Snapchat debuts new ad formats allowing advertisers to post Promoted Stories in Stories tab and AR Trial Ads for placing interactive objects in a camera view
Snap Inc's stock tanked after missing revenue expectations by $30 million last quarter, so Snapchat is looking to win over businesses with immersive new ads formats.
Context & Ripple Effects
Snap is reaching for new inventory at a moment of financial pressure: after missing last quarter's revenue expectations by $30 million and watching the stock fall, it is opening two premium surfaces — the Stories tab and the camera view itself — to advertisers via Promoted Stories and AR Trial Ads. The move extends a playbook the company has run since it rolled out Snap Ads Between Stories and its first Ads API in 2016, when all ad units were still hand-reviewed.
What makes this debut credible rather than desperate is that Snap has a documented history of selling untested formats: as the New York Times reported in 2016, its ad business grew precisely by persuading companies to experiment with untested and experimental ad formats. AR Trial Ads are the next step in that same persuasion loop, and they foreshadow the AR monetization that later arrived with ads inside Snappables AR games and the off-platform reach of App Stories and the Snap Audience Network.
First-order effects
- Advertisers gain two new placements immediately: Promoted Stories sit inside the Stories tab alongside organic content, while AR Trial Ads let brands drop interactive objects directly into a user's camera view.
- For Snap, the formats are a direct response to the $30 million revenue miss — every dollar of new ad inventory is aimed at closing the gap that tanked the stock.
Second-order effects
- Brands already conditioned by Snap's earlier experimental-format sales pitches become the natural first buyers, letting Snap price premium immersive placements without waiting for proven performance benchmarks.
- Rival platforms with camera or Stories products face pressure to match interactive AR ad units, since advertisers testing them on Snapchat will ask why equivalent inventory doesn't exist elsewhere.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Snap keeps converting each product surface — Stories feed, camera, eventually games and third-party apps via the Audience Network — into monetizable ad real estate, making the camera itself a durable advertising channel.
- The longer arc runs toward Stories-style feeds becoming fully commercialized inventory, a shift later confirmed when Snap began sharing mid-roll ad revenue with US creators whose Stories carried ads.
The trend: Snap systematically turns each of its product surfaces — the Stories feed, the camera, AR experiences — into new ad inventory whenever revenue growth stalls, with advertiser willingness to experiment as the gating factor.