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Using Pinterest to Improve SEO in 2023!

December 12, 2022/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

Social and digital marketing is constantly evolving. Depending on the type of business you have, Pinterest may be an overlooked resource in your tool box. Here is a list of commonly asked questions (and answers!) when it comes to understanding the relationship between Pinterest, your business, and SEO.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an incredibly popular social media platform that allows users to create digital corkboards or vision boards. It is highly visual, categorically organized, and encourages exploration. Users can create different boards to “pin” their interests to and each board can be tailored to a specific category. These boards can then be shared with friends and family members, allowing them to explore the user‘s interests in greater detail. Pinterest has become a great way for people to express themselves and share their passions with others.

Does Google own Pinterest?

No, Google does not own Pinterest. However, for several years now, there has been speculation that Google might acquire the popular image–sharing platform due to their mutual interest in the search industry. If Google and Pinterest were to join forces, it could lead to a significant increase in search capabilities. Despite this potential partnership, it is unclear if and when Google will purchase Pinterest as its value continues to rise year after year. Additionally, even though Pinterest is not directly associated with either Google or Facebook, it has still been affected by algorithm updates from both companies.

Does Pinterest affect Google rankings?

Yes, Pinterest does have an effect on Google rankings, but not in the way you might think. While pins themselves do not count as follow links, they can still be beneficial for SEO purposes. Quality pins with good images and content that include relevant keywords will help to increase repins and likes from users. When a user repins a pin, the original source link remains attached to it, which helps to direct more traffic to your website. As more people view and interact with your pins, it increases the number of links pointing back to your website and boosts its visibility in Google‘s SERPs. Over time, this increased visibility will lead to higher rankings on Google search results pages.

Does Pinterest convert traffic?

Pinterest can and does convert visitors into customers, if you have the right mindset and set-up – especially if you follow a CPA marketing model (cost-per acquisition). You won’t have a high conversion rate if you don’t make it easy for your potential customers to access the product and buy it online. With each hoop a user jumps through, the less likely they are to become a customer because you’ve made it difficult for them to be one.

Examples of things that can negatively impact your Pinterest conversion rate:

  • Links on pins are leading to the wrong product
  • Links on pins are broken (i.e. lead to nothing)
  • Product images on your pins don’t match up with images on your website

How do I optimize my Pinterest?

There are several ways to optimize your Pinterest account. Here are a few strategies to get you started.

Step 1: Make it helpful
People use Pinterest for many different reasons. However, most of them are trying to solve a problem in an entertaining way. For example, users are searching for the best haircuts for their face shape, or gift ideas for their grandmothers. They have a problem, inquiry, or task, and they need to find a solution. This is where your Pinterest pins come into play.

Think about the audience you are trying to reach, their problems or tasks, and how your product or business fits into that equation. By having helpful pins, i.e. helpful solutions, you’re one step closer to having a Pinterest account that boosts your business.

Step 2: Make it attractive (and keep it accurate)
Pinterest is a very visual environment. While pins have a longer shelf life compared to Facebook posts or tweets, you have a limited amount of time to catch someone’s attention. By creating visually attractive and stunning pins, you’re increasing your chances of generating likes and repins.

People want to look at their own Pinterest boards and see they’ve curated something beautiful. If your pins can add value in this way, you’ve upped your chances of converting a user into a customer. However, beware of creating inaccurate pins. Make sure your images and visuals stay accurate to your product or service, and also are consistent with your brand. Building trust with your users takes time. Inaccurate portrayals of your business can prevent you from building trust, or break the trust you’ve already built.

Step 3: Use the right words
You can (and should) include words on your pins to describe them. Because Pinterest is a search engine, a good rule of thumb is to treat your pin descriptions like they’re titles of a website. Think about your target audience or who you want to reach and research trending keywords that are relevant to this audience and to your business. Try to keep the stronger keywords towards the beginning of the description you’re writing.

Most importantly, pay attention to your alt tags. By using alt tags, you not only increase your account’s accessibility, but you’re also enhancing your overall SEO.

After you’ve created interesting, valuable, and attractive pins with useful descriptions, you can keep track of progress using Pinterest Analytics. Take a look at impressions, engagement, and the behavior of who is looking at, liking, and repinning your posts. You can use this information to edit your existing pins and/or create more successful pins moving forward.

Are there any Pinterest trends I should be on the lookout for in 2023?

