Up your Instagram game and grow your following by creating posts and stories using Instagram’s newest feature called Reels. It’s designed to edit videos taken in the app that are up to 15-seconds long by adding audio, speed effects, special effects, and a pre-recording timer.
While Reels was released in the United States on August 5, 2020, they released the feature in select countries a few weeks prior. It was received positively and a few brands are capitalizing on this new feature, connecting with new and old customers.
Reels may sound similar to stories but there are a few major differentiating factors:
Reels lets you edit videos. You have the ability to add audio, speed controls, special effects, and a pre-recording timer.
Reels can be shared to Instagram’s Explore feed. (Your account will have to be public)
You can include original audio and it will be attributed to you. Other users can also use your audio which makes it great for exposure
Why the sudden push for a feature like this? Is Instagram trying to compete with TikTok or is it trying to match Snapchat’s effects and filters? It’s hard to say but there’s no doubt this new feature may take some loyal TikTokers and Snapchaters away from their beloved apps.
How To Use Instagram Reels
Tap the camera icon like you would to create a story
Tap ‘Reels’ on the bottom of the screen
Choose your effects
Record your video
Trim the video if needed
Tap the arrow to the right of the Reels record icon
Choose a cover photo, caption, and hashtags for your Reel
Publish to the desired location
Where are Reels Published?
You can choose where to publish your Reels. Share it to the Reels highlight that appears at the top of the Explore section (if your account is public), as a post on your feed that appears on your Instagram grid, or simply share it to your story and it will be deleted in 24 hours like other stories.
This feature has only been live for a few weeks in France and Sephora France already seems to have cracked the Reels code. Their Reels have nearly half a million views after just weeks of being posted.
View and Interact with Reels
You can like, share, and follow other user’s Reels by visiting the Explore page, tapping the Reels highlight, and scrolling through the Reels.
Features and Analytics on Instagram Reels
The Reels feature is somewhat limited with the GIFs, stickers, and effects you can use, but we are expecting that to change very soon with the Instagram user’s feedback on the feature.
The only analytics available on Reels right now are view count, likes, and comments. This too is expected to get more in-depth in the future.
Get on the Reels bandwagon early and create creative content to connect with potential customers and followers.
Contact Us
If you would like to revamp your social media presence or overhaul your website or marketing efforts we’re here to help. Contact us online or by phone for a free consultation. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa office is 813-556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas office is 702-515-2057.2020
Posting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.
Insights
Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:
Go to your profile
Tap the ‘Insights’ button
Select the post, story, or promotion you would like to research
Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:
Impressions- this is how many people took an action from your post like visiting your profile or using the call/email button attached to your post
Likes- how many times people liked your post
Comments-how many comments the post received
Saves-how many times your post was saved to a user’s Saved folder
Discovery- how many people found your post from the Discovery page, how many users found your post from their home feed,
Follows- how many new followers were gained from the post
Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:
The hours your followers are most active each day
The days your followers are most active
The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:
Profile visits- how many times users visited your profile
Website clicks- how many times people clicked on your website from your profile
Call/email clicks- how many times people clicked the call/email call-to-action buttons on your profile
Mentions- how many times people mentioned you using your Instagram handle
Advertising On Instagram
The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:
1. Create a business Facebook page
If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.
2. Set up an ad
In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.
3. Set your budget
Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.
4. Publish
Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.
Measuring Success
When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:
Followers- Watch your follower count over time. This will grow slowly at first then exponentially when you start posting more frequently and running ads.
Reach- Reach tracks the accounts viewing your stories, posts, profile. The great thing about this metric though is that it only measures new accounts viewing these things. So the same account viewing your profile more than once won’t skew the data. Over time your reach should improve steadily.
Impressions- Impressions are similar to reach in that it measures how many users view your stories, profile, and posts. The only difference is this metric can be skewed because it counts the total number of impressions, so if someone views your profile more than once it will count multiple views. It’s still a helpful tool if you want to measure how your posts are affecting your profile views or how your stories are affecting if people are looking at your profile, but reach is a better metric to measure how many new people you’re reaching.
Ad Success
Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:
Website Clicks- It’s likely if your advertising a product you’ll place a ‘Shop Now’ button on the ad that brings an Instagram user to your website. Track these metrics to figure out how well your ads are doing. Visit the Activity page in the Insights to see how many website clicks you’re getting
Email/Call Clicks- If your goal for creating Instagram ads was to receive emails or calls track how many of these are coming from Instagram with your Activity tab in the Insights page.
Success of ads- What ads are generating your desired results? Ask yourself if its the content that’s accompanying your ad, the copy, the time of day you posted it. Figure out what ads work for your business and replicate that.
Community Engagement
Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:
Comments- This shows people are engaging with your content. You want to build a community and have a dialogue with your followers. It’s crucial that you have people commenting and that you respond to these comments.
Story replies- If a user is invested in your business they are likely to watch your story and reply. How many replies you get is a good measure of how good of a relationship your building with followers
User-generated content- Are people frequenting your business or using your product/service and creating content based on it? This is one of the biggest factors to look at. If a customer is really invested in your product they will advertise for you. This shows you have a quality business. It’s very important to engage with these users when they post about your business since it opens a dialogue and creates a deeper relationship.
Interacting With The Instagram Community
We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.
Contact Us
If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.
There’s no doubt that Instagram started as a simple photo-sharing app and has now become one of the largest social media platforms out there. It’s one of the best tools for businesses to reach their target audience. In this blog, we discuss why you should be on Instagram, how to set up your account, what to write in your bio, and how to set up call-to-action buttons.
Why You Should Be On Instagram
Instagram boasts some impressive statistics that are advantageous for businesses when the proper steps are taken.
200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile every day
Instagram has a huge share of different demographics
18-29: 59%
30-49: 33%
50-64: 18%
65+: 8%
One of Instagram’s appeals is that people can choose to follow a brand, unlike other forms of advertising you can reach your audience without being intrusive. Thus, they are more likely to receive your message and convert to customers.
How To Set Up An Account
Download the Instagram app
Make a non-business profile (it will be changed to a business account)
Tap the three-line icon in the top right corner of your profile
Tap ‘Settings’
Tap ‘Account’
Tap ‘Switch to Professional Account’
Tap ‘Business’
At this point, you can attach your business’s Facebook page so your Instagram posts will automatically publish to your Facebook
Add your business category and contact information
Tap ‘Done’
Make An Impression With Your Profile Picture And Bio
Choose your profile picture. Most businesses use their logo. You will want this photo (like all the other photos you post on Instagram) to be of high quality.
Craft a unique bio. Ask yourself these questions when drafting your bio:
What are you?
What do you stand for?
Where are you located?
What’s your website?
What is your business hashtag?
Call-To-Action Buttons
Instagram has call-to-action buttons and it’s highly recommended you use at least one. Here’s how to set them up.
Instagram only used to have four options: Call, Text, Email, and Directions. They have since added new action buttons: Book, Buy Tickets, Start Order, Reserve. Determine which call to action buttons would be best for your audience and add them to your profile. You can reference these buttons in posts and stories for extra traction.
Contact Us
Congrats! Once you have completed these steps you can start posting on your new business Instagram page. If you would like to outsource your social media duties contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you the Tampa office phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas phone number is (702) 515-2057.
Did you know there’s a score that can tell you how useful your web page will appear to search engines? It’s called a page authority score. Read this blog to find out what exactly page authority is, how to find your score, and how to improve your score.
What Is Page Authority?
Page authority is a score assigned by Moz. Its a score based on how well your page will rank on a search engine results page (SERP). It’s a score between 0 and 100. The lower the score the easier it is to improve it.
How To Measure The Page Authority Of A Web Page
If you’re asking yourself “How do I find my page authority?”, no worries Moz has an easy to access tool that tests it on web pages to figure out how important/helpful they are. This tool is called the Link Explorer.
How To Use The Moz Link Explorer
Here are the steps to use the Link Explorer:
Find a page that you would like to test the page authority of
Copy the URL of that page
Paste it into the Link Explorer search box
Click ‘Analyze’
Various boxes will come up but the box right underneath the search box will have both the page authority.
Moz will also track your page authority over time in a chart like this.
What Is A Good Page Authority Score?
