Brand Advertising Through Measurable Social Media with Snap Inc.’s Alanna Handelman

Summary

The CPG Guys Podcast Summary

Episode: Brand Advertising Through Measurable Social Media with Snap Inc.’s Alanna Handelman
Release Date: August 2, 2025
Hosts: Peter V.S. Bond & Sri Rajagopalan
Guest: Alana Handelman, Head of Commerce in Canada Mid Market at Snap Inc.

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with a brief announcement by Shree Rajagopalan about the upcoming Big Grocery Shop Kickoff Party in Las Vegas on September 28th, highlighting the event as a significant gathering for industry leaders. This sets the stage for the podcast's focus on consumer goods and retail media.

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Guest Introduction

Peter V.S. Bond introduces Alana Handelman, an experienced leader in commerce at Snap Inc., emphasizing her role in driving Snap's mid-sized customer base across North America. Alana brings extensive experience from her eight-plus years at Snap, including launching the brand in Canada and evolving ad products. She is recognized in Marketing Magazine's 30 Under 30 list and resides in Toronto with her family.

Notable Quote:

Alana Handelman [03:23]: "I may, I maybe would rather be in Disneyland in Paris, but this is an excellent, excellent alternative."

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Understanding Snapchat's Audience

The conversation begins with a common misconception: Snapchat is often perceived as solely a platform for Gen Z. Alana counters this by highlighting Snapchat's diverse user base.

Key Points:

• User Demographics:
  • 900 million monthly active users.
  • 80% are over 18 years old.
  • 25% are aged 35 and above.
• Spending Power: The Snapchat generation in the US alone wields $2.2 trillion in spending power.
• User Growth: Snapchat is nearing the 1 billion user milestone, up from 850 million.

Notable Quote:

Alana Handelman [05:13]: "Snapchat is entering its 14th year and what we've seen is that snapchatters continue to come to the app because of this idea around connectivity."

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Advertising Strategies on Snapchat

Alana outlines how brands, especially mid-tier ones, can leverage Snapchat's platform for both awareness and conversion.

Key Points:

• Full Funnel Growth: Brands can drive awareness, consideration, and conversion using Snapchat’s self-serve ads platform.
• Creative Engagement: Emphasis on "thumb-stopping" creative content, including video ads, user-generated content, and polished product shots.
• Creator Partnerships: Snapchat invests heavily in creator-based offerings, allowing brands to collaborate with influencers to enhance engagement.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [12:25]: "Whether that is creators coming, whether that is creator-based content... there's tons of ways to use your creative to actually help draw attention."

Alana Handelman [13:09]: "Sponsored Snaps... have actually become our highest reach takeover placement."

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Snapchat in the Retail Media Ecosystem

The discussion shifts to Snapchat’s role within the broader retail media landscape, addressing budget allocations and partnerships with retailers and agencies.

Key Points:

• Integration with Retail: Snapchat assists brands in driving sales both directly through D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) channels and through retail partners.
• Agency Collaboration: Encourages agencies to diversify ad investments across multiple platforms, highlighting Snapchat’s unique audience.
• Measurement and Attribution: Emphasizes the importance of strong signal quality (e.g., Snap Pixel, Conversions API) for accurate measurement of ROI and sales lift.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [14:12]: "Snapchatters tend to be quite hard to find on other platforms... open up their investments and start to look at how they have a presence across multiple different touch points."

Alana Handelman [24:09]: "We want to make sure that all of our brands coming to Snapchat are able to see really high ROI from the platform."

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Personalization and AI in Advertising

Alana delves into how Snapchat utilizes personalization and artificial intelligence to enhance ad effectiveness.

Key Points:

• Personalization Focus: Ensuring the right ad reaches the right person at the right time through advanced signal boosting.
• AI Integration: Leveraging AI to analyze user behavior and optimize ad placements across various Snapchat components like chat and camera.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [16:59]: "We are serving the right ad to the right person at the right time... through signals."

Alana Handelman [18:24]: "The Snap app has so many different components and surfaces within it... it allows us to really find that right Snapchat or where they are and where they're likely to take the action."

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Advertising Products and Inventory

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Snapchat’s unique advertising products, categorized into Content, Camera, and new Inventory Units.

Key Points:

• Content Ads: Vertical video ads suitable for various funnel stages, from impressions to purchases.
• Camera Features: Augmented Reality (AR) lenses and filters that provide immersive brand experiences.
• Sponsored Snaps: Innovative inventory units that allow brands to appear within individual chats, ensuring contextual and personalized engagement.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [19:13]: "Our ad products are almost even more so when I think about our ad products."

Alana Handelman [22:21]: "Sponsored Snaps... is a way for brands to be able to enter the chat."

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Measurement, Attribution, and ROI

The hosts address challenges in measuring advertising effectiveness, particularly in the context of retail media.

