scaling cannot be adjusted from the canvas.

Impact and actions needed

Every user has the opportunity to sign in for the alpha via a tooltip right next to the Animation preset panel. You can mouse hover the tooltip, and apply via the link - We will then provide an answer within the next 3 days. 

You can always give us feedback about the feature via email: keyframing_feedback@smartly.io

October 02, 2022 - General Availability

We've improved our text formatting capabilities for image and video templates. You can now apply multiple styles to the same text layer, as follows: 

• Static text: You can apply formatting at the character level.
• Dynamic text: You can apply formatting to the value of the feed column.

You can use this functionality for your new and cloned templates. 

Limitations

Doesn't support modular text (only Feed).

Related articles

https://support.smartly.io/hc/en-us/articles/4481344146332

August 03, 2022 - General Availability

You can now hide/see and lock/unlock actions directly on the new layer list. You can perform the previous available actions like select, rearrange, while having a clear overview of your template's layers.

For video templates, this list can be collapsed.

Changes in Smartly.io

You will now see a new layer list for both image and video templates.

For Video Templates:

For Image Templates:

Limitations

No known limitations at the moment.

Impact and actions needed

No actions are needed from you.

April 8, 2022 - General Availability

Smartly.io now provides support for a new native Snapchat feature, the ability to build multi-format ad sets. Multi-format ad sets allow you to mix and match different kinds of ads within the same ad sets, such as:

• Single, story, and collection ads
• Dynamic single, dynamic story, and dynamic collection ads
• Commercial & Extended Play Commercial ads
• All different lens ads

Creative types in each of the categories above can be mixed and matched within an ad set. You can't combine dynamic and static ads, or Lens and single ads in the same ad sets, etc. Smartly.io and Snap will be removing some of these limitations in 2022. When building an ad set, the optimization goal must be applicable to all the creatives within the ad set.

Key benefits

Save time, reduce manual errors, and drive better performance! 

With Snapchat Multi-format ad sets, you can cut the manual work and reduce time spent when needing to create multiple ad sets, since there's no need to reconfigure ad set properties (i.e. location, audience, budget) for each format.

Additionally, improve ad performance by optimizing delivery to users from the same ad set, as Snapchat is unable to make optimization on ad delivery between multiple ad sets. 

Changes in Smartly.io

Ad format has been moved from ad set configuration to ad configuration, which allows you to select the format individually for each ad

On ad set level, there is a new selection for choosing ad set ad format restriction between

1. Single Image or Video Ads, Story Ads and Collection Ads
2. Filters
3. AR Lenses

Limitations

Snapchat has a limitation that Filters are not allowed within a multi-format ad set. You have to set up a separate ad set to support these ad formats. Also iOS (SKAdNetwork) campaigns are limited out. These limitations extend to Smartly.io as well.

Snap, and consequentially Smartly.io, is working in 2022 to remove all of these limitations. 

Impact and actions needed

No actions are needed from you. 

Related articles

Adding new creatives to Snapchat campaigns

March 10, 2022 - General Availability

Previously, our Snapchat customers were only able to edit ads in Smartly.io platform and had to log in to Snapchat Ads Manager to edit ad sets and campaigns. In our continuous efforts to make the Snapchat experience smoother, we've built in the capability to edit Snapchat campaigns and ad sets directly within Smartly.io, without needing to jump into Snapchat Ads Manager or clone data.

Key benefits

With the ability to edit existing Snapchat campaigns and ad sets within the Smartly.io platform, you can save time and streamline campaign processes. Here are a few other benefits:

• Reduce the need to clone campaigns or ad sets and then make configurations
• Reduce going back and forth between Smartly.io and Snapchat Ads Manager 
• Reduce manual archiving of old/incorrect ad sets in Snapchat Ads Manager
• Keep track of your edit history

Changes in Smartly.io

When you select a campaign, ad set or ad in Campaigns view, you'll see an "Edit" button. After you click any of these, the Edit button will open into a full editor view with the whole campaign in the editor, but only preselect the campaign/ad set/ad that you had originally chosen to edit. 

Once the edits have been made, review changes and click "Publish". 

Limitations

Currently no known limitations. 

Impact and actions needed

There are no actions needed from your end.