Page authority is scored on a 0-100 scale. There are many factors that go into creating a page authority score so there is no definitive way to say what a good or bad score is.
The best way to find a page with a good page authority is to compare various page authority scores you have collected to determine which is the best and make your content even better.
How To Raise Your Page Authority
There are a few ways to raise your page authority.
Get external links
Driving traffic to your site this way is the best way to raise your page authority. Getting featured links on industry-related websites, blogs, or social media are all ways to generate external links that bring people to your site. Search engines will deem you more valuable if they see this.
There is a downside to this that should be mentioned. If your site is being linked to by other sites with low page authority this will not help your score and may even hurt it.
Create fresh, valuable content
While you want to add value to people’s lives with helpful content you also want to have fresh content. This means picking topics that haven’t yet been written about or coming at a topic from a unique angle.
Feature images on your pages
Images make written content more digestible and sharable. This will hopefully earn you some shares or external links that will improve your page authority. Google crawlers also favor images, especially if they are original which can also raise your page authority.
*Important note- Google crawlers do not yet fully understand images so it’s important to have image alt text that explains to the crawlers what the image is.
Contact Us
Knowing your page authority score is a good measurement of how helpful your web page is deemed to be. If your web pages could use a boost in their page authority score contact us. We have all the means necessary to create and add engaging content, spice up the look of your website, and make sure the site is being crawled properly. We have two locations to serve you in Las Vegas and Tampa you can call by phone or contact us online. The Tampa location phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.
What’s a pillar page and why should every website have one? This blog will discuss pillar pages in-depth, from what they are, to why you should have one, and how to create one. Keep reading to find out how they can help your business build credibility and improve relationships with current and future customers.
What Is A Pillar Page?
To put it simply pillar pages are web pages that contain information about a specific topic with relevant subtopics on it. These subtopics are clickable hyperlinks within the text body that will transfer someone to various pieces of content. For example, let’s say your topic is about the mechanics of baseball. You would have subtopics underneath baseball for subjects related to baseball like how to pick the right equipment, how to catch a ball, how to hit a baseball, etc and within those text bodies on the page, there will be clickable links to other more specific pieces related to the subtopic.
Your main topic should be a popular keyword. This will drive traffic to your pillar page via clicks. This keyword should also be mentioned in the image alt text, h1 tags, URL, and title.
Here’s an example of a pillar page for more context. There is body text about the main topic with a clickable link to a more detailed piece of content about fonts, logos, and colors.
When Should You Create A Pillar Page?
A pillar page should be created when you have enough content on the topic that you can flesh it out. Pretend you know nothing about the topic, would you be able to go to your pillar page and learn enough about the topic to have a comfortable conversation about many facets of the topic. If the answer is yes, then you have enough content for a pillar page. If the answer is no, create additional pieces of content with the intent of publishing that information on your pillar page.
There is such a thing as a 10x pillar page. What do you ask is the difference between a regular pillar page and a 10x pillar page? A 10x pillar page simply means your pillar page is 10x (10 times) better than the best pillar page on the chosen topic. This is the ultimate goal when creating a pillar page.
What Is A Pillar Page Good For?
A pillar page can serve as a landing page for a specific topic you’re trying to market. They are beneficial for email marketing, webinars, or paid ad purposes.
Creating a pillar page not only makes you seem credible but people will use you as a resource for that topic.
Steps To Create A Pillar Page
Choose a topic
This should be broad but not too broad
Choose your subtopics and write them or repurpose them from your old content
Add hyperlinks where relevant in the body text
Build your pillar page
Share your new awesome content!
Outsource Your Website Design And Pillar Page Creation
Running a business is time-consuming. Outsource your marketing and website design to experts with over 20 years of experience at Ventura Web Design and Marketing.
How Long Should A Pillar Page Be?
A pillar page should have body text ranging between 2000-5000 words. The text should relate to the main topic, but it shouldn’t go fully into detail. That’s what you have the hyperlinks to other content you’ve created for.
Extra Features To Add To Your Pillar Page
Progress bar
This is a bar that appears on the page under the URL that shows a reader how far they are into the article.
Last updated line
Let your readers know how up to date their content is by updating your pillar page with a description saying when the page was last updated
Offer a PDF download of the pillar page
This creates a document someone can print or easily email or share on social media.
Introduction video
Include a video at the top of your pillar page. Videos are the best way to intrigue readers and keep them on your page.
Table of contents
This can be at the top of the page or on the side of the page as the reader scrolls through. This is designed so a reader can easily know what section they’re on as well as skip easily to sections they would like to read.
Format your pillar page in small snippets
A wall of text is extremely daunting and disinteresting to a reader. Make your content more appealing and digestible by keeping the text chunks between 2-4 sentences, using bullets, or numbered lists.
Include a ‘back to top’ button
No one likes excessive scrolling. Make it easy for readers to get back to the top of your page with a clickable ‘back to top’ button.
Contact Us To Design Your Pillar Page
Gain email subscribers, market your self using paid ads, and present yourself as a thought leader with a pillar page today. If you need help designing a professional pillar page we can help you with that. Contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The Tampa location phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas location phone number is (702) 515-2057.
While most businesses crown Google or Instagram as King of Advertising, Snapchat is often overlooked as a powerful, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to reach the highly coveted millennial demographic. This guide is designed to show you the benefits of advertising on Snapchat and how it compares to its competitors. It will show you how to create successful Snapchat ads, and what metrics to look for after your ad is implemented.
Benefits Of Advertising On Snapchat
Here are some benefits to Snapchat advertising:
The spending power of users
Ability to target younger demographics
Ease of ad creation
Specific location targeting
Full-screen ads
Unique Snapchat features
Targeting your core demographic is a vital part of picking what platform to place ads. Snapchat users are primarily within the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. If your target audience aligns with these age groups Snapchat would be a favorable platform to place ads.
According to a Hootsuite article written in 2018, Snapchat captures 41% of those ages 18-34 every day. It also has the sixth-highest concentration of Millennials among all mobile apps.
Millennials and Gen Z have a $1 trillion spending ability. By neglecting Snapchat as an advertising platform you are leaving money and potential consumers behind.
In a Murphy research study, they found Snapchat users were 60% more likely to impulse buy.
Snapchat’s Ad Manager interface is extremely user friendly. It intuitively guides you through the whole process with their ‘Instant Create’ option. Comparatively, Facebook and Google have much more complex processes for creating an ad.
If you’re a seasoned ad creator, Snapchat has a more advanced ad creation option called ‘Advanced Create’. Anyone with a business Snapchat account has access to this feature. You can find the ‘Advanced Create’ portal from your desktop by logging into your Snapchat account and hovering over the ‘Create Ads’ button in the top left corner and selecting ‘Advanced Create’. Within the advanced create feature you can access a lot more customizable campaign options like:
Split Testing
Campaign creation instead of a single ad creation
Access to more specific controls for who views your ad
Access to a lifetime budget instead of just a daily budget
Advanced bidding options (Auto-bid or Max bid)
Tags that allow you to be able to target users that may consume products related to it
Topsnap testing
In addition to its younger user demographic, and workable interface, Snapchat is the only platform that allows super-specific location targeting. It allows advertisers to target universities, parks, or even specific buildings. This allows you to target areas that largely contain your demographic instead of targeting a whole city, region, or country where your ad dollars would be wasted.
How Is Snapchat Different From Its Competitors?
Snapchat gives you the creative license when deciding what you want your ad to look like. You can use a GIF, video, or static image.
A ‘Snap Ad’ will run in a full-screen video format with the sound on. This differentiates itself from other platforms where the sound is turned off until the user decides to turn it on. This is a huge opportunity to make an initial impression with sound. The 100% full-screen ad is advantageous, Instagram is the only other platform to use this method of advertising. It’s only within their story feature and it doesn’t include sound.
There are three different types of Snap Ad formats displayed below:
App Installs look like this on the app:
Long-form videos are presented like this:
Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:
The full-screen ads differ from other platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram feed ads take up about 25%-33% of the screen when scrolling through a timeline or browser this allows for the user to be distracted by other information, while on Snapchat the ad has their full attention when the advertiser uses the full-screen presentation option.