Customers want a seamless experience from start to finish. If your Pinterest pins aren’t lining up with the webpage you’re linking to, this can throw your potential customer off. Changes you make to one (e.g. your website), you should make to the other (e.g. your pins).

You also have to make sure your pins are fresh and intriguing. Trends are constantly changing, not only from year to year, but also from season to season. Take a look at your branding, your current color schemes, and even your website layout. If you’re noticing any inconsistencies, it’s probably time to hire an expert to help you evaluate your online presence.

How can Ventura Web Design & Marketing help me?

Whether you’re looking to incorporate social media into your marketing strategy for 2023, or you’re looking to have your current strategy updated, Ventura Web Design & Marketing is your ticket to online success. We stay updated with the latest industry trends and have decades of experience to ensure you’re getting the most from your digital agency.

From your social media accounts (including Pinterest!) to online marketing, we have the expertise and talent to take your business to the next level. Make sure to contact us today for a free consultation.

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

Social Media Marketing & eCommerce in 2022: What to Expect

December 13, 2021/in eCommerce, Marketing, Small Business /by Kevin Richards

We’ve seen social media change the way we go about marketing and advertising our businesses to the world. Social media is an incredible avenue to maintain top of mind awareness with your shoppers.

Influencer Marketing will Evolve

Influencer Marketing has taken the internet by storm. While it was once a trend, it’s more common than ever before. Influencers are typically experts on the platforms you see them on, they already have an engaged audience, they know what kind of content their audience is interested in, and they know that they can influence their audience with the information they put out.

Many micro-influencers have a relationship with their audience that mimics the “regular guy/gal” brand archetype, making them more relatable and leading their audience to trust their opinions and recommendations. This is a great way for a business to leverage brand awareness and grow their audience even more.

Short-form Video Content will Continue to Rise

Many of us heard of Tik Tok at the start of the global pandemic and vowed to ourselves that we would never download it. As we’re over a year into the global pandemic, many of us can’t stand by that statement anymore. We’ve been consumed by the hilarious, relatable, and educational videos that are widely spread across the internet.

Short-form video content takes less time and space to create and it also falls in line with the current fast paced attention spans of online audiences. Long-form videos can offer much depth about a product, brand, or service to your audience but ask yourself….who has time to watch one five-minute video when they could watch 15 short videos in the same time and take in MUCH more?

Mobile Optimization will be EVEN MORE Critical

Consumers spend more and more time on mobile devices every day. As buying power continues to grow amongst Millennials and Gen Z audiences, mobile friendly websites will generate more revenue than slower, non-optimized online stores.

Mobile optimization not only encompasses your website, but also things like email marketing, for example. Consider ways that you can deliver a mobile email experience to subscribers.

Social Responsibility will be Prioritized

We are all aware of the global pandemic that started in 2020. This along with other world events, caused social responsibility, ethics, and transparency to matter much to consumers more now than ever before. Consumers care about brands that care about them, their employees, and shared causes. 

You may see that some businesses have already begun to shift their social media marketing strategies to focus more on inclusive initiatives, promotions and offerings all while highlighting causes or missions they support.

It’s all About the SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to how discoverable your website and content is. SEO is not new in the slightest, but you can expect to see SEO be ingrained within much, if not all of your marketing tactics and strategies.

Virtual Events are Here to Stay

We’ve had the entire year of 2021 to work through the kinks of what business will look like in 2022. As we saw many virtual events in 2020 and 2021, 2022 will be more of a hybrid approach. Expect to see businesses using more physical opportunities for their audience in 2022. Although there may be less virtual events, that DOES NOT mean that virtual events are null and void. 

Social Media Marketing is (if not already) going to be HUGE for your business in 2022. Get ahead while you can and schedule your FREE consultation with us, NOW!

2021 eCommerce Holiday Checklist

2021 Holiday Checklist

December 6, 2021/in Design, eCommerce, Marketing, Mobile Web Design, Small Business /by Kevin Richards

Who doesn’t want a successful, stress-free holiday season? You, us and shoppers alike!

To set yourself up for the best holiday season yet to come, we’ve put together a checklist so that you can be on top of all things business and eCommerce this holiday season.

Monitor your Online Tactics & Strategies

Continuously monitor your Website, Advertisements, Social Media profiles, SEO, Marketing Promotions, and Sales to make adjustments as they may be needed.

Update and Test NOW

If your website needs fixes, improvements and/or updates, the time to make those changes was yesterday. Wait no longer because the holiday rush is already upon us. This includes making changes to design, too to get visitors in the holiday spirit!

