Snapchat brings catalog product ads into Sponsored Snaps

What changed

For a retail team, the useful question is whether this additional placement produces worthwhile customer activity for its own catalog. Our recommendation is to frame the test around that question, with a defined commercial outcome and a comparison the team can interpret. Access to another advertising surface is an opportunity to investigate, not a forecast of improved sales.

Start with the products a shopper can actually buy. Check that the selected items, prices and landing pages make sense together and that the mobile purchase path works. An illustrative failure would be a product ad leading to an unavailable size: even a relevant impression would struggle to become a useful visit. That is a catalog and destination issue to investigate before attributing weak results to the placement.

Keep the first test focused. If the objective is to assess the placement, avoid also replacing the entire product set, changing the purchase definition and introducing an unrelated promotion. Some changes may be commercially necessary, but they should be recorded. A comparison is easier to interpret when the team can explain what was held stable and what changed.

Why it matters for advertisers

Judge the outcome against the business question, including the quality of acquired customers where that information is available. Engagement can help diagnose the journey, while orders, revenue and returns provide different perspectives on its value. Decide in advance how long the observation period should run and what would justify further investigation. These are PMC's test-planning recommendations, not additional capabilities promised by Snap.