Another Snapchat exclusive feature is branded tiles on the ‘Discover’ page. These are companies like Seventeen magazine that make content consistently to be featured within the ‘Discover’ page but companies can also pay to be a sponsored tile on the page.
Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:
This is one of Snapchat’s success stories.
The last example is a Snapchat filter that was launched in Germany. It was a huge success for the brand. View their KPI’s here.
Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk praises Snapchat for its ability to capture the attention of its users. He said he hasn’t seen such an active user base since Twitter in 2007 and 2008. Let’s compare Snapchat stories to emails. According to Gary, on the best day, only 25% of his emails are opened this would be a very low percentage of stories viewed on Snapchat.
Industries Advertising On Snapchat
Naming all the businesses that advertise on Snapchat would be almost impossible, so instead here’s a list of industries that Snapchat has hosted ads for:
E-commerce
App services
Technology
Entertainment
Consumer packaged goods
Auto
Retail
Restaurants
Travel
Financial services
Health
Telecommunications
Insurance
Government/Politics
How To Engage An Ad Viewer
The average Snapchat user is very engaged with the app, opening it 18-25 times a day. While the users are loyal to the app it is important when creating an ad to catch their attention as soon as possible with a clear message, USP, and call to action. Here is an example of a brand that had clear messaging, engaging visuals, and a clear call to action.
Elf had eye-catching visuals to open the ad with, then by the third second of their ad they had their USP displayed on the screen, and finished with a ‘Shop Now’ call to action. They followed the formula for a successful Snapchat ad.
Engage in 1-2 seconds + Present USP in 3-4 seconds + Finish strong with a call to action
Questions To Ask Before Creating A Snapchat Ad
Who is the target audience?
What do you want your viewers to do?
Gain awareness of the brand, buy a product, download an app, visit a website
What type of ad will you run?
How do you want the ad to look?
Video, GIF, image
Will there be ad copy?
Is there music or a voice-over?
What is the daily and lifetime budget for the ad/campaign?
How long should the ad run?
Most Effective Snapchat Ads
Lead Generation Ads
Best for audiences you don’t have a relationship with
Offer something that solves a problem or provides value
The benefit:
You receive the customer’s email that can be used to occasionally promote your business
You can retarget those that visited your site in the future (this requires the Snap Pixel plug-in)
Doorbuster Ads
This ad gives something away for free that gets customers into a brick and mortar location
The benefit:
People came in for the freebie but bought additional items
Counterpart Ads
This is an ad served to customers that are theoretically interested in the same things your current customers are.
How to do it:
Load up your email customer contact list into Snapchat. (located under the assets tab in the ‘Audience’ section)
The app then builds a list of potential new customers that will theoretically like the same things as your current customers.
Create an ad for this specific customer base.
The ad you’ve created will then be served to the people that the Snapchat algorithm deemed of value to you.
Note: You should have more than 1,000 emails to make sure the Snapchat has enough people to use in their algorithm.
How To Create Snapchat Ads
The first step to creating Snapchat ads is to download the app.
Creating your business’s Snapchat account:
Download Snapchat from the App Store
Open Snapchat
Tap ‘Sign Up’
Enter your name and tap ‘Sign Up & Accept’
Enter your date of birth
Create a username
Create a password
Enter your phone number and verify it *optional
Use your username and password to access Ads Manager within the app
Once you’ve accessed the Ads Manager follow these steps to create your ad with Instant Create:
Select ‘Instant Create’ option
Select an ad goal
Input website
Select the image, video, or GIF you want to use
Crop image or video if necessary
Enter ad copy and choose a layout template
Edit template as desired
Continue and fill ad demographic information, the location where you want the ad to appear, the duration for the campaign, and business and payment information
Follow these instructions to create an ad with ‘Advanced Create’:
Build Your Campaign
Choose what you want your viewers to do and convert to.
Choose a detailed name for your ad.
The best option is to name it by the objective of the ad and the time frame in which it will run. Then choose the time frame you want the ad to run through
Choose daily and lifetime budgets
Ad Sets
It’s suggested you name your ad set by the audience, budget, goal, and schedule.
The more detail the better considering you can run multiple ad campaigns and ad sets.
Select the ad format and ad type, then attach the file that you wish to advertise.
Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
Select your placement preferences, audience location, demographics, and language.
This will vary from business to business and should all be decided in the research phase before creating an ad.
Select audiences predefined category, operating system, and connection type
Choose the status of the ad, budget, start and end date of the ad, the goal of the ad, and your bid type.
As a newcomer, it is recommended to choose the auto-bid option. This takes the guesswork out of how much you’ll need to spend on daily ad budgets in the future. It will also allow you to figure out your cost per action or in layman’s terms how much you spend for someone to complete your desired ad goal.
Build Your Ad
Fill in your ad name, brand name, and headline then choose whether you want the ad to be sharable. Test your ad in Topsnap to make sure it meets the minimum requirements.
Select whether you want the ad to be active and fill in the tags that correspond to your ad.
Review and Publish
Review your previous ad choices, fill in your business information, and payment details.
Publish your campaign
How To Install Snap Pixel
Snap Pixel is an important program you will want for the purposes of retargeting and analytics. You can add it to your website by following this video tutorial.
How To Measure Success On Snapchat
KPI’s (key performance indicators) are what you will use to measure the success of your campaign. If you already have a website, your current KPIs might be conversion rate, total revenue, or time spent on your web page. Outlining metrics to measure your success in advance is helpful because it keeps you (and your team) focused on the end goal throughout the entire project and helps avoid distractions.
There are two apps needed to measure your KPI’s on Snapchat. Snaplytics and Delmondo.
Neither app measures every KPI.
Snaplytics measures open rates, story views, average screenshots per story, and completion rate.
Delmondo tracks more helpful metrics and provides a more detailed view of your audience, basic metrics, and channel comparisons to your other social media channels.
Here are some of the specific KPI’s tracked by Delmondo
Audience Insights
Location
Age
Interests
Basic KPI’s
Impressions
Views
Completion rates
Screenshot rates
Channel Comparisons
Measures how well your Snapchat is doing against your Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
Other important KPI’s to measure that aren’t on Snaplytics or Delmondo
Fall-off rate – The fall-off rate takes a little bit of grade school math to calculate. Here’s how you do it:
Compare the views of your first two photos on your story
The first has 500 views and the second has 400
500 – 400 = 100
100 / 500 = .2
.2 x 100 = 20%
Therefore your fall-off rate is 20%.
Number of followers – Below are the steps to locate your follower count
Open Snapchat
Click on your Bitmoji in the top left corner
Look under your yellow snap code and beside your username
The number located there is your follower count
Geofilter analytics – Here’s how to locate your geofilter analytics
Log into the desktop version of your Snapchat account
If you would like to take full advantage of your advertising budget, outsource your Snapchat marketing or other digital marketing needs to experts please contact Ventura Web Design at (813) 556-7990 or fill out the online contact form.
Our team at Ventura Web Design & Marketing is dedicated to keeping your website up to date. We actively research algorithm updates when they are released and analyze your website to see which changes are necessary.
Below is a guide to each Google algorithm update beginning in 2020. Bookmark this page or check back frequently as we continuously add updates.
The January 2020 Core Update was announced, per Google’s new initiative beginning in 2019 to be more transparent with their algorithm updates. They’ve aimed to announce updates before rolling them out, and so far this seems to be true.
The update, according to Google, was a broad initiative to better ensure quality content for people seeking information.This means Google continues to push content creators and websites to evaluate what they’re publishing in order to give people the best “answer” possible when searching.
Some SERP layout changes were included in the update as well. Google decided to include a website’s favicon next to its result, and display the site’s breadcrumbs in lieu of the specific URL. For example, instead of https://www.venturawebdesign.com/responsive-vs-mobile-website-design/ appearing just above the meta description, this displays:
What does this mean?
It’s up to specialists to look at the data and adjust where necessary. Google has indicated that a drop in rankings following this update isn’t necessarily a penalty, per se. But rather a drop in rankings indicates that your information isn’t meeting certain standards as well as it used to according to previous standards.
You will need to evaluate your content and update it to ensure it’s high-quality and providing value to whoever is reading it. This includes showing you are a trustworthy source, proofing your content, presenting your information in a readable and useable way, and more.
