Snapchat has announced it is expanding its ad offerings to capitalise on recent growth in its advertising business, with the launch of Sponsored Snaps.

Traditionally, the Snapchat inbox has been free of ads, but now Snap is exploring paid direct messages as part of its strategy to grow its advertising business.

Commenting on the launch Snapchat CEO, Evan Spiegel, said: “Sponsored Snaps appear in the chat inbox as a new Snap without a push notification, and opening the message is optional.

“This allows advertisers to engage prospective customers all the way down the funnel all within a single ad unit; raise awareness with broad reach in the chat inbox, improve consideration with people who choose to view the Snap, and drive conversion with an in-message call-to-action.

“As we continue to evolve Sponsored Snaps, we are excited to enable more messaging features powered by generative AI and integrated into advertiser CRMs to help our partners communicate with their customers at scale. As always, your conversations with friends are private and are not used for advertising purposes,” added Spiegel.

Additionally, Snap is launching “Promoted Places,” allowing businesses to feature their locations on the Snap Map.

Spiegel added: “With Promoted Places, businesses can use the Snap Map to reach incremental customers who are exploring places nearby, and easily measure the visitation lift with our closed-loop and privacy-safe measurement.”