SEO

What Is Schema Markup & Why Is It Important For SEO?

Published

3 months ago

June 24, 2024

What Is Schema Markup & Why Is It Important For SEO?

Schema.org is a collection of vocabulary (or schemas) used to apply structured data markup to web pages and content. Correctly applying schema can improve SEO outcomes through rich snippets.

Structured data markup is translated by platforms such as Google and Microsoft to provide enhanced rich results (or rich snippets) in search engine results pages or emails. For example, you can markup your ecommerce product pages with variants schema to help Google understand product variations.

Schema.org is an independent project that has helped establish structured data consistency across the internet. It began collaborating with search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex back in 2011.

The Schema vocabulary can be applied to pages through encodings such as RDFa, Microdata, and JSON-LD. JSON-LD schema is preferred by Google as it is the easiest to apply and maintain.

Schema is not a ranking factor.

However, your webpage becomes eligible for rich snippets in SERPs only when you use schema markup. This can enhance your search visibility and increase CTR on your webpage from search results.

Schema can also be used to build a knowledge graph of entities and topics. Using semantic markup in this way aligns your website with how AI algorithms categorize entities, assisting search engines in understanding your website and content.

This means that search engines should have additional information to help them figure out what the webpage is about.

You can even link your entities directly to sites like Wikipedia or Google’s knowledge graph to build explicit connections. Using Schema this way can have positive SEO results, according to Martha van Berkel, CEO of Schema App:

By helping search engines understand content, you are assisting them in saving resources (especially important when you have a large website with millions of pages) and increasing the chances for your content to be interpreted properly and ranked well. While this may not be a ranking factor directly, Schema helps your SEO efforts by giving search engines the best chance of interpreting your content correctly, giving users the best chance of discovering it.

Listed above are some of the most popular uses of schema, which are supported by Google and other search engines.

You may have an object type that has a schema.org definition but is not supported by search engines.

In such cases, it is advised to implement them, as search engines may start supporting them in the future, and you may benefit from them as you already have that implementation.

Google recommends JSON-LD as the preferred format for structured data. Microdata is still supported, but JSON-LD schema is recommended.

In certain circumstances, it isn’t possible to implement JSON-LD schema due to website technical infrastructure limitations such as old content management systems). In these cases, the only option is to markup HTML via Microdata or RDFa.

You can now mix JSON-LD and Microdata formats by matching the @id attribute of JSON-LD schema with the itemid attribute of Microdata schema. This approach helps reduce the HTML size of your pages.

For example, in a FAQ section with extensive text, you can use Microdata for the content and JSON-LD for the structured data without duplicating the text, thus avoiding an increase in page size. We will dive deeper into this below in the article when discussing each type in detail.

JSON-LD encodes data using JSON, making it easy to integrate structured data into web pages. JSON-LD allows connecting different schema types using a graph with @ids, improving data integration and reducing redundancy.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say that you own a store that sells high-quality routers. If you were to look at the source code of your homepage, you would likely see something like this:

Once you dive into the code, you’ll want to find the portion of your webpage that discusses what your business offers. In this example, that data can be found between the two

tags.

The following JSON-LD formatted text will markup the information within that HTML fragment on your webpage, which you may want to include in your webpage’s

section.

This snippet of code defines your business as a store via the attribute"@type": "Store".

Then, it details its location, contact information, hours of operation from Monday to Saturday, and different operational hours for Sunday.

By structuring your webpage data this way, you provide critical information directly to search engines, which can improve how they index and display your site in search results. Just like adding tags in the initial HTML, inserting this JSON-LD script tells search engines specific aspects of your business.

Let’s review another example of WebPage schema connected with Organization and Author schemas via @id. JSON-LD is the format Google recommends and other search engines because it’s extremely flexible, and this is a great example.

In the example:

Website links to the organization as the publisher with @id.
The organization is described with detailed properties.
WebPage links to the WebSite with isPartOf.
NewsArticle links to the WebPage with isPartOf, and back to the WebPage with mainEntityOfPage, and includes the author property via @id.

You can see how graph nodes are linked to each other using the"@id"attribute. This way, we inform Google that it is a webpage published by the publisher described in the schema.

The use of hashes (#) for IDs is optional. You should only ensure that different schema types don’t have the same ID by accident. Adding custom hashes (#) can be helpful, as it provides an extra layer of insurance that they will not be repeated.

