Local Matters to Snap; Is it The Same for Millennials?

Pete Prestipino
by Pete Prestipino 16 Jan, 2023
Local Matters to Snap; Is it The Same for Millennials?

The secret to offline companies successful use of social media is their ability to drive activity in the physical world. That's not always easy to do - but it is getting easier. 

Placed, an advertising technology solution that works to determine if online ads lead to physical store visits and offline purchases, has been acquired by Snapchat parent company Snap in a reported $125 million dollar deal.

Snap is addressing a significant problem in the market (and with its own service) - that online ads actually are capable of driving offline sales. Attributing an offline purchase to any one ad is tricky in itself, particularly as consumers may not always buy something immediately after seeing an ad online.

Snap hopes, however, that brand marketers will spend more if they can see that their ads lead to actual sales. The social network, of course, isn't the only platform trying to figure out the challenges of online to offline (O2O) measurement and tracking. Other services that currently generate billions in ad revenue, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, are doing the same as well, and some smaller but rather innovative solutions are tackling the O2O issue in creative ways with some success. 

Placed will reportedly operate independently for now and continue to work with advertisers who are running ad campaigns on other platforms, including Facebook.

"By partnering with Snap, we will do even more. Still working independently, Placed's goal continues to be the adoption of a common yardstick that can measure the offline effectiveness of advertising across multiple platforms and publishers," said Place founder David Shim. "Together, we believe we can drive much better results for advertisers and publishers."
Pete Prestipino
Pete Prestipino
Digital marketing executive with proven experience in all aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), performance-based advertising, consumer-generated/social media, email marketing, lead generation, Web design, usability, and analytics. - 20-year Internet marketing veteran, currently serving as the Digital Marketing Campaign Manager at Antenna Group (formerly Chicago Digital). - Former Editor-In-Chief of Website Magazine, and a regular speaker on Web technology digital marketing strategy - Author of several books on digital marketing Including Web 360: The Fundamentals of Web Success; Affiliate 360: The Fundamentals of Performance Marketing; Domains 360: The Fundamentals of Buying & Selling Domain Names, and SEO 360: The Fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization.