Snap Shares Insights into the Benefits of AR Campaigns

What is the power of AR campaigns and should you build your own AR experiences to promote your products?

Well, it depends. It depends on your audience and how and where they engage, and it depends on your products and/or offers and what you want the world to know about them.

But if the answers to those questions point to a more educational, engaging approach to certain elements, then AR might be for you, and Snapchat has shared some new insights to help inform your approach in that regard.

In collaboration with Wpromote and Lumen, Snap conducted a new research on 38 campaignswhich has garnered over 219 million impressions across various ad formats on Snap. Based on this, Snapchat provided some insight into the benefits of AR over video campaigns, looking at in-app attention measurement and response data to see how AR performed compared to others.

First, the report shows that AR activations can drive user attention and lead to more specific results, compared to other types of promotion.

According to report:

“Unlike static or video ads, which rely on passive viewing, AR invites users to actively engage, creating stronger, more memorable impressions. Our study shows that AR-based campaigns not only attract more attention, but also translate this engagement into measurable results such as ad and brand awareness and brand engagement.”

In other words, through a more specific interaction, it can increase brand awareness, which makes sense given that you’re actually interacting with specific brand elements from the campaign.

Although this would depend on the specific campaign and your use of branding and brand characters in each.

The report also found that AR encourages slower, more deliberate decision-making:

“WWe observed that time spent with AR supports thoughtful thought processes, leading to higher conversion to purchase ratios compared to non-interactive ads. Compared to ads, the conversion to purchase ratio for Lens was 6.4x. AR experiences appear to deepen the decision-making process, encouraging users to act with intention rather than impulse.“

So Objective campaigns, which encourage direct action and response, create more memorable impressions, leading to more time for consideration.

Finally, the report also found that the following creativity best practices work:

“There is a clear playbook for AR and video success, and following best practices can significantly increase attention regardless of format. For AR, creating shareable experiences led to greater attention, while the use of prominent branding, sound design, and the presence of talent were associated with greater attention.“

Based on these findings, Snap suggests that brands should integrate video and AR campaigns to increase resonance, while recognizing the educational and advocacy benefits that AR-specific elements can provide.

Snap also highlights the differences in approach in each different type of campaign:

“Take advantage of the urgency in videos and shareability in AR.“

AR activations are good for building more associations and increasing brand awareness, and as such, building them for greater shareability aligns with these goals and builds on these benefits.

These are good tips that could help you get your own AR campaign on track in 2025. And given the benefits of engagement and focus, certain promotions may be worth considering, depending on your audience as well.

You can view a full overview of Snap’s AR ads here.