Snapchat Slashes Ad Prices On Discover Network (So You May See A Lot More Of Them)

Snapchat is aggressively trying to be your digital magazine. The photo and video-sharing app has been pushing media outlets, Snapchat users, and now more advertisers to jump on its Discover news network.

At an advertising event with DailyMail.com and EliteDaily.com on Thursday, Snapchat content director Nick Bell announced that the company would now charge advertisers 2 cents per view for the 10-second ads that run between articles and videos on Discover, Ad Age reported. The program is called Two Pennies. The price is down markedly from the 15-cent launch price in January. “It’s 10 second ads, 2 cents per view to reach a really engaged audience,” Bell said at Thursday’s event.

Discover provides a medium for media outlets to publish photos and video content for Snapchat’s reported 200 million users to view. Publishers can also sell 10-second ads between their content. The network launched with 11 media partners, including CNN, Cosmopolitan and Warner Music Group.

While Snapchat’s users may be really engaged with using the app for one-to-one messaging, the Discover network may not be as popular. As The Information reported from unnamed sources close to the matter, traffic on Discover has dropped 30 to 50 percent since launch. Meanwhile, Snapchat has been trying to improve the feature. In an update this week, Snapchat now allows users to share content from Discover to friends on the app similar to posting a news story on someone’s Facebook wall.

Media outlets' partnerships with Snapchat on Discover are said to expire in June. The question will be whether or not each of these launch partners will stay on the network. Daily Mail North America CEO Jon Steinberg said he was “ready to sell [ads] immediately” at Thursday's event.

Snapchat’s Bell said Snapchat users spend on average nine minutes a day on Daily Mail content on Discover.