15M
Don't Tell Comedy · 90 days
Revenue Stream · 02
Spotlight
The biggest reach engine Snapchat has ever built. Spotlight is Snapchat's TikTok-style short-video feed — a vertically swipeable wall of clips where the algorithm decides who blows up next. It's how brand-new accounts get discovered overnight.
Why Spotlight matters
Spotlight is the front door. It's where 18–34-year-olds spend most of their Snapchat session, swiping through algorithmically-served short videos. Get a clip on the Spotlight feed and you're not limited to your followers — you're served to the entire user base of the app.
Spotlight doesn't pay per view the way Public Story does, but it's the discovery layer that feeds every other surface. New viewers find you on Spotlight, then convert into Public Story watchers and Profile subscribers — where the actual monetization happens.
12M
Michael Blaustein · 90 days
5–10×
Daily Spotlight posts we run
How the algorithm rewards Spotlight
The Spotlight algorithm cares about three things: watch time, completion rate, and share rate. Hit those and you'll get surfaced to massive new audiences. Miss those and your clip dies in the first 200 views.
- The FormatShort vertical video, 5–60 seconds. Punchy hook in the first 0.5s, payoff inside 15s.
- The Cadence5–10 Spotlights per day. Volume gives the algorithm enough signal to find what works.
- The HookEvery clip needs a visual or verbal hook in the opening frame. No setup. No dead air.
- The CrossoverEvery Spotlight banner should drive viewers back to your Public Story and Profile — that's where they convert.
What Spotlight unlocked for our clients
Don't Tell Comedy went from a 14K-follower account at month 1 to 208K followers 90 days later. Most of those followers were discovered through Spotlight clips — short comedy moments cut from the live show — that then funneled audiences into the daily Public Story.
Michael Blaustein before we joined: 207 Spotlight views. 90 days into the partnership: 12 million. The audience that found him on Spotlight is now the same audience driving his Public Story to 144M views per quarter.
Common mistakes we fix
- Reposting TikToksThe algorithm punishes watermarked content. We cut native Snapchat versions of every clip.
- CompilationsStitch multiple clips together and push the length as close to 5 minutes as you can. Longer Spotlights earn more watch-time signal, fit more ad breaks, and get reranked into bigger feeds.
- Posting Frequency1 a day won't move the needle. We push 5–10 to give the algorithm signal.
- Ignoring CensorshipAnything flagged kills reach. We screen every clip against Snapchat's monetization policies first.