Snapchat Expects Sponsored Selfie Filters To Reach Up To 16 Million Views At Max Of $700,000 per day

Snapchat wants advertisers to fork over some significant cash for its new sponsored selfie filters.

A month ago, Snapchat released Lenses, filters that enhance your selfies with zany special effects — think barfing rainbows and heads exploding like fireworks. In a few weeks, the company plans to make those Lenses available to advertisers, and in preparation, it's been sharing pricing and viewership details with prospective customers.

Data from a Snapchat sales pitch obtained by BuzzFeed News shows the company expects sponsored Lenses to rack up 11 million views per day Sunday through Thursday, 12 million views per day on Friday and Saturday, and 16 million views during holidays.

The data offers an early look at the usage patterns developing around Lenses. For a brand-new product, such numbers are impressive, but not jaw-dropping.

Still, Snapchat is asking a considerable fee for Lenses sponsorships. Pricing information obtained by BuzzFeed News shows the company asking $450,000 per day for sponsorships running Sunday through Thursday, $500,000 per day for those on Fridays and Saturdays, and $700,000 per day for any that it runs on a holiday. The Financial Times previously reported that Lenses sponsorship fees could run as high as $750,000.

Snapchat declined comment on its pricing scheme for Lenses sponsorships.

While a new and unproven ad format, Lenses are already generating a fair bit of buzz on Madison Avenue. "Advertisers like anything that's shiny, new, and sexy," one ad executive said of Snapchat's offering. "They're one of the more fun ad units to have come out in recent years."

Sponsored Lenses could prove uniquely appealing to a certain type of advertiser. Certainly, it's not difficult to imagine a movie studio creating one that transforms your face into that of a film character or an eyewear company sponsoring one that outfits your selfie with their newest pair of sunglasses. "It's a platform that's definitely conducive to creativity," the executive said.

In May, Snapchat raised a new round of funding that pushed its valuation to approximately $16 billion. To justify that kind of valuation, the company needs to develop creative ways with which to claim advertising dollars that might otherwise be spent on more easily measured and targeted placements on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Should they gain traction, sponsored Lenses could be one more way to support that effort.

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