Key Points:

• Shift from Vanity Metrics: Moving focus from likes and shares to meaningful business outcomes like sales lift and incremental impact.
• Signal Quality: Emphasizing robust signal integration (e.g., Snap Pixel, CAPI) to ensure accurate attribution and measurement.
• Common Frameworks: Recognizing the industry's need for standardized measurement frameworks to validate media spend.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [26:48]: "We have really been hyper fixated on... ensuring that data passes back in quality is there."

Alana Handelman [28:39]: "New to brand, incremental everything... that's where the industry will continue to lean into quite heavily."

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Full Funnel Marketing Approach

Alana advocates for a comprehensive full funnel marketing strategy, integrating both upper and lower funnel activities to maximize impact.

Key Points:

• Consumer Journey: Taking consumers from awareness to consideration to conversion seamlessly.
• Avoiding Funnel Overload: Ensuring each stage of the funnel is addressed distinctly rather than overloading lower funnel tactics.
• AI and Personalization: Utilizing AI to enhance each stage of the funnel with personalized interactions.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [30:42]: "A full funnel perspective... helps shape every piece of that funnel."

Alana Handelman [33:19]: "Our company's really focused on AI to help supercharge everything that we're doing in really thoughtful ways."

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Getting Started with Snapchat Advertising

In the concluding segment, Alana outlines the straightforward process for brands to begin advertising on Snapchat.

Steps to Activate:

1. Visit Ads Manager: Navigate to ads.snapchat.com to access the self-service platform.
2. Setup: Complete the onboarding process within approximately 10 minutes.
3. Integrations: Utilize third-party integrations like Shopify to connect your storefront.
4. Support: Access white glove service through account managers for tailored assistance and campaign optimization.
5. Training: Take advantage of self-serve guided courses and certifications to enhance campaign effectiveness.

Notable Quotes:

Alana Handelman [35:51]: "Within about 10 minutes you will be fully set up and ready to go for your Snap campaigns."

Alana Handelman [37:27]: "We offer what I will call white glove service... to make activating on Snap even easier than you think it is."

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Conclusion

Peter and Shree wrap up the episode by reiterating key statistics and encouraging listeners to engage with Snapchat advertising through the provided resources. They emphasize the importance of leveraging Snapchat’s unique strengths in a fragmented digital landscape to drive meaningful consumer engagement and sales.

Final Thoughts:

Peter V.S. Bond [36:10]: "Those are no joke and people should pay attention. And more importantly, I also think of contextuality in the world of cpg..."

Alana Handelman [35:46]: "By being contextually relevant and by having your brand show up where those conversations are happening..."

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Key Takeaways

• Diverse Audience: Snapchat's user base extends beyond Gen Z, encompassing a significant portion of adults aged 35+ with substantial spending power.
• Full Funnel Marketing: Effective advertising on Snapchat requires a balanced approach addressing awareness, consideration, and conversion.
• Innovative Ad Products: Snapchat offers unique advertising formats like Sponsored Snaps and AR lenses that enhance engagement.
• Measurement and ROI: Focus on meaningful metrics such as sales lift and incremental impact, supported by robust signal integration.
• Ease of Use: Snapchat’s Ads Manager facilitates a straightforward setup with ample support and training resources.

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For more information or to get started with Snapchat advertising, visit ads.snapchat.com as mentioned by Alana Handelman in the episode.

Transcript

[Shree Rajagopalan]

If you're planning on attending grocery shop this fall, make sure to arrive in Las Vegas mid afternoon on Sunday, September 28th. That way you'll be able to attend the Big Grocery Shop Kickoff Party being hosted by the CPG Guys in partnership with Rethink Retail. The party runs Sunday, September 28th from 6:30 to 8:30pm Our kickoff party is where all the industry luminaries customarily gather to celebrate the beginning of this annual event. In the coming weeks, we'll provide more details on how to register and how to sponsor. In the meantime, make sure your travel plans ensure your arrival in Las Vegas to join us for the Kickoff Party.

[Alana Handelman]

