A Snapchat geofilter suits an event with a young crowd at a place people photograph. Draw the area around the crowd, submit a week ahead, and treat it as inexpensive visibility rather than a source of leads.

A frame around the photograph

After taking a photo or video in Snapchat, users swipe sideways to add overlays. A geofilter is an overlay that is only offered inside a set area, for set hours.

Since last year, anyone can buy one. Businesses use them for grand openings, festival booths, launches and venues; families use them for weddings and birthdays.

Everyone at the event who swipes through the filters sees yours, and their friends see it on the photos they send.

It is inexpensive and simple to order. Whether it is worth doing depends almost entirely on who is at the event.

When it suits the audience

The second matters more than owners expect. People add a filter to a photo they were going to send anyway, and nobody snaps a waiting room or a parking space.

How ordering works

Geofilters are ordered through Snapchat's website. You upload a design, draw the area on a map, choose the dates and hours, and say whether the filter is personal or for a business.

The price appears before you pay. It depends on the size of the area and how long the filter runs, and small areas for a few hours start at a few dollars.

A filter covering a whole park for a weekend costs far more than one covering a booth for an afternoon, so pay for the hours that matter rather than the whole day.

Business filters can show a logo and brand; personal ones cannot.

Drawing the area

The area, which Snapchat calls a fence, has to cover at least 20,000 square feet, so it will usually take in some of the surroundings as well as your own space.

Draw it around where the crowd actually stands, not just the building or the booth. Include entrances and the spots where people gather to take photos.

A larger area costs more and shows the filter to people who are not at your event, which buys nothing.

Approval and timing

Snapchat reviews every geofilter before it goes live. It says to expect an answer by the next business day, but a design that needs changes needs a second review.

Submit at least a week ahead. Set the start an hour before the event, so early arrivals have it, and run it to the end.

Each event needs its own order, even when the design stays the same.

Designing it

Snapchat provides templates for common design programs, and every design has to follow its guidelines.

Keep the artwork to a band at the top or bottom of the screen, so it frames the photo instead of covering faces. The business name should be readable on a small phone at a glance.

Simple works best: a logo, the event name and perhaps the date. A filter that fills the screen gets skipped.

Use only a logo the business owns, and spell the business and event names exactly as they appear everywhere else.

A worked example

A surf shop in a beach town runs a small contest each summer for local junior surfers, with a barbecue in the parking lot afterwards.

Last year it bought a geofilter for the afternoon, with the shop's logo and the contest name along the bottom edge.

The fence was drawn around the shop and the parking lot, because that seemed like the event. Most of the crowd spent the afternoon on the sand, outside the fence, watching the water.

The filter was used far less than the shop expected, and the reason was obvious once the map was laid beside a photo of the day.

This year the fence takes in the beach in front of the contest area as well as the lot, the hours start before the first heat, and the order went in ten days early.

There will also be a hand-lettered sign on the registration table, because few people that first year knew a filter existed at all.

The shop treats it as a small cost of the day, not a source of sales. The point is its name on photos that teenagers send to their friends.

What you get back

Snapchat reports how many times the filter was used and how many times those snaps were viewed. Note both figures with the date, area and hours, so next year's order can be compared with this one.

It does not collect names or email addresses, and a filter carries no link to your website. What it buys is your name on photos shared among friends of the people who were there.

Only a limited number of filters can run in one place at once, so at a large festival yours may share the swipe with others. Where Snapchat runs its own coverage or a sponsor's filter, yours may be refused.

Telling people it is there

A filter only works if people swipe far enough to find it, and many never think to look.

Put a small sign on the counter or the booth saying there is a filter for the day, mention it in a post that morning, and ask staff to point it out.

The friends who see the photos afterwards need nothing explained. The people at the event sometimes do.

The counter-case

A geofilter is the wrong tool for many businesses.

If your customers are mostly older, if the event has no crowd, or if the work is between businesses, there is little point. A geofilter will not build a mailing list or make the phone ring.

But for a young crowd at a place worth photographing, a few hours of a well-placed filter is an inexpensive way to put your name on the day.

Before the event

  1. Confirm the crowd uses Snapchat.
  2. Walk the site and note where people gather.
  3. Draw the area around the crowd, not the building.
  4. Design a narrow band with the name readable.
  5. Set the hours to cover early arrivals.
  6. Submit a week or more ahead.
  7. Check the results afterwards and note what changed.

Step three decides whether anyone sees it. A well-designed filter drawn around the wrong patch of ground is a few dollars spent on an empty parking lot.

Making the shop easy to find on the larger network is covered in a Facebook page address full of numbers.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Snapchat geofilter?

An overlay users can add to photos and videos, offered only inside an area you draw on a map and only during the hours you choose.

Who is it worth buying one for?

Events with a young crowd gathered in one place worth photographing, with a reason to share. Older or business customers are rarely reached this way.

How do I order one?

Through Snapchat's website: upload a design, draw the area, choose dates and hours, say whether it is personal or for a business, and pay the quoted price.

How far ahead should I submit it?

At least a week. Snapchat reviews every filter before it goes live, usually by the next business day, and a design that needs changes needs another review.

How big should the area be?

At least 20,000 square feet, drawn around where the crowd actually stands. A larger area costs more and shows the filter to people who are not at the event.

What do I get back afterwards?

Counts of how often the filter was used and how often those snaps were viewed. No names, no email addresses and no link to your website.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Event with a young crowd coming up?

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