You may wonder why we use"@id"to connect graph nodes. Can’t we just drop organization, author, and webpage schemas separately on the same page, and it is intuitive that those are connected?

The issue is that Google and other search engines cannot reliably interpret these connections unless explicitly linked using @id.

Adding to the graph additional schema types is as easy as constructing Lego bricks. Say we want to add an image to the schema:

{
   "@type": "ImageObject",
   "@id": "https://www.example.com/#post-image",
   "url": "https://www.example.com/example.png",
   "contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/example.png",
   "width": 2160,
   "height": 1215,
   "thumbnail": [
     {
        "@type": "ImageObject",
        "url": "https://example.com/4x3/photo.jpg",
        "width": 1620,
        "height": 1215
      },
      {
        "@type": "ImageObject",
        "url": "https://example.com/16x9/photo.jpg",
        "width": 1440,
        "height": 810
      },
      {
        "@type": "ImageObject",
        "url": "https://example.com/1x1/photo.jpg",
        "width": 1000,
        "height": 1000
      }
    ]
}

As you already know from the NewsArticle schema, you need to add it to the above schema graph as a parent node and link via @id.

As you do that, it will have this structure:

Quite easy, isn’t it? Now that you understand the main principle, you can build your own schema based on the content you have on your website.

And since we live in the age of AI, you may also want to use ChatGPT or other chatbots to help you build any schema you want.

2. Microdata Schema Format

Microdata is a set of tags that aims to make annotating HTML elements with machine-readable tags much easier.

However, the one downside to using Microdata is that you have to mark every individual item within the body of your webpage. As you can imagine, this can quickly get messy.

Take a look at this sample HTML code, which corresponds to the above JSON schema with NewsArticle:


 
   Our Company
   Example Company, also known as Example Co., is a leading innovator in the tech industry.
   Founded in 2000, we have grown to a team of 200 dedicated employees.
   Our slogan is: "Innovation at its best".
   Contact us at +1-800-555-1212 for customer service.


  Our Founder
  Our founder, Jane Smith, is a pioneer in the tech industry.
  Connect with Jane on Twitter and LinkedIn.
  

  About Us
  This is the About Us page for Example Company.


  Example News Headline
  This is an example news article.
  This is the full content of the example news article. It provides detailed information about the news event or topic covered in the article.
  Author: John Doe. Connect with John on Twitter and LinkedIn.

If we convert the above JSON-LD schema into Microdata format, it will look like this:



  Our Company
  
      Example Company, also known as 
      Example Co., is a leading innovator in the tech industry.
  
  Founded in 
     2000-01-01, we have grown to a team of 
     200 dedicated employees.
  
  Our slogan is: Innovation at its best.
  
     Contact us at 
     
        +1-800-555-1212 for 
        Customer Service.
     
  
  https://www.example.com
  
  Connect with us on:
    Facebook,
    Twitter,
    LinkedIn
  
  
    Our Founder
    Our founder, Jane Smith, is a pioneer in the tech industry.
    Connect with Jane on Twitter and LinkedIn.
  


  About Us
  
     This is the About Us page for Example Company.
  
  https://www.example.com/about
  
  
  
  


  
     Example News Headline
  
  
    This is an example news article.
  
  
    This is the full content of the example news article. It provides detailed information about the news event or topic covered in the article.
  
  
     Author: 
     
        John Doe
        Profile
        Twitter
        LinkedIn

This example shows how complicated it becomes compared to JSON-LD since the markup is spread over HTML. Let’s understand what is in the markup.

You can see

tags like:


By adding this tag, we’re stating that the HTML code contained between the 
 blocks identifies a specific item.
Next, we have to identify what that item is by using the ‘itemtype’ attribute to identify the type of item (Person).


