Snap Employs Google Ad Executive for Better Performance

On Wednesday, Snap Inc, the owner of the photo messaging application called Snapchat, announced that it hired a former Google executive.

Its stock price increased by 0.57% to $10.62 per share on April 12. On the other hand, it is anticipated to drop by -0.38% to $10.58 apiece in the upcoming session.

It aims to improve their performance in digital ads through the executive’s employment.

Moreover, Darshan Kantak is a previous leader of product management for search ads at Alphabet Inc’s Google. He is now included in the team of Snap. He is standing in the position of senior vice president of revenue products.

Before working at Google, Kantak was employed at the Facebook parent company, Meta Platforms Inc, and Microsoft Corp.

Last year, two vital leaders left the company for Netflix, leading Snap to rebuild its ad sales team. The previous month, it hired Rob Wilk, a longtime ad executive at Microsoft. His current role is to lead its ad sales in the American region.

Snap says its first-quarter revenue in January can decline by 10.00% amid weaker advertising demand. It added that Kantak would lead ad format development teams and focus on improvement on ad effectiveness optimization.

In addition, the firm has been affected by privacy alterations established by Apple for iPhones in 2021. As a result, it made it more challenging for apps to assess how their ads can lead to website visits and sales.

Microsoft Teams Added Lenses from Snap

Microsoft collaborated with Snap to support their Camera Kit SDK capabilities. The partnership allows Microsoft to combine 26 Snapchat AR lenses into Teams without a separate add-on.

Furthermore, the new feature enables meeting participants to express themselves creatively mid-call.

Meanwhile, the lenses from Snap are only accessible in Teams for work and are unavailable for personal and educational versions. Also, it is only open for the current version of Teams, not the New Teams replication that Microsoft launched.

Moreover, the company plans to add digital avatars to Teams in May. Users would be able to overlay a digital character over their video feed.