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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.

How to Share Your Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel) with an Agency

November 14, 2022/in Social Media /by Kevin Richards

If you are a brand or retailer advertising on Facebook, your agency may ask you to share your Meta pixel. By sharing your Meta pixel with your web agency, they can better serve you by optimizing your ads and improving your results.

What is Meta Pixel?

Adding the Meta Pixel to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

What are the benefits of using Meta Pixel?

Adding the Meta Pixel to your website allows you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. This piece of code provides valuable insights that can help you improve your advertising efforts and ultimately get better results.

How do I share my Meta Pixel with an agency?

  1. To get started, open your Business Manager and navigate to Business Settings > People and Assets.
  2. Then, click Choose Assign Partner on the right hand side.
  3. After that, click the Pixel Editor role and enter in the Business Manager ID.
  4. Finally, click Confirm to finish.

Contact Us

If you have any questions in regards to Facebook marketing, or even building your entire website, please do not hesitate to contact us. We’d love to hear from you!

instagram Reels example

Instagram Reels Explained [Video]

August 6, 2020/in Social Media /by Kevin Richards

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

  1. Tap the camera icon like you would to create a story
  2. Tap ‘Reels’ on the bottom of the screen
  3. Choose your effects
  4. Record your video
  5. Trim the video if needed
  6. Tap the arrow to the right of the Reels record icon
  7. Choose a cover photo, caption, and hashtags for your Reel
  8. 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

How To Successfully Advertise On Instagram

August 5, 2020/in Social Media /by Kevin Richards

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:

  1. Go to your profile
  2. Tap the ‘Insights’ button
  3. 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.

How To Set Up A Business Instagram Account

August 5, 2020/in Social Media /by Kevin Richards

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
  • 80% of accounts follow a business on Instagram.
  • 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

  1. Download the Instagram app
  2. Make a non-business profile (it will be changed to a business account)
  3. Tap the three-line icon in the top right corner of your profile
  4. Tap ‘Settings’
  5. Tap ‘Account’
  6. Tap ‘Switch to Professional Account’
  7. Tap ‘Business’
  8. At this point, you can attach your business’s Facebook page so your Instagram posts will automatically publish to your Facebook
  9. Add your business category and contact information
  10. 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.

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.

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.

Your YouTube Channel Art Matters!

Your YouTube Channel Art Matters

August 14, 2018/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

So many business owners are turning to YouTube to expand their reach & grow an audience these days. It’s so easy to share content and reach new people on the platform. Now, when someone arrives on your channel, what do they see? Does it match the quality of your brand and your product or service? Does it even matter, shouldn’t the video content speak for itself? Well, in short, of course it matters!
Read more

The Facebook algorithm and how it affects you.

The Facebook Algorithm and How it Affects You

July 10, 2018/in Marketing, Social Media /by Kevin Richards

Can you imagine logging into Facebook and having to sift through thousands of posts to find something you’re actually interested in? Luckily, Facebook uses a complex algorithm to automatically decide which posts are shown first so that you don’t have to do that. At the beginning of this year, 2018, Facebook announced that it was performing a major upgrade to the standard Facebook Algorithm. The goal? To bring friends and family together more often and create a more active community.
Read more

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