Hi, it's Alana Handelman, Head of Commerce in Canada Mid Market at Snapchat and you're listening to the CPG Guys Podcast.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your host, Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Bond explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Hello and welcome to this episode of the CPG Guys. Of course sri, your co host and co founder of CRO of Think Blue Consulting, your partner to growth whether Retail Media Omnichannel or Back to Basics in Store. We are here for you. Get in touch with me@shree thinkblueconsulting co. That's again Sri thinkblueconsulting co. Not com not joining me today is my co founder of the CPG Guys, Mr. Peter V S Bond and why he's not he's actually with his daughter and family out in Paris at Disneyland and when he's not podcasting he leads the client engagement at Flywheel, the Commerce accelerated division of Omnicom. Please do listen to my older daughter Rhea Raj's music. Www.rhearaj.com Rha Rha and Lara Raj, my younger daughter as a member of the Geffen Records Group, Cat's Eye, who of course is another worldwide super hit Gnarly. They just launched their album just yesterday. Beautiful Chaos, the new one and you can catch up with all of that whether it's on YouTube or any of the streaming media platforms. Before we get to our guests, we want to ask you to consider following us in your preferred podcast listening app if you already don't do so. And of course now let's get to our guest. Alana Edelman is head of US Commerce in Canada Mid Market Sales at Snap Inc. The the parent company is Snapchat. She leads an impactful team focused on developing Snap's mid sized customer base in North America. In the eight plus years at Snap, Alana has participated in almost every iteration of growth at the company, from overseeing the brand launch in Canada, which is awesome, to the ad product evolution and many initiatives in between. Her impact has aided advertisers and media diversification, connecting them to a happy and engaged community only found on Snapchat. Prior to Snap, Alana built a deep understanding of digital and social media Marketing and MasterCard. She was named to Marketing magazine's 30 under 30 list in 2016, one that I never made much mark on and the Peaks emerging leader list in 2025 make that too, that I didn't make my mark on. Alana is based in Toronto, Canada where she and her husband raised two kids under six. Fun phase of Life Join us in welcoming Alana handelman, head of U.S. commerce and Canada Mid Market Sales at Snap to the show. Alana, welcome to the CPG guys. How you doing?

[Alana Handelman]

I am good. Thank you so much for having me today. I may, I maybe would rather be in Disneyland in Paris, but this is a excellent, excellent alternative.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Wait, wait, wait. You're saying you'd rather be in Disneyland than Paris than be with the CPG guys?

[Alana Handelman]

I mean, my 6 year old would want me to say yes, so I'm going to, I'm going to defer to her right now.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know, you know what, Alana? You're in the fun phase of life and the kids are both below six.

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, I have a three year old and a six year old.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You have to deposit time with them now because mine are 25 and 21 is in Paris this week at Paris Fashion Week and the other one is actually recording videos for the new album launch. Beautiful chaos with product cats eye. If I get five minutes with them in a day or a week, I count it as a blessing. So I'm waiting for our vacation next week as we head to the Caribbean. But yeah, for sure, Alana, fun phase of life. Make the most of it with the children, of course. In the digital liner notes of this episode, we'll include links to your LinkedIn profile and your company's corporate websites for our listeners to access or we go on with the conversation because that's what people do. Everybody access stuff on the go. So ready Alana, Here we go. This is a fun episode for me because we're going to do some Gen Z talk right up front. And so marketers that still think of Snapchat, I hear it again and again and again from people and it's so annoying when they say Snapchat is just for Gen Z. My mom uses Snapchat and she ain't Gen Z. So when what do you say to marketers who still say and think of Snapchat is just for Gen Z? Tell us about the audience proposition.

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah. And thank you so much for kicking off with that and also sharing that anecdote about your mom. I know my, my father and my mother in law are, are also both very active daily snapchatters. They are very, very involved in our group chat and that's why I'm so happy to dig into our audience first.

[Peter V. S Bond]

They found it's the best way to stay in touch with their grandkids. Simple.

[Alana Handelman]

It is, it is. And we're going to dive into that. I think how I really want to leave you and your listeners with an understanding of our audience is by focusing on a couple of different areas. We'll dig into the audience and the demographics first, go into connectivity and then also talk a bit about spending power, which is I think is a missing area of a lot of marketers when they start to think about who's on snap. So to kick it off, Snapchat reaches 900 million monthly active users. About 80% of those 900 million are over the age of 18 and 1 in 4 Snapchat are 35 plus. I know that was a lot of numbers. So 900 million monthly active, 80% are 18 plus and in 1 in 4 are 35 plus.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So 1 in 4, 1 in 4 actually 35 plus. So if I did the mental math there, that's over 225 million, give or take.

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah. And I think that's usually the part where I start to see our partners and even just friends that I'm talking to's eyebrows kind of go up because they do really, as you said, think about it as just teenagers or Gen Z as a whole. They don't really consider how our audience has really grown up with the platform. Snapchat is entering its 14th year and what we've seen is that snapchatters continue to come to the app because of this idea around connectivity. We've always referred to the platform as a close friends or a best friends network. Right. It's where our community is coming to talk to those that matter most. To them, it could be their best friends, it could be their grandkids, as you mentioned about your mom. But this is really a place where you come to talk to those who matter most to you. And that real core use case around connectivity is what keeps our audience so sticky. It actually has them growing up with our platform. So Snapchatters who actually joined the app while they were in high school or college are now getting married, having kids, buying houses. They're in this very different phase of life because they've really evolved as our platform has grown up. And it's that kind of stickiness that has also helped them bring their friends along for the ride and has contributed so much to the growth that we're seeing on the platform. And as this kind of phase of life goes, it's also the spending power, right? We have 2.2 trillion in spending power with the Snapchat generation in the US alone. So I think that's important to know is that they've aged up and they have money to spend to buy all of the amazing products out in the market.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Those are the big numbers. 2.2 plus trillion is a big, big number to work with. And so how's the march to the big b going? The 1 billion from 900 million it is.

[Alana Handelman]

We are definitely progressing there and that is very much our goal. In our recent earnings, we shared that we have gone from 850 million monthly active users to 900 million monthly active users. So we're definitely seeing that continued growth of the platform. And again, a big piece of that is the retention and real stickiness of that connectivity factor, which also helps bring in everyone's new friends. Because Snapchat is definitely more fun when you're talking to those who matter most to you.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So if you're talking those sort of numbers with a spending power of over $2 trillion, I think 2.2 is where we landed. Somewhere in that vicinity. Surely it can drive awareness and conversion for CPG brands. Right. So there are large brands and then there are mid tier brands. Right. I'd like to start first with how can mid tier brands leverage that spending power by anchoring on y' all for that awareness and for consideration.

[Alana Handelman]

It's a great question and this is an area where my team and I love to really dig into how to do this with all of our brand partners. When it comes to Snap, we have focused really thoughtfully on building out a self serve ads platform that allows brands of all sizes to come on and find success across the funnel. Every brand is going to be in a bit of a different evolution or focus area in terms of what they're trying to drive. And what we find particularly within the CPG space is that many of our partners are focused on full funnel growth. So they're going to be driving those awareness campaigns to really help shift and shape hearts and minds to draw awareness for the products as well as create consideration and preference for them. And then we see those same advertisers really help take that audience down funnel to really help contribute to that bottom line sales goal and really be able to elicit that purchase either from a d2c.com environment or or drive to retailers websites or in store experiences and be able to measure it through that tech stack focusing really heavily on owned and operated as well as third party integrations that really help boost signals.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Basically you can drive anywhere DTC as well as a retailer.com, to the product. That's what it is. Is there a difference between the awareness and conversion? What I'm hearing here is full funnel marketing. Is there a difference between a mid tier or large band or is the offering the same?

[Alana Handelman]

The offerings for both are the same. So everyone has access to the exact same products at Snap and all of our customers also have access to support and white glove service from all of our reps. We've really structured ourselves to be able to serve our CPG and brand partners across all verticals of all sizes. So whether you are a large brand, mid tier brand, or maybe a newer emerging brand, you can always find that support on Snap to really help guide you and and beyond what you just see within our ads platform. So you have access to the same tools, you have access to the same support and we really work with you to help tap into what are the products and solutions that are going to help meet that goal that you have and really help show success by however you are demarking that success on any.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Platform and along up to that point, are there particular categories which are better suited for this form of full funnel marketing or is it endemic, non endemic? Is it apparel, is it fragrance? In your mind, are there specific categories that would benefit the most if you're a mid tier brand?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, it's a great question. What I'm really proud of is that we have really seen our partners across all categories be able to drive growth from the platform. When you think again about the Snapchat generation, you think about the vast size of this audience and the engagement that they have. They're really hungry to find new experiences experiences and be exposed to new things and really share those with their family and friends that they're talking to on the platform. So one of the biggest ways that brands have really been able to showed up on Snap is to really focus on what I love to call thumb stopping creative, right? Whether that is creators coming, whether that is creator based content so video ads coming from creators, whether that is other forms of user generated creative, whether it is polished ads, perhaps product shots that are created with a little bit more of a kind of focus and flare to drive that thumb stopping nature, there's tons of ways to use your creative to actually help draw attention and then push our community further down the funnel based on however you've chosen to optimize your ad, whether that's to video views, purchases, lead generation, et cetera.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And so the way this would work is within the app itself there's a possibility that you could also use digital creator ads.

[Alana Handelman]

Yes.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And do you see that often?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah. Something that we have really been leaning into and investing in heavily is our creator based offerings. We have some alphas out right now as well as some generally available tools that allow our brand partners to connect in with the vast creator network that exists within the Snapchat environment. And using our self serve tools like ads manager, brands can go in and and actually help work with creators who are able to then go and create that content on behalf of the brand and really create a different sort of awareness phase which I think we've seen really proliferated across the social and digital space.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So I got an interesting budget question for you. The way shopper marketing is evolving these days is a lot of attention. The whole industry. You know, I was at Can Lions last week. I'm guessing you were to or the team was at least because I met with them. The talk of the town, the talk of the industry is retail media and budgets are all shifting towards that. Again, there's an argument in the industry whether it's trade, whether it's media, but there's no doubt retail media is sucking up a lot of oxygen when it comes to media, period. Where does Snap fit within that retail media picture? What would be your advice to brands as well as agencies who actually create and place the ads for brands? Obviously retail media today is mostly on site. It's really search and banner ads and steadily retailers are understanding the importance for off site. Now do you partner with retailers? How do you think of the entire retail media ecosystem? How do you justify that Snap should be part of those budgets and do you partner with agencies?