Favicon Update
Estimated Rollout: January 24, 2020
What Changed?
Remember the favicon update on January 13? Google rolled this back so favicons no longer show up in the SERPs.
Snippet & Deduplication Update
Estimated Rollout: January 22, 2020
What changed?
Featured snippets that were once known as position zero are now included in the main organic search results and known as position one. URLs for the snippets are no longer displayed (i.e. duplicated) anywhere else in the core search results. For example, if a website held positions zero and one for an article, following the update they’ll only hold position one.
This update also included changes to whether images are deduplicated. Images aren’t impacted by this as long as the URL for the image is different from the URL associated with the text of the snippet.
What does this mean?
The purpose of this update, according to Google, is to declutter the search results page so that people aren’t seeing multiple the same information more than once.
Website owners can choose to alter their SEO strategy accordingly. For example, depending on the strategy, snippets can be opted out of. This would mean that websites would be competing for position 2, instead of positions zero or one prior to the update. This can be done primarily by using the “nosnippet” tag.
Be sure to carefully consider your online strategy before making drastic changes. It’s recommended you discuss this change with a specialist to avoid making mistakes that could penalize you on the Google search result pages.
FEBRUARY 2020
Unconfirmed Local & Maps Update
Estimated Rollout: February 14, 2020
What changed?
Neither officially announced nor confirmed by Google, many websites experienced movement in rankings and traffic fluctuations during/after February 14. Most of these changes impacted local SEO in Google Maps and Google local packs.
What does this mean?
It’s speculated that the unofficial February 14 update was an adjustment to the January 2020 Core Update. Many SEOs sat with the local update for a few days in order to make changes once the dust settled.
MARCH 2020
Nofollow Update
Estimated Rollout: March 1, 2020
What changed?
Prior to the March 1 update, Google treated nofollow tags as law. Nofollow links weren’t crawled, however, that’s changed. Now, nofollow tags are mere suggestions and there’s a possibility Google will visit those links.
What does this mean?
You may want to review how you’ve set up your website to be indexed. Nofollow tags are sometimes used to prevent crawlers from looking at account pages or pages without value to visitors. However, maybe a noindex or meta norobots tag would be more appropriate for your purposes. This change may impact rankings depending on what Google crawls and indexes moving forward.
You care about your business and you care about who is visiting you online to learn more. It’s important to consider how your potential clients and customers are using your website so you can improve their experience.
By thinking about who is visiting you online, you can better accommodate their needs and make sure each individual has reasonable accessibility to your site. This is where ADA compliance comes in and why it’s so important.
What is ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is celebrating its 30th birthday this year in 2020! The ADA was enacted in order to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. This ensures that businesses, employers, etc. are held to a set of standards in order to prevent discrimination based on ableness, and make sure that environments are accessible.
The act contains several different titles, each of which prohibit and outline discrimination in specific ways. These include but are not limited to: employment, state and local governments, public transportation, public areas, and public telecommunications.
Why is website accessibility important?
Adopting ADA best practices with respect to your website or e-commerce site improves your customer’s experience with your business and ensures accessibility. Accessibility in this case refers to addressing the needs of individuals who may be using your site, and who may also have a visual or auditory (or other) disability or limitation.
Accounting for accessibility makes it easier for individuals to navigate your site and consume content. For example, adjusting the contrast of the text and background colors of your website makes it easier for individuals who are colorblind to read your articles or product descriptions.
Is ADA compliance mandatory? What could happen if my website is non-compliant?
ADA compliance can be punishable by law. Non-compliance may be enforced through several channels such as litigation by a private citizen, litigation by the federal government, and/or investigations based off of complaints made to federal agencies.
The number of web accessibility lawsuits appears to be growing. Target, Amazon, and even Beyoncé are among some of the more well-known cases. ADA website accessibility cases nearly tripled from 2017 to 2019. If you aren’t compliant with the ADA website standards, you not only are neglecting a valuable percentage of potential customers and clients, but you also open yourself up to a lawsuit.
What are some of the guidelines to follow for my website?
Interestingly enough, by improving your website’s web accessibility, you’re also improving your website’s SEO. Your general goal is to make your website as user-friendly as possible to as many users as possible.
You’re going to want to pay attention to the way you’re writing and how that text is presented.
Headings and titles should appropriately describe the published content
Recognize who will be reading your content and adjust your style as necessary
Avoid giant walls of text and use a bulleted list (just like this one!)
Use colors and formats to break up the text
Pay attention to visual elements, other than plain text, on each page of your website
Use alternative text, or alt text, to describe images (or buttons, logos, etc.) so that individuals with visual impairments can use a screen reader to read the descriptive text aloud
Provide transcriptions, descriptions, captions, and narrations for video content
If you’re using tables, make sure to label the columns correctly
Avoid using PDFs as they can’t be read by screen reading software
Take a look at your site navigation as well
Ensure your site can be navigated by using a keyboard, as well as a mouse or trackpad
Include “Skip Navigation” links at the top of each page so that individuals may jump to the beginning of the main content
What about the social media accounts for my business?
There are several ways to improve accessibility for your social media accounts as well
Use alt text to describe the images you’re posting (Facebook, Instagram, and other social media giants allow you to do this)
Follow the same rules about video content on your social media as you do for your website (i.e. transcriptions, descriptions, captions, and narrations)
Think about your use of emojis, if you use them at all, as if they were being read aloud to you
Doing this: #VenturaWebDesign is better than doing this: #VENTURAWEBDESIGN
Please keep in mind that the lists above are simplified. For a more complete list, we suggest visiting ADA.gov.
How can I make SURE my website is in compliance?
Aside from auditing your own website against the ADA.gov web accessibility best practices and guidelines, there are other ways to ensure you’re in compliance
Take advantage of free online tools such as Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE). You can install WAVE as a browser or extension, which you can then run against webpages to determine their level of accessibility
Hire a professional to audit and improve your online business so you don’t have to do any guesswork
ADA compliance is an important part of digital marketing and the online world. We know that you value ADA standards because you also value your customers and audience. By improving accessibility, you’re improving the experience for anyone who visits your e-commerce site.
Here at Ventura Web Design and Marketing, we have quality experience improving and establishing ADA website accessibility compliance. Click here for a free consultation today.
This publication is not intended to be legal advice or to replace the advice of a competent attorney. While Ventura Web Design aims to help your website be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, we make no guarantees of 100% accessibility, nor do we make any claims that our work or advice will be suitable for your specific purposes or needs.
With over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with your customers and boosting brand awareness. Building your brand on Instagram takes more than just setting up a profile.
Simply having a presence on the platform just isn’t enough these days. To take full advantage of the social media juggernaut, you should consider utilizing all of the tools that Instagram has to offer. One of the most powerful tools Instagram has in its arsenal is the Instagram Stories feature.
What Are Instagram Stories?
For those who haven’t been using this feature, Instagram Stories is a feature within Instagram where users can capture and post pictures or video content in a slideshow format. Audiences are then able to click on your profile picture and view your content. After 24 hours, your pictures or videos disappear back into the ether.
Instagram stories can be a unique branding opportunity that not enough businesses are taking advantage of. If you’ve been considering using stories, why not give it a shot? Read on to learn how you can leverage Instagram Stories to increase brand awareness.
We’ll Do It Live
One of the most exciting aspects of Instagram is its ability to showcase events in real-time. Whether you’re launching a new product or attending an industry event, going live on the ‘Gram is a surefire way to entertain your core audience.
For example, if you’re an online retail company getting ready to launch a new product, do a live Q&A for customers to interact with and learn more about the launch. Live video allows your audience an authentic behind the scenes view that they may not be privy to otherwise.
Then after your live video ends, add it to your stories for the rest of your followers to enjoy for the next 24 hours! Live video is fast becoming one of the best ways to keep your audience entertained and connected and can do wonders for your brand awareness.
Tag, Use Hashtags, & Add Locations
Just like traditional posts, Instagram allows you to add #hashtags to your stories. Using a similar strategy as your traditional posts, adding hashtags to your Instagram story is an excellent place to use your own branded hashtags.
Brands can also add their location as a way to connect with people in your local community. This can also be an opportunity to connect with other people and institutions within your IRL community. In a similar vein, you can tag other accounts within your stories and try to generate meaningful interactions.
