Marketing personnel should develop specific campaigns for Snapchat, which stands out from rival messaging services in terms of usage, research company App Annie announced.

Analysis of social and messaging app usage by smartphone owners in the US and UK during Q4 2016 revealed Snapchat “has a truly unique and exclusive audience” among the coveted 18 to 34 year-old demographic, App Annie stated in a blog.

While the research company noted there is an overlap in usage between Snapchat and Facebook’s main apps, including its core app, Instagram and Messenger services, App Annie said its statistics show on any given day in the US, 35 per cent of Snapchat’s users cannot be reached by Facebook, 46 per cent can’t be reached by Instagram, and 58 per cent can’t be reached by Messenger.

Snap CSO Imran Khan said Snapchat reached 41 per cent of US users aged 18 to 34 years of age: a statistic App Annie said shows marketing staff “should strongly consider developing a Snapchat-centric approach,” to fully engage with a demographic “coveted by advertisers for their disposable income and propensity to spend money.”

Cloning
Users tend to centralise their time around one or a few preferred apps and marketing experts should make sure their audience profiles account for specific app preferences and behaviour.

“Painting a picture of your audience with broad strokes could be a costly and time-consuming mistake. Instead, learn your users app habits to learn more about their communication style, media preferences and, most importantly, where they’re spending the majority of their time,” App Annie said.

The report is interesting when taking into account the fact Facebook cloned many of Snapchat’s features, such as ‘stories’ and ‘lenses’ on many of the apps it owns, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Facebook’s Q1 2017 earnings suggest the strategy is paying off, with WhatsApp Status – a clone of Snapchat Stories – garnering 175 million daily users since its launch in mid-February. The figure compares with around 160 million daily Snapchat users.

App Annie explained messaging services are increasingly borrowing “key features or UI elements from the competition” in a bid to meet “increasing pressure to bolster user base and attract advertiser interest”.