[Alana Handelman]

That's a great question and lots to dig into there. I think to kick it off, it's nothing new that brands, especially within the CPG space are often launching their direct to consumer experiences first and then taking more of that retail push or that retail deal. And what we've been focused on on our side is really working closely with our partners to understand their goaling, their priorities and what success really looks like to them in a D2C as well as within a retail environment for more of those growth stage and emerging brands. This is, as we discussed, where we really see this kind of flow, full funnel push. And that includes how we are actually putting together campaigns to drive thoughtful traffic and sales to both the D2C environment as well as to the retail space, and really helping to match and meet on those commitments that a lot of these brands have with their retail partners, but more importantly, be able to drive those results for them. So by using our tool suite that we have available, they're able to really figure out what does my entire business look like? Where do I need to be able to support and drive the sales from? And you can use all of our tools to be able to Support both your Owned.com as well as that retail space.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Is there a message you have for agencies that actually are doing the biome of retail media that why Snapchat should be part of that Mix when it.

[Alana Handelman]

Comes to why Snap should be part of the mix, it really goes down to what we talked about kind of first and foremost today, which is the audience when it comes to snapchatters. It's not just the scale that we have, but it's also the uniqueness of the audience. Snapchatters tend to be quite hard to find on other platforms. For example, in the US amongst Snapchatters 16 to 64 years old, 40% of them cannot be found on TikTok on a daily basis. And what we've started to really see with our agency partners as well as with our brand partners is this real shift away from just operating on one to two primary channels to really opening up their investments and starting to look at how they have a presence across multiple different touch points to really show up where their audience and prospective audience is. And that's really that main message that we've been driving home with all of our partners is to make sure they understand who is on Snap, how the Snapchat generation can really help contribute to their brand and business goals, and how they should be showing up on the platform in order to take advantage of that.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The other big word that floated around at Cannes lines and has been in the industry last year and a half in addition to retail media is personalization, especially when it comes to ad. Now I know individual personalized ads, while realistic, they're still unrealistic due to scale and cost until AI picks it up, which it appears that we're at the Cusp of that, how does Snap think about personalization?

[Alana Handelman]

It's a great question. From my very first days at Snap nearly eight years ago, or sorry, nearly nine years ago, what I have seen our teams focus on really heavily is this degree of personalization. And what I'd say that really looks like in our world is making sure we are serving the right ad to the right person at the right time and how a lot of that is really powered, of course comes through signals. So looking at different tools, whether that's owned and operated signal elements like the Snap Pixel or Snap Conversions API, whether that's working through third party integrations, for example, working with our Shopify app to really be able to bring your Shopify store to life on Snapchat and drive those direct results there. Whether it is working on building up your CRM list and really your direct to consumer communication standpoint and using some of our connectivity points and partners like Intuit's mailchimp, like Data Hash Leads Bridge and Zapier, which are some of the partnerships we have in place. We've really seen that by being able to enhance signal, you are able to drive those results that you're looking for to that right person at that right time in the right place. Place. The Snap app has so many different components and surfaces within it, from chat to camera to content. And it's really that signal boosting that allows us to really find that right Snapchat or where they are and where they're likely to take the action that you're looking for them to take.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So keeping that as the backdrop right. Snap is one of the various apps available in the marketplace today. There's a lot of social apps that generally consumers are browsing, spending time on, you know, scrolling, et cetera. So I'd love for brands, a large part of our audience here is brands to try and understand how you are uniquely positioned in that attention fragmented world to be the one that actually is an authority on attention overall. So one way we can do that is explain to us the various products you offer. The word inventory comes to mind. Ad inventory, if it makes sense at all. So what can brands and agencies think of in terms of inventory and tell them why you're uniquely qualified in that attention fragment augmented word to actually capture the attention.

[Alana Handelman]

I think is. This is one of the most exciting things I want to talk about today. Obviously our audience was so exciting to me, but our ad products are almost even more so when I think about our ad products. There's three main areas I want to focus with you on first is content, then camera and then our new inventory units. That word definitely resonates. But our new inventory units like Sponsored Snapshot, if we start off with content, this is very much, let's use a bit of a CPG pun, but let's use bread and butter in this scenario. But they're very much kind of the bread and butter of what every brand is going to be activating on on Snap. Snap offers vertical video ads across all of our content placements on the app. These are great ways again to create those thumb stopping opportunities and really be able to use the various backend tools that we have to create this high degree of personalization to make sure we are showing that right ad to the right person at that right time. And with our content ads, you're able to really use them to hit a variety of different goals. You can use them for anything top of funnel like impressions or video views. You can bring them into mid funnel for pixel page views and landing page views. And you can also bring them down funnel for things like app installs as well as purchases. If we move into the camera, the camera is a place I'd say that's very ubiquitous to snap. I think we're very well known for our augmented reality product products and that's really because they create such a fun and memorable experience for snapchatters. We allow brands to enter into that camera space through augmented reality products. We have our pre capture AR lenses and our post capture AR filters and these are great ways for brands who are really looking to drive more upper funnel goals to be able to engage snapchatters within augmented reality experience experiences that really immerse them within either the brand or their product. They can help show off usps or use cases for how to actually use that product in practice. And the last place, and I'm so excited about this one, is our newest inventory unit called Sponsored Snaps. Sponsored Snaps is a way for brands to be able to enter the chat. It allows them to show up just like a snapchatter and actually be able to engage within this really unique space space and be able to create these moments for snapchatters to see that brand imagery and message in a different way. We've seen very quickly that this has actually become our highest reach takeover placement. So this is a fantastic way for brands to be able to get in there again. It's available to brands big and small. It's available throughout our auction as well as from a takeover perspective. So it's a really, really great way for brands who are looking to be on the forefront of innovation and do something differently when it comes to that personalization. To show up as a snapchatter would.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Want to understand that one a little bit better. So I'm assuming because it appears in a snap, it's very contextual.

