Why 2026 could be Snap’s biggest year yet – according to one exec

“We’re thinking about how we bring the power of AI into that creative production and creative expression on the platform, because that’s where the magic really happens,” said Abby Laursen, Snap’s senior director of product marketing told Digiday.

What that looks like in practice is still a closely held secret. Laursen declined to share specifics. But plenty is riding on these tools – enough that they could meaningfully influence how the business performs in the year ahead. 

“Success [by the end of 2026] will be that we’ve delivered 100% on what we need to deliver on from a performance standpoint,” said Laursen. “That we’ve brought new innovation to the market and we’ve made it possible for brands to really be a core part of the Snapchatter experience.”

Those brands increasingly skew smaller. In recent years, Snap has tried to reorientate its ad business around them, betting that a broader base of smaller advertisers can deliver more consistent spend over time. That’s a rough balancing act for any platform. Especially one with Snap’s history. Automation, at least in theory, lowers the barrier to entry for brands without the same time or resources to master yet another ad platform. Whether that be pays off is the question Snap is taking into next year. 

As Laursen explained: “A lot of feedback we get from our small and medium customers in particular, is that the solutions we’re bringing to market, with Smart Campaign Solutions, make it easier for them to operate at the velocity they need to operate at with the leaner resources that they might have, and achieve the very specific performance outcomes they need to be able to deliver because of the importance of ROI within their businesses.”

Search will be another vector the platform looks to rake ad dollars along following its deal with perplexity earlier this year.

“Moving into this partnership with Perplexity does lay this foundation for Snapchat to create an ecosystem of AI-powered intelligent agents that become available to Snapchatters,” said Laursen. “It’s one of the most popular ways for people to gather information. From our perspective, we want to [bring] that behavior – that is so core and common to how people search for information today – into the Snapchatter experience in a way that feels very natural.” 

In that sense, the deal fits neatly with Snap’s habit of taking the less conventional path when it comes to commercializing, from its ARES Enterprise business to games and its Originals content push. 

The rationale for all these moves makes sense. However, Snap’s has laboured to turn moves like this into scalable business. It’s chequered at best. In many ways, this year has been a microcosm of that, with the platform struggling for consistency quarter in, quarter out. Revenues in its most recent quarter hit $1.51 billion, up 10% on the same period a year ago. The previous quarter wasn’t so good. Ad revenue growth over that period was one percent – the slowest in over a year.

“Snap has made progress improving its ad platform, but the results have been inconsistent,” said Jasmin Enberg, co-founder co-CEO of scalable, a media company focused on the business of the creator economy. “Stronger ad tools could help the company attract more advertisers and retain them, though that depends on how well it can maintain user growth and engagement, which are also showing some signs of weakness in its core U.S. market.”