For most of its history, Snapchat's biggest formats were about the first ad of the day: First Snap, First Story, First Lens. In 2026 Snap added two bigger ideas. Total Snap Takeover gives one brand the first ad in every part of the app. Promoted Places puts brands on the Snap Map, where people look for somewhere to go, and it launched in the Middle East in May with Saudi Arabia first.
Promoted Places: brands on the Snap Map
Promoted Places were tested in the US in 2024 with McDonald's and Taco Bell. On 6 May 2026 Snap announced them for the Middle East and North Africa, with Saudi Arabia as the launch market. A business gets:
- Sponsored pins on the Map, which can carry 3D animation.
- A sponsored place profile for each location.
- Map effects.
- Reporting on promoted place impressions, place opens and actions taken.
Snap also described Place Partnerships, covering more than 200 partner locations. The launch brands were Almarai; Starbucks, run in the region by Alshaya, which activated more than 350 Saudi stores during Ramadan 2026; and Masar Makkah. Almarai's Ramadan campaign with the agency Starcom, across Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, combined Promoted Places with an augmented reality world; the brand and agency reported 207.9 million impressions and 15 million people reached.
Promoted Places are not self-serve: Snap's help centre tells businesses to contact their Snap sales contact. In the US, Snap reported a 65 percent lower cost per incremental visit, measured by InMarket, and more than 20 million incremental visits by early 2026. Snap says more than 400 million people use the Snap Map each month.
Total Snap Takeover
Launched on 24 March 2026, Total Snap Takeover gives a brand the first ad slot in each tab of the app: the Map, Chat, the camera, Stories and Spotlight. MediaPost described the bundle as Promoted Places on the Map, Sponsored Snaps in Chat, Lenses and filters in the camera, tiled story ads in Stories, and Snap Ads and product ads in Stories and Spotlight. Snap's reasoning is that 97 percent of Snapchatters visit several tabs in a session. It has not said which markets can buy it or whether it is sold only through its sales team; guaranteed first slots usually are, so ask Snap's regional team.
Offers and product ad tests
- Offers, in beta since March, build a deal into a Snap Ad, and run in Spotlight and Stories. Snap has not named the markets.
- Snap is testing vertical carousels and product-level video for dynamic product ads, alongside product ads for several audience segments at once.
Ramadan and National Day
Snap's biggest regional moments now have their own products. For Ramadan 2026 it ran its fifth AR Ramadan Mall, with five districts and 11 brands across the Middle East, and added Snap Souq, a Saudi-only experience, with NiceOne, Abdul Latif Jameel, Rama Clinics and Stars Smile. The figure of 16.8 million shoppers that circulates for the mall is from 2025, not 2026. Ahead of Saudi National Day, Snap published insights suggesting shopping starts weeks before the day, without a new product.
Older than they look
- First Story, the first story ad of the day, was piloted in Saudi Arabia and the UAE before Eid al-Fitr in 2023, then rolled out globally.
- First Snap was announced in May 2025.
- Sponsored AI Lenses launched in April 2025. Gucci's, in February 2026, ran in the UAE and Saudi Arabia among other markets.
A note on the market
Snap told investors that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East cost it an estimated 20 to 25 million dollars of revenue in March 2026, and its guidance for the following quarter assumed similar conditions. Snap does not publish user numbers for the region in its results; its Saudi team continues to cite 26 million people in the Kingdom.
What to do with it
- For clients with many branches, such as restaurants, cafés, pharmacies and retailers, ask Snap about Promoted Places in Saudi Arabia, and plan them around the moments people go out: Ramadan evenings, Eid, National Day, the summer.
- Keep branch data clean. Names, locations and opening hours feed the Map.
- Use Total Snap Takeover for launches that justify owning a whole day, and measure it with brand lift rather than clicks.
- Book tentpole formats early.
The GCC marketing calendar on this site lists Ramadan, Eid, national days and the region's shopping seasons, so big formats can be booked in time.