These features can be a fantastic way to foster relationships with people and businesses within your area and humanize your brand in the eyes of your local community.
Swipe-Up Feature
Do you have that coveted little blue check next to your profile? How about at least 10,000 followers? Congratulations! You can take advantage of Instagram’s swipe-up feature.
Swipe-up allows users who view your story to swipe up on their screen and go directly to a landing page of your choosing. The best part? The user can do all of this without ever leaving the Instagram platform.
If you don’t have access to this feature, don’t sweat it. Though it’s only available to a select amount of users at the moment, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Keep an eye out on the latest Instagram updates in case the powers that be decide to make the feature public in the future.
Highlights
Although stories are designed to be ephemeral, the highlights feature allows you to keep your stories in a more permanent place. Anytime you post a story, you have the opportunity to save it as a “highlight”. These are the buttons that appear on your profile, below your bio and above your regular feed.
How you create and arrange these can vary, just remember to keep them on brand! You can even go above and beyond and create branded highlight covers. These will keep your profile looking great while presenting information or content that resonates with your audience.
Become A Storyteller
At the end of the day, the most important feature of Instagram stories is simply the stories themselves. Stories connect us, both in real life and with our audience online. Instagram stories allow brands the unique opportunity to tell their own stories and nurture positive relationships.
When you relate to your audience on a human level, you foster goodwill between yourself and your audience. Think of Instagram stories as opportunities to continue to build your brand and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
If you’re curious about getting started on Instagram or have specific questions relating to stories, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Corporate transparency is on the rise as a trait sought and favored by consumers. After a potentially embarrassing typo was discovered across multiple marketing pieces for Verizon’s digital carrier Visible, the company decided to take the mistake in stride. The ad reading ‘massages’ rather than ‘messages’ sparked an ingenious campaign where the company sponsored free massages for anyone that showed up to their mobile centers. The company revered the campaign as a huge success, showing huge reach on social media and even earning some press while boosting their sales.
The lesson to be learned from this accident (or, as some suggest, “intentionally accidental”) mishap, is to work with whatever is thrown your way. Seize the opportunity to get creative with your marketing and make a memorable impact on your consumer base. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns include aspects of the corporation’s personality with a dash of humor as well as a healthy dose of transparency and willingness to admit mistakes – even typos – to your consumer base. Campaigns like Verizon’s Visible massages build a relationship with your ideal customer by establishing a foundation of trust backed by an excellent product.
Instagram Reels Explained [Video]
/in Social Media /by Kevin RichardsUp your Instagram game and grow your following by creating posts and stories using Instagram’s newest feature called Reels. It’s designed to edit videos taken in the app that are up to 15-seconds long by adding audio, speed effects, special effects, and a pre-recording timer.
While Reels was released in the United States on August 5, 2020, they released the feature in select countries a few weeks prior. It was received positively and a few brands are capitalizing on this new feature, connecting with new and old customers.
Reels may sound similar to stories but there are a few major differentiating factors:
Why the sudden push for a feature like this? Is Instagram trying to compete with TikTok or is it trying to match Snapchat’s effects and filters? It’s hard to say but there’s no doubt this new feature may take some loyal TikTokers and Snapchaters away from their beloved apps.
How To Use Instagram Reels
Where are Reels Published?
You can choose where to publish your Reels. Share it to the Reels highlight that appears at the top of the Explore section (if your account is public), as a post on your feed that appears on your Instagram grid, or simply share it to your story and it will be deleted in 24 hours like other stories.
This feature has only been live for a few weeks in France and Sephora France already seems to have cracked the Reels code. Their Reels have nearly half a million views after just weeks of being posted.
View and Interact with Reels
You can like, share, and follow other user’s Reels by visiting the Explore page, tapping the Reels highlight, and scrolling through the Reels.
Features and Analytics on Instagram Reels
The Reels feature is somewhat limited with the GIFs, stickers, and effects you can use, but we are expecting that to change very soon with the Instagram user’s feedback on the feature.
The only analytics available on Reels right now are view count, likes, and comments. This too is expected to get more in-depth in the future.
Get on the Reels bandwagon early and create creative content to connect with potential customers and followers.
Contact Us
If you would like to revamp your social media presence or overhaul your website or marketing efforts we’re here to help. Contact us online or by phone for a free consultation. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa office is 813-556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas office is 702-515-2057.2020
How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram
/in Social Media /by Kevin RichardsPosting on your business’s Instagram page is only half the fun, the other half is looking at your insights and measuring the success of your posts and ads, and adjusting as necessary. In this blog, we will discuss Instagram insights, how to create an Instagram ad, and how to measure your success.
Insights
Instagram business accounts are great because they let you track the success of stories, posts, and promotions. Here’s how to see those insights:
Track the insights of a particular post by going into the Insights page and clicking on the post you’d like to research. Once there you’ll find helpful metrics for your post like:
Instagram tracks audience insights as well. It tracks a user’s age demographics, gender, and location. The location can be set to a country or a specific city, so small businesses can find this feature extremely useful. This audience insights page also contains:
The Activity tab lets you track weekly Interactions, Reach, and Impressions. This can give you an idea of how well your page performs. Some other helpful features you can track in the profile analytics page include:
Advertising On Instagram
The quickest way to gain a following on Instagram and start achieving your goals is to place paid ads. You should be targeting your demographic with these ads to increase sales and brand awareness. Here’s a quick rundown of how to create an Instagram ad:
1. Create a business Facebook page
If you don’t have one already you will need to create a business Facebook page since the apps are connected and the Ads Manager is run through Facebook.
2. Set up an ad
In the Ads Manager select the ad objective, target audience, and ad format. You can also select a post you’ve already created and tap Promote. Instagram will do the work for you of selecting an audience to view your ads. This is recommended unless you feel very comfortable and knowledgeable about your target audience and how to use the Ad Manager.
3. Set your budget
Choose your maximum budget and how long your ad should run.
4. Publish
Publish your ad, once it is reviewed and approved you will get a notification that indicates it’s ready to run.
Measuring Success
When measuring success on Instagram it’s important to remember why you created it. Was it to gain followers, get more bookings, build brand awareness? Here are three important metrics to consider when measuring success on Instagram:
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness ties into previously discussed topics like posting high-quality content, posting consistently, and targeting the right audience. When you do these things well a following comes naturally. These are the metrics for measuring brand awareness:
Ad Success
Placing paid ads is a crucial part of a business’s success on Instagram. Track how your ads are performing with the following metrics:
Community Engagement
Follower counts and leads are great, but are you building a genuine relationship? Brands that build a genuine community have the most success long term. Here are some important metrics when considering your community engagement on Instagram:
Interacting With The Instagram Community
We touched on the importance of engaging with your community earlier. It’s also important to engage with other businesses in your area and industry. Being active and commenting on other’s posts is not just showing your support, but it’s getting your business out there in another way where potential followers or customers could see it. Instagram’s algorithm also favors people who exchange DM’s, comment, and like other’s posts. So if they’re following you you’re more likely to appear at the top of their Home page. This is crucial for engagement rates.
Contact Us
If you would like to outsource your social media advertising to experts contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The number for the Tampa location is (813) 556-7990 and the number for the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.
How To Set Up A Business Instagram Account
/in Social Media /by Kevin RichardsThere’s no doubt that Instagram started as a simple photo-sharing app and has now become one of the largest social media platforms out there. It’s one of the best tools for businesses to reach their target audience. In this blog, we discuss why you should be on Instagram, how to set up your account, what to write in your bio, and how to set up call-to-action buttons.
Why You Should Be On Instagram
Instagram boasts some impressive statistics that are advantageous for businesses when the proper steps are taken.
One of Instagram’s appeals is that people can choose to follow a brand, unlike other forms of advertising you can reach your audience without being intrusive. Thus, they are more likely to receive your message and convert to customers.
How To Set Up An Account
Make An Impression With Your Profile Picture And Bio
Call-To-Action Buttons
Instagram has call-to-action buttons and it’s highly recommended you use at least one. Here’s how to set them up.
Instagram only used to have four options: Call, Text, Email, and Directions. They have since added new action buttons: Book, Buy Tickets, Start Order, Reserve. Determine which call to action buttons would be best for your audience and add them to your profile. You can reference these buttons in posts and stories for extra traction.