[Alana Handelman]

It's very contextual. That's where a lot of our AI investments in the background are really coming into play to make sure that we are showcasing the right message, getting again to the right person at the right time and making sure particularly within the chat that everything that's showing up there feels hyper relevant and personalized to the snapchatter.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And these appear in individual chats?

[Alana Handelman]

They appear in individual chats, yes, yes. So snapchatters have the opportunity to opt in as in they can actually choose to open up that snap. They can see that full screen video creative as well as get a personalized message from the brand to help take them further down funnel.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. So can the CPG guys expect these to pop up in their snaps in the future?

[Alana Handelman]

You sure can.

[Peter V. S Bond]

We'll take a screen capture and send it to you, Alana. Looking forward to that. A reminder to our audience that I'm speaking to Alana handelman, head of U.S. commerce in Canada mid market Sales at Snap Inc. So now let's go over to the retail side and let's start talking data. Because one of the other struggles I got to say again this has been around for a year or two now is I spoke a little bit about retail media and trying to ask you the question about how you fit within that ecosystem. But there's a lot of frustration in the industry on measurement frameworks, attribution, things of that nature, and justifying every dollar of media spend. Unfortunately, retail media is now buffered over into media spend and a lot of questions just asked about the validity of media measurement frameworks that exist in this modern digital world today. So how are you partnering with retailers or other data providers to kind of help close the loop on attribution so you can indeed calculate sales lift or other metrics, if any. Can you explain what those are that brands and agencies can leverage?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, that's a great question and an area that we have really been hyper fixated on with all of our partners for the past number of years. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that all of our brands coming to Snapchat are able to see really high ROI from the platform. But beyond just that high roi, know how to actually measure that success. So a lot of this comes down to understanding with the partner what is that demarcation of success for them. I think something that we've really experienced and witnessed over the past number of years is this shift in the industry from more kind of top of funnel more vanity metrics like likes, shares and comments into more impactful business driving metrics. And I think for Snap, that's actually really key and powerful because as you may know, Snap was always built very different from other social media platforms. While others really focused on this idea of kind of social visibility in the form of likes and followers and shares and comments, Snap really veered away from all of that. We were born at that dawn of social media and we wanted to stay away from this idea of a popularity contest. But when it came to looking at Snap performance and measuring it in the same way they were measuring other platforms, I think that's where brands really had to take that thoughtful pause and start to think about how should they be looking at that success on Snap and how can we really drive for that? And as we kind of shift forward over the years that main piece as you mentioned has been around how do we show that ROI and how do we really prove out that sales lift that Snap is driving? So the main way that we've been getting there with retail partners and other data partners is very much again on our favorite word signals. Signals boost all the performance that we are seeing across the board. Whether you're looking to measure the incremental impact, whether you're looking to measure the straight sales impact within your backend cms, whatever that looks like for you, it needs to rely on a strong signal quality to make sure that that data pass back in quality is there. So that's really been the number one thing we've been focused with our brand partners on, particularly in the CPG space, is making sure that all of the brand experiences and the sites that we're driving to have strong signals through the pixel, through capi, if there's an app component, through mobile measurement partners and really just making sure that all of the bones are there so that all those proliferation points which have very much so included again that geolift incrementality as well as some other solutions that are meant to more so measure in store sales through third party partners are in place.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So is the measurement frameworks any different for large brands versus mid tier brands or is the offering the same for everybody?

[Alana Handelman]

I'm guessing it is, yeah, good question. It is the same for everyone. What really changes and what our team likes to work with our partners on is just what is kind of that end outcome that we are looking for a lot of our kind of more emergent CPG brands are a little bit more focused I'd say on D2C and more select retail partners, whereas some of the larger brands have a much broader retail network in place and look at something a little bit more customized or larger in order to measure that impact. Impact.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So I talked a little bit about the closed loop attribution, sales lift etc but measurement is going to remain a concern now until there's a common framework in the industry for measuring media period. With retail media, social commerce, which you're a piece you're now a part of. So she has a fair to say Snap adds a social commerce at the.

