How to make a custom Snapchat Lenses ads
Short answer: Snapchat Lens ads are branded AR experiences people play with through the Snapchat camera, driving high engagement and shares. You build them free in Lens Studio, then promote them as ads to reach a wider audience. They suit launches, awareness and playful brand moments.
Snapchat Lenses ads are an innovative way for people to discover your lenses. When users open their Snapchat cameras, they are playing with the lenses for selfies. Snapchat Lenses are a way to transform the world around you with augmented reality. There are face Lenses that add fun effects to your face, and world Lenses that bring characters, effects, and more into the frame! ✨
Snapchat enables users to create their interactive personalized lens filters. With Snapchat Lenses Ads, you can play with them on your phone in the Snapchat app, or on your Mac or PC with the Snap Camera app! This ad format is a genuinely engaging way to reach customers. A branded lens gets people to interact with your brand and share it with their friends, which is what makes it stick. Campaigns with Lenses drive, on average, a 19-point lift in ad awareness and a 9% sales lift as measured by third-party partners.
Custom Snapchat lens ads price increases based on the size of the location and duration of time you want your lens to span. There are over 150 templates to choose from, covering categories like weddings and birthdays, and customized with effects and text.
Face Lenses and World Lenses do different jobs
- Face Lenses use the front camera and change the person: try-on effects for beauty and eyewear, costumes, expression triggers. Best when the product goes on a body, and the natural fit for anything people already take selfies with.
- World Lenses use the rear camera and place your object into the scene: a car on a driveway, furniture in a room, a mascot on the street. Best for products people want to see in a space before buying.
Pick before you brief a designer. The two need different creative and behave differently: Face Lenses get shared more, World Lenses hold attention longer.
What drives the cost, and how long it takes
Building a Lens in Lens Studio is free. What you pay for is reach, and the number moves on:
- Geography. A Lens across the whole UAE costs far more than one around a single mall or venue.
- Duration. Priced by how long it stays live, so a launch-day burst and a month-long run are very different budgets.
- Complexity. Templates are quick and cheap. A custom Lens with 3D assets, tracking or interactivity needs design time before any media is bought.
Allow real lead time. Custom builds and Snap’s review both take days, so a Lens booked the week of a launch is usually a template.
Lens or geofilter?
They get confused, and the choice is straightforward. A geofilter is a static overlay on a photo: cheap, fast, ideal for a venue, wedding or event where the point is that people know you were there. A Lens is an interactive AR experience: more expensive, more production, and worth it when you want people to play with the product rather than just stamp a location on a snap.
If the goal is awareness at an event, use a geofilter. If the goal is to show a product doing something, use a Lens.
Anyone can be a Snapchat lens creator
Lens Studio invites artists, students, developers, animators, and more to get creative, and share it with the millions of people who play with Lenses on Snapchat every single day!
Create and publish your Snapchat Lenses in three easy steps
- Import Your Artwork
Design in your favorite 2D or 3D software then import right into Lens Studio.
- Build Your Experience
Bring your creation to life with movements, animations, and interactive triggers with our easy-to-use templates.
- Publish & Promote
Share Your Creativity with Snapchat Lenses Ads. Submit your Lens and once it’s published, you’ll receive a unique Snapcode and Lens Link. These powerful tools allow anyone to easily open up and share your Lens with their friends, spreading the magic of your creation far and wide.
Get Creative with Snapchat Lenses Ads and Lens Studio. With Lens Studio, a desktop app available for Mac and PC, you can create, publish, and share captivating augmented reality experiences. Share your Lenses on Snapchat and the Snap Camera desktop app, where millions of users are eager to engage and play.
Snapchat lens advertising has geolocation time and date as options for people to use it. Learn more about Snapchat advertising. Snapchat Geofilers and other ad formats can be found here. To learn how to create the lenses, check this out
See all the Snapchat ad formats we run, including geofilters and lenses.
Leads Dubai is a Social Media Marketing Company. We do lead generation and direct response-based sponsored ads for companies and help with their marketing goals.
