Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays were the biggest days for brands posting Snapchat Stories in Q4 2016, according to a Snaplytics report. Moving away from Saturdays dominance in Q3, each of the three day accounted for 17 per cent of weekly posts, with brands posting 13 Stories per month on average.

The report studied 217,000 posts from 500 brands in Q4, including 24,180 Stories. The average number of ‘snaps’ per Story was 11.3 – another figure that has risen, from 10.7 in Q1.

This led to a drop in average completion rate for Stories, however, down from 93 per cent in Q1 to 88 per cent in Q4. The verticals performing best for completion rate are travel & leisure and advertising & marketing, both at 91 per cent. At the bottom of the list are fashion & lifestyle and beauty, at 85 per cent.

Video accounted for 61 per cent of the content posted by brands on Snapchat. Video’s share steadily increased across the course of the year, up from 56 per cent in Q1 – but it is still the minority for some verticals.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, broadcasting & entertainment brands were most likely to post video content (67 per cent), followed by beauty (65 per cent). Luxury goods, meanwhile, is the least likely (just 33 per cent).

The report also found that the most common way that Snapchat users find a brand’s account is through its username, accounting for 64 per cent of discovery.

“Snapchat is unique because it allows businesses to connect with people in the moment and offer a different brand experience,” said Snaplytics founder and CEO Thomas Cilius. “It’s the only social network where marketers aren’t seeing a decline in reach.

“With 161m daily active users on Snapchat, brands are quickly learning this is the go-to outlet because it allows them to engage their brand ambassadors and deliver content that really resonates with people, in real time.”