Snapchat On-Demand Geofilter Best Practices

You have the venue booked, the vendors paid for, and everything set for your next event. But before you toss out your checklist, you may want to add the social media component to it – a Snapchat On-Demand Geofilter (or two!). Sure you have a photobooth, but Snapchat is an instant channel for your attendees to share with their friends where they are now, not days after the party has ended. We’ve put together a list of best practices, based on some testing we’ve done right here at Spredfast (now Khoros), to help you create the best Snapchat Geofilter.

Think of Snapchat Geofilters as a next-generation postcard. Geofilters are most popularly used to represent a location or event, but they can also help spread the news of an upcoming release, or trigger participation in a campaign.

Before you get started brainstorming, make sure you read over Snapchat’s guidelines for On-Demand Geofilters and what features will force them to decline your submission.

You’ll see that the use of hashtags is not permitted on Geofilters. Sorry. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on the Geofilter altogether — it’s not necessary to promote a hashtag anyway. Using a Geofilter to direct people to other networks like Twitter isn’t the point, you want to focus on creating something that your audience will use and share with their network.

Another big thing to watch out for is having a Geofilter design that takes up too much of the screen. This can be bothersome to your audience, as they want the Geofilter to accompany their image, not the other way around. Typically, you see Geofilters hanging on the bottom of the screen. However, you’re free to use either side of the screen for your Geofilter — and sometimes, that’s a great way to make your Geofilter standout from the crowd. For our 2016 Social Suite at South By Southwest (SXSW), we used the top and the bottom but kept the background color transparent to avoid taking up too much of the screen.

You might be tempted, in your design, to capitalize on the fact that almost all of your users will be taking selfies. Let us save you some time: We tested this at Spredfast Summit Europe, using a design that was of a hexagon in the middle of the screen, and saw 38% less usage than our other Geofilter.

As this kind of design is likely a new-ish challenge for your team, before you start brainstorming, make it a point to get some inspiration from what other Geofilters look like.

When you’re ready to brainstorm, put yourself in the shoes of the Snapchatter. When will they have time to Snapchat what’s going on at your event — the entire time, or during just a portion of it? What’s the most exciting component to your event, the one they would most want to communicate and share with their friends? And finally, if your event has a theme, how can you incorporate that into your Snapchat Geofilter?

A common question that comes up for us at Spredfast (now Khoros) is how much of our “brand” do we want in this Geofilter? If your Geofilter is overly branded, you may run the risk of having a lower usage rate — as your filter has become more about you than about the audience. Strive to strike a balance between your brand and your event. Using the location as a part of the design is an easy way to keep it relevant to anyone who considers using the Geofilter, if you must include your brand.

Once you lock down your concept, consider the colors and prominence of the design. Avoid heavily using black type, since it can easily be lost if your event is at night. If your style restricts you from using a lot of colors, all-white is a much better option. When choosing colors for your Geofilter, we’ve seen the colorful and vibrant Geofilters be used often and look the best. If you check out the Geofilter inspiration linked above, you’ll find colorful Geofilters dominating.

So you’ve read the requirements and executed a clever, killer design. Congrats: your filter is ready for submission. How much will it cost? Snapchat charges $5 per 20,000 square feet for each day. Once you submit it, you can expect Snapchat to review it within 24 hours on a business day.

For events big or small, Snapchat Geofilters are a great and cost-effective way to get the word out to an extended audience, beyond your attendees. They’re a powerful and fun way for attendees to share with their friends where they are and what they’re up to — so don’t miss out on having a Geofilter at your next event.