Contact Us
Congrats! Once you have completed these steps you can start posting on your new business Instagram page. If you would like to outsource your social media duties contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you the Tampa office phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas phone number is (702) 515-2057.
What Is Page Authority And Why Is It Important?
/in SEO /by Kevin RichardsDid you know there’s a score that can tell you how useful your web page will appear to search engines? It’s called a page authority score. Read this blog to find out what exactly page authority is, how to find your score, and how to improve your score.
What Is Page Authority?
Page authority is a score assigned by Moz. Its a score based on how well your page will rank on a search engine results page (SERP). It’s a score between 0 and 100. The lower the score the easier it is to improve it.
How To Measure The Page Authority Of A Web Page
If you’re asking yourself “How do I find my page authority?”, no worries Moz has an easy to access tool that tests it on web pages to figure out how important/helpful they are. This tool is called the Link Explorer.
How To Use The Moz Link Explorer
Here are the steps to use the Link Explorer:
Various boxes will come up but the box right underneath the search box will have both the page authority.
Moz will also track your page authority over time in a chart like this.
What Is A Good Page Authority Score?
Page authority is scored on a 0-100 scale. There are many factors that go into creating a page authority score so there is no definitive way to say what a good or bad score is.
The best way to find a page with a good page authority is to compare various page authority scores you have collected to determine which is the best and make your content even better.
How To Raise Your Page Authority
There are a few ways to raise your page authority.
Get external links
Driving traffic to your site this way is the best way to raise your page authority. Getting featured links on industry-related websites, blogs, or social media are all ways to generate external links that bring people to your site. Search engines will deem you more valuable if they see this.
There is a downside to this that should be mentioned. If your site is being linked to by other sites with low page authority this will not help your score and may even hurt it.
Create fresh, valuable content
While you want to add value to people’s lives with helpful content you also want to have fresh content. This means picking topics that haven’t yet been written about or coming at a topic from a unique angle.
Feature images on your pages
Images make written content more digestible and sharable. This will hopefully earn you some shares or external links that will improve your page authority. Google crawlers also favor images, especially if they are original which can also raise your page authority.
*Important note- Google crawlers do not yet fully understand images so it’s important to have image alt text that explains to the crawlers what the image is.
Contact Us
Knowing your page authority score is a good measurement of how helpful your web page is deemed to be. If your web pages could use a boost in their page authority score contact us. We have all the means necessary to create and add engaging content, spice up the look of your website, and make sure the site is being crawled properly. We have two locations to serve you in Las Vegas and Tampa you can call by phone or contact us online. The Tampa location phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas location is (702) 515-2057.
What Are Pillar Pages And Why Does Every Website Need Them?
/in Design /by Kevin RichardsWhat’s a pillar page and why should every website have one? This blog will discuss pillar pages in-depth, from what they are, to why you should have one, and how to create one. Keep reading to find out how they can help your business build credibility and improve relationships with current and future customers.
What Is A Pillar Page?
To put it simply pillar pages are web pages that contain information about a specific topic with relevant subtopics on it. These subtopics are clickable hyperlinks within the text body that will transfer someone to various pieces of content. For example, let’s say your topic is about the mechanics of baseball. You would have subtopics underneath baseball for subjects related to baseball like how to pick the right equipment, how to catch a ball, how to hit a baseball, etc and within those text bodies on the page, there will be clickable links to other more specific pieces related to the subtopic.
Your main topic should be a popular keyword. This will drive traffic to your pillar page via clicks. This keyword should also be mentioned in the image alt text, h1 tags, URL, and title.
Here’s an example of a pillar page for more context. There is body text about the main topic with a clickable link to a more detailed piece of content about fonts, logos, and colors.
When Should You Create A Pillar Page?
A pillar page should be created when you have enough content on the topic that you can flesh it out. Pretend you know nothing about the topic, would you be able to go to your pillar page and learn enough about the topic to have a comfortable conversation about many facets of the topic. If the answer is yes, then you have enough content for a pillar page. If the answer is no, create additional pieces of content with the intent of publishing that information on your pillar page.
There is such a thing as a 10x pillar page. What do you ask is the difference between a regular pillar page and a 10x pillar page? A 10x pillar page simply means your pillar page is 10x (10 times) better than the best pillar page on the chosen topic. This is the ultimate goal when creating a pillar page.
What Is A Pillar Page Good For?
A pillar page can serve as a landing page for a specific topic you’re trying to market. They are beneficial for email marketing, webinars, or paid ad purposes.
Creating a pillar page not only makes you seem credible but people will use you as a resource for that topic.
Steps To Create A Pillar Page
Outsource Your Website Design And Pillar Page Creation
Running a business is time-consuming. Outsource your marketing and website design to experts with over 20 years of experience at Ventura Web Design and Marketing.
How Long Should A Pillar Page Be?
A pillar page should have body text ranging between 2000-5000 words. The text should relate to the main topic, but it shouldn’t go fully into detail. That’s what you have the hyperlinks to other content you’ve created for.
Extra Features To Add To Your Pillar Page
Progress bar
This is a bar that appears on the page under the URL that shows a reader how far they are into the article.
Last updated line
Let your readers know how up to date their content is by updating your pillar page with a description saying when the page was last updated
Offer a PDF download of the pillar page
This creates a document someone can print or easily email or share on social media.
Introduction video
Include a video at the top of your pillar page. Videos are the best way to intrigue readers and keep them on your page.
Table of contents
This can be at the top of the page or on the side of the page as the reader scrolls through. This is designed so a reader can easily know what section they’re on as well as skip easily to sections they would like to read.
Format your pillar page in small snippets
A wall of text is extremely daunting and disinteresting to a reader. Make your content more appealing and digestible by keeping the text chunks between 2-4 sentences, using bullets, or numbered lists.
Include a ‘back to top’ button
No one likes excessive scrolling. Make it easy for readers to get back to the top of your page with a clickable ‘back to top’ button.
Contact Us To Design Your Pillar Page
Gain email subscribers, market your self using paid ads, and present yourself as a thought leader with a pillar page today. If you need help designing a professional pillar page we can help you with that. Contact us online or by phone. We have two offices to serve you. The Tampa location phone number is (813) 556-7990 and the Las Vegas location phone number is (702) 515-2057.
Snapchat Advertising How-To Guide
/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin RichardsWhile most businesses crown Google or Instagram as King of Advertising, Snapchat is often overlooked as a powerful, effective, and relatively inexpensive way to reach the highly coveted millennial demographic. This guide is designed to show you the benefits of advertising on Snapchat and how it compares to its competitors. It will show you how to create successful Snapchat ads, and what metrics to look for after your ad is implemented.
Benefits Of Advertising On Snapchat
Here are some benefits to Snapchat advertising:
Targeting your core demographic is a vital part of picking what platform to place ads. Snapchat users are primarily within the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. If your target audience aligns with these age groups Snapchat would be a favorable platform to place ads.
According to a Hootsuite article written in 2018, Snapchat captures 41% of those ages 18-34 every day. It also has the sixth-highest concentration of Millennials among all mobile apps.
Millennials and Gen Z have a $1 trillion spending ability. By neglecting Snapchat as an advertising platform you are leaving money and potential consumers behind.
In a Murphy research study, they found Snapchat users were 60% more likely to impulse buy.
Snapchat’s Ad Manager interface is extremely user friendly. It intuitively guides you through the whole process with their ‘Instant Create’ option. Comparatively, Facebook and Google have much more complex processes for creating an ad.
If you’re a seasoned ad creator, Snapchat has a more advanced ad creation option called ‘Advanced Create’. Anyone with a business Snapchat account has access to this feature. You can find the ‘Advanced Create’ portal from your desktop by logging into your Snapchat account and hovering over the ‘Create Ads’ button in the top left corner and selecting ‘Advanced Create’. Within the advanced create feature you can access a lot more customizable campaign options like:
In addition to its younger user demographic, and workable interface, Snapchat is the only platform that allows super-specific location targeting. It allows advertisers to target universities, parks, or even specific buildings. This allows you to target areas that largely contain your demographic instead of targeting a whole city, region, or country where your ad dollars would be wasted.
