Snaplytics launches its Snapchat analytics platform for brands and influencers

Snapchat has always had one big problem that affects influencers and brands alike – it’s been difficult to measure effectiveness.

Today at Snaphappen in London — a conference focused on Snapchat and its users — Snaplytics launched a new Influencer Tracking Platform that attempts to solve this exact problem.

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Here’s how it works.

Snaplytics tracks and measures Snapchat channels and provides insights and data so brands, agencies, and influencers can assess and optimize their stories.

The platform removes most of the manual effort involved in working with influencers on Snapchat and obtaining data on how many users looked at a Snapchat story, and for how long.

If you’re not already aware, the manual effort involved in measuring Snapchat influencer metrics is significant. In reality, it is done through grabbing screenshots of the story stats that are available within Snapchat 23 hours and 59 minutes after the story has been posted. That’s cumbersome, at best.

Of course, third-party Snapchat solutions have challenges not seen on other platforms.

Snapchat has famously limited third-party tool access to its product, making life difficult for solution providers, with some resorting to unofficial APIs. So how is Snaplytics gathering its data?

“We are not affiliated or endorsed by Snapchat,” Thomas Cilius, CEO at Snaplytics, told me. “Its business model heavily revolves around advertising on the platform, where we focus on brands who want to run a native channel on Snapchat. We only look into our customers’ own stories and not the one-to-one snaps. There is a fine line between lurking and delivering valuable analytics. We are not using the previously hacked API but have built a setup where we can grab the data without any APIs.”

It is a novel solution to a process that Cilius believes is counter-intuitive.

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“In many ways Snapchat is standing in its own way for more brands to use the platform commercially,” Cilius said.

Snaplytics will charge brands and agencies for access to the new platform, but it is free for Snapchat influencers. In addition to the available metrics, Snaplytics includes an influencer matchmaking service.

“Influencers receive an invitation from brands or agencies who want to use their services for one or more campaigns,” Cilius said. “We help to automate the process and make it hassle free for brands to work with multiple Snapchat influencers on campaigns. On top, we ensure brands and agencies have the necessary insights to quantify and optimize the campaign.”

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Influencers also have the ability to advertise themselves to attract brands and agencies.

“If you, as an influencer, want to use Snaplytics to display more of your work on Snapchat, you can create a free profile on our TalentScout solution,” Cilius said. “It is your influencer portfolio where we grab your Snapchat stories automatically [and] link to your Snapchat channel and other social networks.”

(Side note: I couldn’t find a reference to the “free for influencers” feature on the website or a way for influencers to know it is free for them.)

Snapchat is an important platform that has proven useful in attracting the “digital native” audience, but it isn’t the only option available to brands. I wondered if Snaplytics had plans to offer wider analytics across other social networks.

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“Right now, we focus on delivering our value promise to brands, agencies, and influencers working with native Snapchat channels, and there is still a lot to be done in terms of automation and insights,” Cilius said. “But with that said, there are a number of social networks with a live/near-live DNA that could be very interesting to add to our platform — as well as the usual networks, such as Instagram — due to the sheer volume of users.”

Snaplytics Influencer Tracking Platform is available from today.