Your website will see a significant increase in traffic in the next few weeks, so your website needs to be able to support that. Tell us…would you wait for more than 8 seconds for a website to load? Images can slow your website down quite a bit, so you want to make sure they’re all optimized to yield the fastest loading time. Don’t delay Santa’s shopping by making him wait for slow images to load on your website.

You should be testing things like: the checkout process, shipping calculators, mobile displays, site navigation, all payment methods, coupon and discount codes, any CTA’s, and all outbound and internal links.

Create Marketing Campaigns

Consider promotions like free shipping, seasonal add-ons, free gifts with a certain purchase, or discounts on orders over a certain amount as part of your Holiday Marketing Campaign. Incentivize early shopping as much as you can in your marketing collateral.

Know your Top Sellers

You should have a good idea about which products are most popular and sell out quickly. Use this information to ensure your inventory is what it needs to be for all the goods to be purchased. Furthermore, think about making these top sellers a priority in your holiday marketing and promotions.

Consider adding gift cards as an option for buyers! Also, use your top selling insight to upsell and bundle products.

Prioritize Security

Cybercriminals create mischievous ways to access customer information and that could lead to a lot of harm for your business. Take the time to assess your website security to ensure the best security for your business and customers alike.

Manage Expectations with Communication

Its cliche, but communication is key. Make things as easy as possible for your customers. Be proactive and advertise shipping dates so they can get their purchases on time, send email reminders as the holidays approach, and speak up about returns. Clear communication will give your customers the confidence they need to become a repeat customer.

TIP: The best place on your website to place important information would be on the homepage, landing pages, product pages, and shopping cart pages.

Provide Tracking Information 

As much as your business may be obsessing over delivery dates, your customers are too. Provide your customers with tracking numbers so that they can easily track their orders via UPS, FedEx, etc..

Save yourself the stress and check these items off of your to-list now! If you’re thinking you may need some help with some of these items, go ahead and schedule your FREE consultation with us, today!

How To Improve Your Email Marketing With Mailchimp

September 2, 2020/in eCommerce, Marketing /by Kevin Richards

Our goal at Ventura Web Design and Marketing is to be educated on and utilize new services and tools so that our clients get maximum results. The goal of this blog is to explain what the email creation software, Mailchimp is, its different features, and explain how you can use it to reach your customers with creative emails based on analytics within the software.

What Is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp allows you to create marketing emails, Google and social media ads, websites, landing pages, surveys, social posts, sign-up forms, and postcards. For the purposes of this blog, we will be focusing just on their email services. 

Types Of Emails Mailchimp Provides

Mailchimp has an in-depth, but easy to use email generator section with premade templates to customize. There’s no coding required to make these emails, but if you’re tech-savvy and want to give coding a go Mailchimp still gives you that option. 

One-time Emails

Great for:

    • Announcements
    • Product specials
    • Blogs. 

Automated Emails

Used for:

    • sending welcoming emails new subscribers
    • Sending birthday messages
    • Delivering abandoned cart offers

Plain-Text Emails

Used for sending out emails that are:

    • Text only
    • Free of images
    • Not formatted using their software
    • Hyperlink-free

A/B Test Emails

Great for testing different styles of emails on your subscribers. Test:

    • How well images/GIF’s work
    • Most effective subject lines
    • What days of the week are your emails most effective

Effective Email Marketing Strategies

When sending out your marketing emails think about what content a friend would want to read. While big brands send out super detailed design heavy emails with large (somewhat aggressive) eyecatching font would you send an email like that to a friend? Probably not. Here are a few ideas to try when sending your marketing emails:

Storytelling 

Rather than just focusing on a tip or promotion, tell a story. Maybe its something that happened while working with a client. Explain this story in as much detail and as creatively as possible.

Incorporate Videos

Video viewership and videos in marketing have exploded in popularity. There’s many guesses as to why this may be from an anthropological perspective, but the simple explanation is a well-made video is entertaining and easy to follow. When sending an email that includes a video subject indicate it in the subject line like this:

“Video: How To Make A Peanut Butter Sandwich”

While that’s a silly video example writing your subject line like that will increase open rates by 6% according to SuperOffice. 

Automated Content Series

This is for businesses that have enough content to string together a few weeks of content pieces to create a series. This process will prompt potential customers or current customers to subscribe to this free content with their email. You will then create an automated email series with content that is released on a weekly basis. Content that lends itself well to this type of series is podcasts, videos, or blogs.