How Is Snapchat Different From Its Competitors?
Snapchat gives you the creative license when deciding what you want your ad to look like. You can use a GIF, video, or static image.
A ‘Snap Ad’ will run in a full-screen video format with the sound on. This differentiates itself from other platforms where the sound is turned off until the user decides to turn it on. This is a huge opportunity to make an initial impression with sound. The 100% full-screen ad is advantageous, Instagram is the only other platform to use this method of advertising. It’s only within their story feature and it doesn’t include sound.
There are three different types of Snap Ad formats displayed below:
App Installs look like this on the app:
Long-form videos are presented like this:
Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:
The full-screen ads differ from other platforms. For example, Facebook and Instagram feed ads take up about 25%-33% of the screen when scrolling through a timeline or browser this allows for the user to be distracted by other information, while on Snapchat the ad has their full attention when the advertiser uses the full-screen presentation option.
Another Snapchat exclusive feature is branded tiles on the ‘Discover’ page. These are companies like Seventeen magazine that make content consistently to be featured within the ‘Discover’ page but companies can also pay to be a sponsored tile on the page.
Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:
This is one of Snapchat’s success stories.
The last example is a Snapchat filter that was launched in Germany. It was a huge success for the brand. View their KPI’s here.
Here is a helpful link that explains what filters and lenses are and how to create one for your business. These features are unique to Snapchat, and while Instagram has tried to copy Snapchat’s lenses and filters the quality falls short.
Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk praises Snapchat for its ability to capture the attention of its users. He said he hasn’t seen such an active user base since Twitter in 2007 and 2008. Let’s compare Snapchat stories to emails. According to Gary, on the best day, only 25% of his emails are opened this would be a very low percentage of stories viewed on Snapchat.
Industries Advertising On Snapchat
Naming all the businesses that advertise on Snapchat would be almost impossible, so instead here’s a list of industries that Snapchat has hosted ads for:
How To Engage An Ad Viewer
The average Snapchat user is very engaged with the app, opening it 18-25 times a day. While the users are loyal to the app it is important when creating an ad to catch their attention as soon as possible with a clear message, USP, and call to action. Here is an example of a brand that had clear messaging, engaging visuals, and a clear call to action.
https://forbusiness.snapchat.com/inspiration/e-l-f-cosmetics-efficiently-gains-share-with-millennials-and-gen-z
Elf had eye-catching visuals to open the ad with, then by the third second of their ad they had their USP displayed on the screen, and finished with a ‘Shop Now’ call to action. They followed the formula for a successful Snapchat ad.
Engage in 1-2 seconds + Present USP in 3-4 seconds + Finish strong with a call to action
Questions To Ask Before Creating A Snapchat Ad
Most Effective Snapchat Ads
Lead Generation Ads
The benefit:
Doorbuster Ads
The benefit:
Counterpart Ads
How to do it:
Note: You should have more than 1,000 emails to make sure the Snapchat has enough people to use in their algorithm.
How To Create Snapchat Ads
The first step to creating Snapchat ads is to download the app.
Creating your business’s Snapchat account:
Once you’ve accessed the Ads Manager follow these steps to create your ad with Instant Create:
Follow these instructions to create an ad with ‘Advanced Create’:
Build Your Campaign
The best option is to name it by the objective of the ad and the time frame in which it will run. Then choose the time frame you want the ad to run through
Ad Sets
The more detail the better considering you can run multiple ad campaigns and ad sets.
Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
This will vary from business to business and should all be decided in the research phase before creating an ad.
As a newcomer, it is recommended to choose the auto-bid option. This takes the guesswork out of how much you’ll need to spend on daily ad budgets in the future. It will also allow you to figure out your cost per action or in layman’s terms how much you spend for someone to complete your desired ad goal.
Build Your Ad
Review and Publish
How To Install Snap Pixel
Snap Pixel is an important program you will want for the purposes of retargeting and analytics. You can add it to your website by following this video tutorial.
How To Measure Success On Snapchat
KPI’s (key performance indicators) are what you will use to measure the success of your campaign. If you already have a website, your current KPIs might be conversion rate, total revenue, or time spent on your web page. Outlining metrics to measure your success in advance is helpful because it keeps you (and your team) focused on the end goal throughout the entire project and helps avoid distractions.
There are two apps needed to measure your KPI’s on Snapchat. Snaplytics and Delmondo.
Neither app measures every KPI.
Snaplytics measures open rates, story views, average screenshots per story, and completion rate.
Delmondo tracks more helpful metrics and provides a more detailed view of your audience, basic metrics, and channel comparisons to your other social media channels.
Here are some of the specific KPI’s tracked by Delmondo
Audience Insights
Basic KPI’s
Channel Comparisons
Other important KPI’s to measure that aren’t on Snaplytics or Delmondo
Therefore your fall-off rate is 20%.
Here’s a link to successful Snapchat ads and their KPI’s. The list can be sorted by region, industry, and campaign goal.
Here’s How Can We Help
If you would like to take full advantage of your advertising budget, outsource your Snapchat marketing or other digital marketing needs to experts please contact Ventura Web Design at (813) 556-7990 or fill out the online contact form.
Guide to 2020 Google Algorithm Updates
/in Google, SEO, Tech News /by Kevin RichardsWhat Changes With Each Algorithm Update
Our team at Ventura Web Design & Marketing is dedicated to keeping your website up to date. We actively research algorithm updates when they are released and analyze your website to see which changes are necessary.
Below is a guide to each Google algorithm update beginning in 2020. Bookmark this page or check back frequently as we continuously add updates.
January
February
March
JANUARY 2020
January 2020 Core Update
Estimated Rollout: January 13, 2020
What changed?
The January 2020 Core Update was announced, per Google’s new initiative beginning in 2019 to be more transparent with their algorithm updates. They’ve aimed to announce updates before rolling them out, and so far this seems to be true.
The update, according to Google, was a broad initiative to better ensure quality content for people seeking information. This means Google continues to push content creators and websites to evaluate what they’re publishing in order to give people the best “answer” possible when searching.
Some SERP layout changes were included in the update as well. Google decided to include a website’s favicon next to its result, and display the site’s breadcrumbs in lieu of the specific URL. For example, instead of https://www.venturawebdesign.com/responsive-vs-mobile-website-design/ appearing just above the meta description, this displays:
What does this mean?
It’s up to specialists to look at the data and adjust where necessary. Google has indicated that a drop in rankings following this update isn’t necessarily a penalty, per se. But rather a drop in rankings indicates that your information isn’t meeting certain standards as well as it used to according to previous standards.
You will need to evaluate your content and update it to ensure it’s high-quality and providing value to whoever is reading it. This includes showing you are a trustworthy source, proofing your content, presenting your information in a readable and useable way, and more.
Favicon Update
Estimated Rollout: January 24, 2020
What Changed?
Remember the favicon update on January 13? Google rolled this back so favicons no longer show up in the SERPs.
Snippet & Deduplication Update
Estimated Rollout: January 22, 2020
What changed?
Featured snippets that were once known as position zero are now included in the main organic search results and known as position one. URLs for the snippets are no longer displayed (i.e. duplicated) anywhere else in the core search results. For example, if a website held positions zero and one for an article, following the update they’ll only hold position one.
This update also included changes to whether images are deduplicated. Images aren’t impacted by this as long as the URL for the image is different from the URL associated with the text of the snippet.
What does this mean?
The purpose of this update, according to Google, is to declutter the search results page so that people aren’t seeing multiple the same information more than once.
Website owners can choose to alter their SEO strategy accordingly. For example, depending on the strategy, snippets can be opted out of. This would mean that websites would be competing for position 2, instead of positions zero or one prior to the update. This can be done primarily by using the “nosnippet” tag.
Be sure to carefully consider your online strategy before making drastic changes. It’s recommended you discuss this change with a specialist to avoid making mistakes that could penalize you on the Google search result pages.
FEBRUARY 2020
Unconfirmed Local & Maps Update
Estimated Rollout: February 14, 2020
What changed?
Neither officially announced nor confirmed by Google, many websites experienced movement in rankings and traffic fluctuations during/after February 14. Most of these changes impacted local SEO in Google Maps and Google local packs.
What does this mean?