[Alana Handelman]

End of the day, yeah, I definitely think we're playing within that space and have been for quite some time. I'd say that there continues to be new elements as to how how Snap as well as others in the space really help dig in there. I'd say the creator component and really being able to leverage more of the kind of familiar faces to help drive some of that influence has been a key to kind of departure point or change that we've seen throughout the industry. But yeah, I'd say that's definitely where it's going.

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know, brand VPs, brand marketers or CMOs are now talking to the CPG guys consistently about ROI being incrementality, iOS eyeing anything or new to brand. These are the two words that are consistently coming back, right? In your opinion, are those just misunderstood metrics or what do you think is the most misunderstood metric in social commerce for cpg?

[Alana Handelman]

Good question.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Do these metrics even make sense?

[Alana Handelman]

New to brand, incremental everything. As you said ad and I before, that's definitely happening and I think it's happening for good reason. As we spoke about earlier, I think right now the biggest trend that we have seen is that a lot of our partners are looking to help diversify their investments away from just being concentrated on fewer amount of platforms and really looking into how can I make my impact with new partners, reach new audiences and be able to drive those incremental sales that I wouldn't be able to get at that same rate on the current platforms that I'm advertising on. So I definitely think that is where the industry will continue to lean into quite heavily. But on the misunderstood front, I think that's where I'd go back to what I was sharing before around more of those vanity metrics. Again from a kind of social perspective. Those likes, those shares, those comments are such a place of focus for a lot of brands and I completely understand why when it comes to how they're using different platforms and the metrics available there. But I think the biggest piece is when it comes to SNAP and what is available and what we can actually use to draw impact and from and showcase impact from on Snap. It goes beyond more of that top of funnel and really helps dive into what was the business outcome of it. Not just the likes, but how did X, Y and Z that you were doing on the platform actually drive the net sales or incremental sales that you're looking for?

[Peter V. S Bond]

You know there's a war going on right now between brands aka CMOs and CCOs. Chief sales officers, chief customer officers for the sales commercial function. It's always going to be about lower funnel conversion. I, I, I, I, I. Right. We've already defined that incremental something brands say any media that's play should be based on a brand objective. And that brand objective could be squarely upper funnel and have nothing to do with low funnel. Although CPG as here we believe we live in a complete digital world. We live in a full funnel world and any penny that should be spent should always be full funnel. I'd love to get your take on this concept of full funnel upper funnel for brands. Should every campaign that's actually a partnership with SNAP be a brand objective or should it always result in lower funnel attribution?

[Alana Handelman]

That's a great question. I'd say as a whole, full funnel has a lot of benefits in terms of really being able to take consumers on a journey with you. Right now we live in a world and to steal your world, to steal your word, a very fragmented world in different ways. And part of that fragmentation just comes into how many products are available. Right? And a big piece of actually being able to drive the sale is actually having awareness and consideration for that product that you are trying to drive the sale from. Oftentimes a lot of dollars do get heavily concentrated on bottom of funnel and it makes sense, right? Brands want to be able to show that instant impact, show how the campaign that they are running drove an immediate sale. And that is definitely doable. But for brands that don't necessarily have really heavy awareness or heavy awareness within specific demographics that the brand is now looking to go after. All of a sudden these lower funnel ads have to do this double or triple duty of being able to drive awareness and drive consideration and drive the purchase all in one kind of wrapped in a bow 6 second AD. And so what I think a lot of our brand partners have been seeing, and what we've definitely been working with them on as well, is to really look at a full funnel perspective in order to help shape every piece of that funnel and really feed into it. Because if all of this is done well, it should all really act within this circle and you should be able to drive from awareness to consideration to conversion and back and forth constantly. And that way you are not trying to do triple duty with one section of the funnel, but you're actually able to make that impact across the board and get your message across in different ways and create a little bit more of that memorability and brand loyalty as well, because you've made an impact in so many different ways. The way in which, again, our company's really focused on AI is to really help supercharge everything that we're doing in really thoughtful ways. I think one of the biggest categorizations of how Snap has always brought itself to market either to our community of users as well as to our brand partners, is by really being thoughtful about our approaches, we use that thoughtful perspective while we're building out our product roadmaps and really help think through how can everything that we're doing add value to our communities and to our brand partners. And the way in which AI is being ingested throughout the company is very much done to. To help add that value.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That's great to hear. So let's close it out with a simple but very important question. Someone hears this podcast and says, I'm interested in learning more and I want to dig further into how this works. Who do they get in touch with and then tell them about start to finish. How does the process work? How long does it take? How does one execute?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, great questions. And please everyone listening, let's get going on snap. Let's not miss out on this. But when it comes to activating on.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Snap, now, there's numbers that you gave is one I'll never forget, right? Like 2.2 trillion of spending power, buying power, approximately getting close to the magical B word in terms of users. Those are no joke and people should pay attention. And more importantly, I also think of contextuality in the world of cpg, we call it in a consumer's path to purchase. When a conversation is taking place and people are talking possibly about products having a contextual ad, can it get any better?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, I mean, agree completely. Let's put you on an ad. But when, when all of your listeners.