Segmentation Tracks

This is a unique way to market to customers. You provide freebies sent via email for customers based on a subject they chose that you have email series set up for. You can start by releasing free content about two or three subjects related to your business. Let’s refer to these subjects as X, Y, and Z. Someone signs up for the freebie information on subject X, they would then be sent emails in a series relating to that subject while people that may choose subject Y and Z receive different tailored emails related to their subjects.

Tips To Get More Opened Emails

Editing Your Mailing List

When your emails are consistently left unopened it signals to an email provider like Gmail or Hotmail that your content is spam. This can cause your emails to be automatically be filtered into the spam folder by email providers.

Along the same lines if you send out emails that are causing people to unsubscribe email providers can again interpret your content as spam. 

To prevent this you should go through your email list and only keep the people most likely to engage with your content.

Creating Emails For Client’s Subscribers

When we are creating emails for our client we consider a few different factors like what color schemes, paragraph structure, and content that will appeal most to your subscribers. 

Contact us online or by phone to find out how your business can take advantage of a service like Mailchimp to improve your marketing emails and convert subscribers to customers. The phone number for our Las Vegas office is (702) 515-2057 and the number for the Tampa office is (813) 556-7990.

10 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Page

August 22, 2020/in Design, eCommerce, Marketing /by Kevin Richards
Did you know your Facebook page could be one of your best tools for increasing your revenue? With the proper relevance and frequency of your posts you could tap a whole new market you didn’t even know existed!

Read more

Our Mantra: Test, Analyze, Adjust, and Repeat

August 21, 2020/in Marketing /by Kevin Richards

Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat

At Ventura, we live by the mantra of test, analyze, adjust, and repeat, and we like to encourage clients to embrace that mantra too. 

Resting on your laurels, being fearful of change, and resisting new ideas; as humans, we are guilty of doing one of these things in our lives at some point. We want to reinforce the value of embracing new strategies and ideas and pivoting IF they don’t work. 

Every business has a different path and business strategy. Therefore you have to find the ideas and tactics that work best for you. The only way to find out what works is to get creative and test new ideas. If something doesn’t pan out, remember, you’re in no worse of a position than you were before you tried and you could unexpectedly find something that connects to your customer and brings in more revenue. 

Brainstorm:

Be open to our ideas or come up with new ones yourself. A productive way to brainstorm ideas is to place zero limitations on yourself and imagine what you would try if you anything were possible. This will allow creative juices to flow and can lead you to great ideas…and maybe some silly ones too.

Test:

Once an idea is chosen, it’s time to test it. At Ventura, we give the most considerable effort possible to implement new ideas. 

Analyze:

We will analyze the new idea’s effectiveness on an ongoing basis to see how it’s performing. 

Adjust:

After analyzing the steps, we will make adjustments where necessary.

Repeat:

We will implement any adjustments necessary to reach the desired outcome. 

 

Success Stories

There are many companies today that are incredibly successful because they continually test, analyze, and innovate their processes and products. 

Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy in the 1990s due to poor leadership and a lack of innovative products. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs returned to the company and introduced the cutting edge iMac that the company began to recover. They went on to build products that many of us carry around daily because Jobs wasn’t afraid to fail because of inventing new products.

Walmart is a brand we all know worldwide. For a long time, Walmart was considered a place to buy cheap things. This is mainly due to its branding. The tagline “Always Low Prices” was sending the message that Walmart sells cheap goods. They weren’t hurting for business while advertising that message by any means, but it was a reputation killer. So despite their tagline working, Walmart was not afraid to change their image and thus their tagline to “Save Money. Live Better.”. You’re buying goods at a lower price, but the connotation is different. Instead of buying cheap goods, you’re now enhancing your life by saving money. 

These are just two examples of well-known brands that innovated when business was going well and when it wasn’t. There are many more, but the point is to remain at the top of your game. You should always keep the creative wheel churning and be testing and analyzing new ideas. 

Whether you want to test new branding, processes, or creative ideas, we are here to help your business succeed. Rest assured, we will have our creative and analytical minds at work for you. 

 

Social Media - Snap Chat

Snapchat Advertising How-To Guide

June 3, 2020/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

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:
Snap Ad Formats

App Installs look like this on the app:
Snapchat App Install Ad

Long-form videos are presented like this:
Snapchat long Form Video Ad

Last but not least, web view ads are presented like this on the app:
Snapchat Web View Ad

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.
Snapchat Discover Page Sponsored Tile

Other Snapchat advertising options include sponsored lenses and sponsored filters.
Here’s an example of a Snapchat lens:
Snapchat Sponsored 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.
Snapchat Sponsored Filter

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:

  • 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.

