Snap

Shopify Expands Advertising, Not Becoming Ad Tech

Shopify is expanding its advertising capabilities through a merchant-focused approach it calls “merchant marketing,” rather than building a traditional ad‑tech business. The company hired Samir Pradhan as VP of product for merchant marketing (November 2025) and recently launched an in‑platform tool called Campaign Autopilot to simplify ad setup and allocate budgets across Shopify channels, email, Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns using merchants’ own Google/Meta accounts. Shopify says it does not take CPM cuts or commission on ad-driven sales (unless it is the payment processor). It is also adding demand partners for Shop Campaigns — including ChatGPT, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok, Bing and Microsoft Monetize (the former AppNexus SSP) — and plans to span walled‑garden campaign types to optimize spend for merchants while keeping the offering merchant‑first and often free.

Snap Ads API Developer FAQ: Auth, Tokens, Reporting

This FAQ from Snap's Ads/Marketing API developer documentation explains authentication, token lifetimes, permissions, common errors, reporting, and practical integration tips. Key points: a redirect_uri is required for OAuth and cannot be edited (you must create a new app to change it); access tokens expire after 3600 seconds while refresh tokens do not expire but become invalid if the user’s access is removed; once you obtain access and refresh tokens you can make server-to-server requests; reporting requires org membership, ad account membership and a reports role; adding test=true to reporting requests returns dummy data. The page also describes how to revoke app access via accounts.snapchat.com, how to interpret E3003/E3002 error responses, advises removing the multipart Content-Type header when uploading media via Python requests, and warns about daylight‑savings impacts on reporting time windows.

Snap Marketing API Rate Limits

Snap's Marketing (Ads) API documentation defines rate limits to protect infrastructure stability. Rate limits are enforced at both the App and individual Access Token levels: Apps support an average of 20 requests per second while individual Access Tokens can make an average of 10 requests per second. Requests that exceed limits return an HTTP 429 Too Many Requests response; the docs advise reducing request traffic if 429 responses occur regularly. The page is developer-facing guidance for integrating applications with Snapchat's Ads/Marketing API.