It’s speculated that the unofficial February 14 update was an adjustment to the January 2020 Core Update. Many SEOs sat with the local update for a few days in order to make changes once the dust settled.
MARCH 2020
Nofollow Update
Estimated Rollout: March 1, 2020
What changed?
Prior to the March 1 update, Google treated nofollow tags as law. Nofollow links weren’t crawled, however, that’s changed. Now, nofollow tags are mere suggestions and there’s a possibility Google will visit those links.
What does this mean?
You may want to review how you’ve set up your website to be indexed. Nofollow tags are sometimes used to prevent crawlers from looking at account pages or pages without value to visitors. However, maybe a noindex or meta norobots tag would be more appropriate for your purposes. This change may impact rankings depending on what Google crawls and indexes moving forward.
The Importance of ADA Website Accessibility Compliance
/in SEO, Tech News /by Kevin RichardsYou care about your business and you care about who is visiting you online to learn more. It’s important to consider how your potential clients and customers are using your website so you can improve their experience.
By thinking about who is visiting you online, you can better accommodate their needs and make sure each individual has reasonable accessibility to your site. This is where ADA compliance comes in and why it’s so important.
What is ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is celebrating its 30th birthday this year in 2020! The ADA was enacted in order to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. This ensures that businesses, employers, etc. are held to a set of standards in order to prevent discrimination based on ableness, and make sure that environments are accessible.
The act contains several different titles, each of which prohibit and outline discrimination in specific ways. These include but are not limited to: employment, state and local governments, public transportation, public areas, and public telecommunications.
Why is website accessibility important?
Adopting ADA best practices with respect to your website or e-commerce site improves your customer’s experience with your business and ensures accessibility. Accessibility in this case refers to addressing the needs of individuals who may be using your site, and who may also have a visual or auditory (or other) disability or limitation.
Accounting for accessibility makes it easier for individuals to navigate your site and consume content. For example, adjusting the contrast of the text and background colors of your website makes it easier for individuals who are colorblind to read your articles or product descriptions.
Is ADA compliance mandatory? What could happen if my website is non-compliant?
ADA compliance can be punishable by law. Non-compliance may be enforced through several channels such as litigation by a private citizen, litigation by the federal government, and/or investigations based off of complaints made to federal agencies.
The number of web accessibility lawsuits appears to be growing. Target, Amazon, and even Beyoncé are among some of the more well-known cases. ADA website accessibility cases nearly tripled from 2017 to 2019. If you aren’t compliant with the ADA website standards, you not only are neglecting a valuable percentage of potential customers and clients, but you also open yourself up to a lawsuit.
What are some of the guidelines to follow for my website?
Interestingly enough, by improving your website’s web accessibility, you’re also improving your website’s SEO. Your general goal is to make your website as user-friendly as possible to as many users as possible.
You’re going to want to pay attention to the way you’re writing and how that text is presented.
Pay attention to visual elements, other than plain text, on each page of your website
Take a look at your site navigation as well
What about the social media accounts for my business?
There are several ways to improve accessibility for your social media accounts as well
Please keep in mind that the lists above are simplified. For a more complete list, we suggest visiting ADA.gov.
How can I make SURE my website is in compliance?
Aside from auditing your own website against the ADA.gov web accessibility best practices and guidelines, there are other ways to ensure you’re in compliance
ADA compliance is an important part of digital marketing and the online world. We know that you value ADA standards because you also value your customers and audience. By improving accessibility, you’re improving the experience for anyone who visits your e-commerce site.
Here at Ventura Web Design and Marketing, we have quality experience improving and establishing ADA website accessibility compliance. Click here for a free consultation today.
This publication is not intended to be legal advice or to replace the advice of a competent attorney. While Ventura Web Design aims to help your website be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, we make no guarantees of 100% accessibility, nor do we make any claims that our work or advice will be suitable for your specific purposes or needs.
Boosting Brand Awareness With Instagram Stories
/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin RichardsWith over 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a fantastic platform for connecting with your customers and boosting brand awareness. Building your brand on Instagram takes more than just setting up a profile.
Simply having a presence on the platform just isn’t enough these days. To take full advantage of the social media juggernaut, you should consider utilizing all of the tools that Instagram has to offer. One of the most powerful tools Instagram has in its arsenal is the Instagram Stories feature.
What Are Instagram Stories?
For those who haven’t been using this feature, Instagram Stories is a feature within Instagram where users can capture and post pictures or video content in a slideshow format. Audiences are then able to click on your profile picture and view your content. After 24 hours, your pictures or videos disappear back into the ether.
Instagram stories can be a unique branding opportunity that not enough businesses are taking advantage of. If you’ve been considering using stories, why not give it a shot? Read on to learn how you can leverage Instagram Stories to increase brand awareness.
We’ll Do It Live
One of the most exciting aspects of Instagram is its ability to showcase events in real-time. Whether you’re launching a new product or attending an industry event, going live on the ‘Gram is a surefire way to entertain your core audience.
For example, if you’re an online retail company getting ready to launch a new product, do a live Q&A for customers to interact with and learn more about the launch. Live video allows your audience an authentic behind the scenes view that they may not be privy to otherwise.
Then after your live video ends, add it to your stories for the rest of your followers to enjoy for the next 24 hours! Live video is fast becoming one of the best ways to keep your audience entertained and connected and can do wonders for your brand awareness.
Tag, Use Hashtags, & Add Locations
Just like traditional posts, Instagram allows you to add #hashtags to your stories. Using a similar strategy as your traditional posts, adding hashtags to your Instagram story is an excellent place to use your own branded hashtags.
Brands can also add their location as a way to connect with people in your local community. This can also be an opportunity to connect with other people and institutions within your IRL community. In a similar vein, you can tag other accounts within your stories and try to generate meaningful interactions.
These features can be a fantastic way to foster relationships with people and businesses within your area and humanize your brand in the eyes of your local community.
Swipe-Up Feature
Do you have that coveted little blue check next to your profile? How about at least 10,000 followers? Congratulations! You can take advantage of Instagram’s swipe-up feature.
Swipe-up allows users who view your story to swipe up on their screen and go directly to a landing page of your choosing. The best part? The user can do all of this without ever leaving the Instagram platform.
If you don’t have access to this feature, don’t sweat it. Though it’s only available to a select amount of users at the moment, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Keep an eye out on the latest Instagram updates in case the powers that be decide to make the feature public in the future.
Highlights
Although stories are designed to be ephemeral, the highlights feature allows you to keep your stories in a more permanent place. Anytime you post a story, you have the opportunity to save it as a “highlight”. These are the buttons that appear on your profile, below your bio and above your regular feed.
How you create and arrange these can vary, just remember to keep them on brand! You can even go above and beyond and create branded highlight covers. These will keep your profile looking great while presenting information or content that resonates with your audience.
Become A Storyteller
At the end of the day, the most important feature of Instagram stories is simply the stories themselves. Stories connect us, both in real life and with our audience online. Instagram stories allow brands the unique opportunity to tell their own stories and nurture positive relationships.
When you relate to your audience on a human level, you foster goodwill between yourself and your audience. Think of Instagram stories as opportunities to continue to build your brand and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
If you’re curious about getting started on Instagram or have specific questions relating to stories, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Verizon’s Visible Campaign Proves Transparency is King
/in Marketing /by Kevin RichardsCorporate transparency is on the rise as a trait sought and favored by consumers. After a potentially embarrassing typo was discovered across multiple marketing pieces for Verizon’s digital carrier Visible, the company decided to take the mistake in stride. The ad reading ‘massages’ rather than ‘messages’ sparked an ingenious campaign where the company sponsored free massages for anyone that showed up to their mobile centers. The company revered the campaign as a huge success, showing huge reach on social media and even earning some press while boosting their sales.
The lesson to be learned from this accident (or, as some suggest, “intentionally accidental”) mishap, is to work with whatever is thrown your way. Seize the opportunity to get creative with your marketing and make a memorable impact on your consumer base. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns include aspects of the corporation’s personality with a dash of humor as well as a healthy dose of transparency and willingness to admit mistakes – even typos – to your consumer base. Campaigns like Verizon’s Visible massages build a relationship with your ideal customer by establishing a foundation of trust backed by an excellent product.
Photo credit: Visible