Snapchat has drawn a lot of attention with its Discover publisher portal, which combined with its Live Stories feature is set to bring in $50m (£32m) this year and has commanded huge rates from advertisers.

However, figures collected by Advertising Age have shown that despite 60m people viewing Discover every month, the service is averaging only 2.5 ads a day in total across all 12 channels available.

In comparison, over the same period from 13 July to today, there have been an average of 110 stories a day hosted across the 12 channels by the publishers involved, which include CNN, Comedy Central, National Geographic, Vice and ESPN.

That works out as one advert for every 44 stories, with only 18 brands responsible for the 76 ads that have run on the service over the period studied.

The small number of ads doesnt appear to be due to a lack of audience, which has rebounded after a substantial dip to healthy levels. Its more likely that Snapchat and the publishers are attempting to build a loyal audience for the service before ramping up advertising efforts.

However, that period may soon be over, with marketings fourth-quarter spending spree on the horizon and Snapchat predicted to play a big part in the advertising build up to next years US presidential elections.