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
Snapchat e.l.f. Advertising

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:

  1. Load up your email customer contact list into Snapchat. (located under the assets tab in the ‘Audience’ section)
  2. The app then builds a list of potential new customers that will theoretically like the same things as your current customers.
  3. Create an ad for this specific customer base.
  4. 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:

  1. Download Snapchat from the App Store
  2. Open Snapchat
  3. Tap ‘Sign Up’
  4. Enter your name and tap ‘Sign Up & Accept’
  5. Enter your date of birth
  6. Create a username
  7. Create a password
  8. Enter your phone number and verify it *optional
  9. 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:

  1. Select ‘Instant Create’ option
  2. Select an ad goal
  3. Input website
  4. Select the image, video, or GIF you want to use
  5. Crop image or video if necessary
  6. Enter ad copy and choose a layout template
  7. Edit template as desired
  8. 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

  1. Choose what you want your viewers to do and convert to.
    Snapchat Build Your Campaign
  2. 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
    Snapchat Choose Campaign Name
  3. Choose daily and lifetime budgets
    Snapchat Set Ad Budget

Ad Sets

  1. 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.
    Snapchat Ad Set
  2. Select the ad format and ad type, then attach the file that you wish to advertise.
    Commercial ads cannot be skipped and are recommended.
    Snapchat Ad Format Selection
  3. 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.
    Snapchat Ad Placement Preferences
  4. Select audiences predefined category, operating system, and connection type
    Snapchat Ad Audience Selection
  5. 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.
    Snapchat Ad Delivery Settings

Build Your Ad

  1. 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.
    Snapchat Design Snap Ad
  2. Select whether you want the ad to be active and fill in the tags that correspond to your ad.
    Snapchat Impression Tags Settings

Review and Publish

  1. Review your previous ad choices, fill in your business information, and payment details.
    Snapchat Review Ad
  2. Publish your campaign
    Snapchat Publish Campaign Button

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
    • Click on your name in the top left corner
    • Click ‘My Geofilters’
    • Select the geofilter
    • Scroll to view your metrics

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.

Boosting Brand Awareness With Instagram Stories

Boosting Brand Awareness With Instagram Stories

November 22, 2019/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

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.

Verizon's Visible Marketing Campaign

Verizon’s Visible Campaign Proves Transparency is King

October 21, 2019/in Marketing /by Kevin Richards

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.

Photo credit: Visible

Get More Website Traffic

Get More Website Traffic

September 17, 2018/in Marketing, SEO, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

Get More Website Traffic
Get More Website Traffic

What is website traffic?

Website traffic is the term used to describe the flow of visitors to and from your website. It includes some simple information, but answers important questions. For example, how many visitors has your site had? What pages had the highest amount of visitors? Where did they find your site?

Ready to find out more about website traffic, and how to get more of it? We’ve put together an easy to follow guide on the subject below.

Why care about web traffic?

Health Indicator

Web traffic can be a good indicator of your website’s health & popularity.

Sales & Services

Traffic flow directly affects your sales. More traffic = more potential sales.

Idea Validation

When you start getting traffic, it means people are interested in your products or services.

Getting More Traffic

SEO

Put in the work to optimize your site & be rewarded

Niche Down

Target only the people who are most passionate

Create Content

Make interesting content, better than your rivals

Update Often

Keep your site up to date and relevant

Be Social

Share your site and be active on social media

Gain Influence

Work with influencers to promote the site

Guest Blogs

Write for industry blogs and build your audience

Podcast

Speak your mind and become the authority

How do I measure traffic?

All that is great, but how do you keep track of incoming and outgoing traffic? The best way to keep track is to let tools do the work…

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the most popular tool for measuring traffic, and it’s no wonder why. Google is the largest search engine & has access to the more data than any other tool. Just install analytics on your site and you’re well on your way to getting more traffic to your site.

HotJar
Moz
BuzzSumo

Hotjar, Moz and Buzzsumo are some other tools you could use to improve your customer experience, find keywords & content for your site, and all 3 of these are great at what they do.

When should I get started?

If you want your site to be successful, you should get started getting more traffic and tracking your gains as soon as possible. If you’re not sure where to begin, or have any questions, please give us a call. We’re happy to help, so don’t hesitate to give us a call or submit a support ticket.

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