[Peter V. S Bond]

The CPG guys, on Snap.

[Alana Handelman]

Yes, literally. But when, when your listeners are ready for that there's a couple of different ways to get started.

[Peter V. S Bond]

By the way, I also want to point out, Alana, that contrary to popular belief, how product viewpoints are shared today is through dialogue. It could be ratings and reviews, which was yesterday's mechanism of, I would say static sharing of opinions. The modern way of sharing is either text messages, messaging apps, things of that nature, or verbal vocal to vocal. You happen to be in that realm of social sharing of opinions 100%.

[Alana Handelman]

And that's where that close friends network really, really comes into play because Snap makes it so easy to communicate and that is really that choice of these conversations are happening. That all of the questions around which olive oil should I buy? Have you tried this shampoo? What are you doing about this chocolate bar? What are you sending your kid to camp with next week? All of those conversations are really happening on Snap and that's where a lot of that influence is taking place. So by being contextually relevant and by having your brand show up where those conversations are happening, you have even more likelihood of now being part of that conversation and really helping to get more kind of rally and support support, which will help of course drive that purchase as well.

[Peter V. S Bond]

I took, I took you away from the original question, which is start to finish, how does this work?

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, so start to finish, you're going.

[Peter V. S Bond]

To go got a little excited there.

[Alana Handelman]

You're going to go to Ads Manager. Ads.snapchat.com you can link it in the show notes if you'd like to, but you're going to go to Ads Manager.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Of course it'll be in the digital liner notes of this episode. So ads. Say that again for our audience.

[Alana Handelman]

Ads. Snapchat.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. It'll be there in the digital liner notes.

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah. And that is going to take you to our Ads Manager platform. Within about 10 minutes you will be fully set up and ready to go for your Snap campaigns. Our platform has really been designed to help bring brands of all shapes and sizes through this onboarding flow in a really, really easy to follow way. So in about 10 minutes you're going to be fully set up. You can use any of our third party integrations that we spoke about earlier like Shopify to really help connect in your.com and your storefront and really be able to set up your campaigns for that success from the get go. And when it comes to support as needed, we have really structured our teams to be able to support again brands from small to mid to large. So after actually signing up on Snap, you're able to get connected to an account manager who's really there to help work with you to crystallize out what are your goals and how can we use SNAP to help reach them and really be able to provide those thoughtful recommendations for how to only keep seeing improved performance on the platform.

[Peter V. S Bond]

So a couple of quick follow ups on that piece. So that means it's self service. Is that fair?

[Alana Handelman]

You got it all. Self service.

[Peter V. S Bond]

And is there a managed service option for those who are lazy?

[Alana Handelman]

For those who are lazy. So what I would say is we offer what I will call white glove service. So for any of our partners who need more support, I don't want to call it lazy, but you know, we are all overloaded as marketers with 4 million things to do each and every day. So if anyone needs support with their campaigns, needs some help with optimizations, our team is there to help make those recommendations and really make sure activating on Snap is even easier than you think it is.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. And then what about the integration with retail in the self service journey? If the ad needs to call to retail, that can be done on the app platform as well. On the ads platform as you mentioned.

[Alana Handelman]

You got it. Everything is done through Ads Manager. Yeah.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Awesome. So Ads Manager is the key, knowing and understanding it. And do you all offer training on that?

[Alana Handelman]

We do, yes. We have some self serve guided courses where you can actually get some certifications. Feel free to share those on your LinkedIn or other professionals.

[Peter V. S Bond]

How about that LinkedIn badge? Hello.

[Alana Handelman]

Yeah, there you go. But we have those as well as our account management team is here to help with any other questions that may.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Come up should the CPG guys get a certification on Snap ads. What do you think please?

[Alana Handelman]

I expect to see it by end of weekend in my inbox.

[Peter V. S Bond]

Let's go, let's go, let's go. So let me remind our listeners, you can find all of our content by simply going to web Browser and typing cpguys.com as the URL. If you or someone you know and something to contribute to this ongoing discussion on the CPG guys, just like Alana did today, please do send us an [e-mail] Again, that's contactpguys.com to our audience. Thank you for the clicks, likes, comments, direct messages, feeding us at trade shows, coming to our events, recording episodes with us as well as our sponsors. We are always grateful for you. The show doesn't exist without all of you. You work with us all year and we're grateful to have you as our audience and partners. Thank you Alana. Thank you for making time on a Friday afternoon all the way up north from Canada to record this with me. Sincerely thank you for joining the CPG Guys.

[Alana Handelman]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Peter V. S Bond]

That's a wrap of this episode. We'll see you soon on another episode of the CPG Guys.

[Shree Rajagopalan]

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