Snap research says 70% of map users browse with no destination in mind.
Snap, eye square and Horizon surveyed over 17,000 map users in six markets and tested Promoted Places on Snap Map against pins on utility maps.
Snap has published research with eye square and Horizon Media on how people use digital maps, and on how its Promoted Places ad format on Snap Map performed against sponsored pins on utility maps.
The report, published on the Snap for Business blog and dated 15 October 2026, surveyed over 17,000 digital map users aged 13 to 44 in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Snap has not given the fieldwork dates.
The headline finding for Snapchat is about intent. 70% of users say they enjoy browsing maps with no specific destination in mind, and 71% say maps are important to their daily lives. Snap says Snap Map reaches 450 million global monthly active users, citing its own internal data for Q1 2026.
How people use maps, by the numbers
- 68% of users send interesting map locations directly to others, and 57% regularly share their favourite saved locations.
- What people save: restaurants and cafes (45%), friends and family addresses (43%), parks and outdoor spaces (33%), shops and retail (33%) and travel destinations (30%).
- 76% consult Snap Map to see where their friends are, and 27% use it to coordinate meetups in person.
- Consumers are 2.9 times more likely to say they discovered their favourite real-world businesses on Snapchat than on other social platforms.
- 71% say they are open to visiting a physical location after seeing it featured as a sponsored pin.
The Promoted Places test
Snap ran an in-context test with more than 11,000 people and a post-exposure survey of 2,100 users across its markets. Against sponsored pins on utility maps, Promoted Places creatives were easier to notice (+9 percentage points), more appealing (+5) and more interesting to click on (+4). Measured 14 to 25 days after exposure, people were 1.1 times more likely to visit the store and 1.1 times more likely to have changed their opinion of the brand. Snap also says Promoted Places combined with Snapchat video on Spotlight lifted awareness, brand affinity and preference, but the post gives no figures for that.
These are Snap’s own numbers, from research it commissioned, comparing its format with the alternatives.
What it means for brands
For anyone with physical locations, the numbers that matter are the sharing ones: most map users pass places on to friends, and saving a spot is part of how they plan where to go. The ad results are Snap measuring its own product, so treat the 1.1 times visit lift as a claim to test rather than a benchmark. This week, if your boss asks whether Snap Map matters for store traffic, give them the 450 million figure with its source and the 68% sharing figure, and check that every location you run gives people a reason to save it and send it on.
Sources
The NBK Social briefing
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