Full screen, and gone in a tap
Snap Ads run full-screen in 9:16 at 1080x1920, between friends' Stories and in Spotlight and Discover, and a single tap skips them. The first frame therefore has to carry the product and the brand, with movement from the start rather than a slow build. The brand name, up to 32 characters, sits in the top-left corner, the headline allows 34, and Snap advises keeping the top 150 pixels and bottom 330 clear of graphics and logos, so the artwork's own text belongs in the middle band. Design the sound so the ad works with it on, and let burned-in words carry the point for people watching without it.
Lenses: the brand as a filter
Sponsored AR lenses let people put a product on their face, in their room or into the world around them, and then send the result to friends. Lens work mixes 3D models, textures, face effects and 2D elements. Generation helps with textures, backgrounds and variations of an effect, but the product itself should come from an accurate 3D model at the right scale. A try-on lens is a promise: if the lipstick shade, the frame width or the trainer's colour differs from what arrives in the box, the lens has produced a return rather than a sale.
Advertising to a young audience
Snapchat's minimum age is 13, and a large share of its users are teenagers. In the EU, Article 28 of the Digital Services Act bars platforms from showing ads based on profiling to users they know are minors. In the UK, the CAP Code restricts ads for less healthy food and drink directed at under-16s in non-broadcast media, and paid online ads for such products are restricted by law from January 2026. Alcohol, gambling and other age-restricted categories must reach adults only, and their creative must not appeal strongly to under-18s. Cartoon styles and childlike characters are compliance decisions, not just creative ones.
Many versions, one standard
A feed that people tap through wears out creative quickly, so Snapchat campaigns need more rotation than a static plan provides. The studio produces that rotation from one approved concept: 9:16 variants with the product kept exact, the artwork's text held clear of the brand bar and the call-to-action, and image-style rules set once in the brand hub, so a spirits brand's variants stay clear of the playful cartoon look that the rules on appeal to young people are written to stop. Approvals cover the whole set, and each asset carries a record of which model produced it.
Updated 25 September 2026