Snapchat Asking Brands For $750,000 Per Day To Run Advertisements

Since Snapchat began running advertisements on its app in October, there have only been a handful of promotions, and that might be due to the startup's steep asking price of $750,000 per ad, which is more than what brands have to pay for a 30-second commercial on NBC's "Sunday Night Football."

The figure was reported Wednesday by Adweek, which said that Snapchat is going after top-tier brands by playing up its audience of more than 100 million monthly users, most of whom are teens and young adults.

Currently, ads on Snapchat only appear every so often, but when they do, they are found alongside "Snapchat Stories," which are photos and videos posted by users' friends. Advertisers pay $750,000 to make the ad available to Snapchat users for a day, but each user must choose to view it. To see an ad, a user must tap its thumbnail and keep a finger pressed during the duration of the video.

Snapchat's initial batch of advertisers includes McDonald's, Samsung, Macy's and Electronic Arts. Snapchat's first ad partner was Universal Pictures, which appears to be pleased with the results since it ran an ad for "Dumb and Dumber To" after initially using the ephermal messaging app to promote the film "Ouija."

Besides Snapchat's steep asking price, there are a handful of issues that advertisers have with the startup, according to Adweek, which obtained its information from unnamed sources. Among the top complaints is that Snapchat is not yet equipped to give advertisers information, such as gender and age breakdowns, about who sees their ads.

Snapchat declined to comment.