An item type comes in the form of a URL (such as https://schema.org/Person). Let’s say, for example, you have a product you may use http://schema.org/Product.
To make things easier, you can browse a list of item types here and view extensions to identify the specific entity you’re looking for. Keep in mind that this list is not all-encompassing but only includes ones that are supported by Google, so there is a possibility that you won’t find the item type for your specific niche.
It may look complicated, but Schema.org provides examples of how to use the different item types so you can see what the code is supposed to do.
Don’t worry; you won’t be left out in the cold trying to figure this out on your own!
If you’re still feeling a little intimidated by the code, Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper makes it super easy to tag your webpages.
To use this amazing tool, just select your item type, paste in the URL of the target page or the content you want to target, and then highlight the different elements so that you can tag them.
3. RDFa Schema Format
RDFa is an acronym for Resource Description Framework in Attributes. Essentially, RDFa is an extension to HTML5 designed to aid users in marking up structured data.
RDFa isn’t much different from Microdata. RDFa tags incorporate the preexisting HTML code in the body of your webpage. For familiarity, we’ll look at the same code above.
The HTML for the same JSON-LD news article will look like:

vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="WebSite" resource="https://www.example.com/#website">
 
  Our Company
  
     Example Company, also known as 
     Example Co., is a leading innovator in the tech industry.
  
  Founded in 
     2000-01-01, we have grown to a team of 
     200 dedicated employees.
  
  Our slogan is: Innovation at its best.
  
    Contact us at 
    
       +1-800-555-1212 for 
       Customer Service.
    
  
  https://www.example.com
  
  Connect with us on:
    Facebook,
    Twitter,
    LinkedIn
  
  
   Our Founder
   Our founder, Jane Smith, is a pioneer in the tech industry.
   Connect with Jane on Twitter and LinkedIn.
 


  About Us
  This is the About Us page for Example Company.
  https://www.example.com/about
  
  
  
  


  Example News Headline
  This is an example news article.
  
    This is the full content of the example news article. It provides detailed information about the news event or topic covered in the article.
  
  
     Author: 
     
       John Doe
       Profile
       Twitter
       LinkedIn
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



Unlike Microdata, which uses a URL to identify types, RDFa uses one or more words to classify types.
vocab=”http://schema.org/” typeof=”WebPage”>
If you wish to identify a property further, use the ‘typeof’ attribute.
Let’s compare JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa side by side. The @type attribute of JSON-LD is equivalent to the itemtype attribute of Microdata format and the typeof attribute in RDFa. Furthermore, the propertyName of JSON-LD attribute would be the equivalent of the itemprop and property attributes.




Attribute Name
JSON-LD
Microdata
RDFa


Type
@type
itemtype
typeof


ID
@id
itemid
resource


Property
propertyName
itemprop
property


Name
name
itemprop=”name”
property=”name”


Description
description
itemprop=”description”
property=”description”




For further explanation, you can visit Schema.org to check lists and view examples. You can find which kinds of elements are defined as properties and which are defined as types.
To help, every page on Schema.org provides examples of how to apply tags properly. Of course, you can also fall back on Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
4. Mixing Different Formats Of Structured Data With JSON-LD
If you use JSON-LD schema but certain parts of pages aren’t compatible with it, you can mix schema formats by linking them via @id.
For example, if you have live blogging on the website and a JSON-LD schema, including all live blogging items in the JSON schema would mean having the same content twice on the page, which may increase HTML size and affect First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint page speed metrics.
You can solve this either by generating JSON-LD dynamically with JavaScript when the page loads or by marking up HTML tags of live blogging via the Microdata format, then linking to your JSON-LD schema in the head section via “@id“.
Here is an example of how to do it.
Say we have this HTML with Microdata markup with itemid="https://www.example.com/live-blog-page/#live-blog"


  Explore the biggest announcements from DevDay

      
        1:45 PM ET Nov 6, 2023
         
    
    OpenAI is taking the first step in gradual deployment of GPTs – tailored ChatGPT for a specific purpose – for safety purposes.
    
 

   
    1:44 PM ET Nov 6, 2023
   
   
      ChatGPT now uses GPT-4 turbo with current knowledge.
      It also knows which tool to choose for a task with GPT-4 All Tools.
   


  
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    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella joined Altman to announce deeper partnership with OpenAI to help developers bring more AI advancements.
  

 

We can link to it from the sample JSON-LD example we had like this:




If you copy and paste HTML and JSON examples underneath in the schema validator tool, you will see that they are validating properly.
The schema validator does validate the above example.
The SEO Impact Of Structured Data
This article explored the different schema encoding types and all the nuances regarding structured data implementation.
Schema is much easier to apply than it seems, and it’s a best practice you must incorporate into your webpages. While you won’t receive a direct boost in your SEO rankings for implementing Schema, it can:

Make your pages eligible to appear in rich results.
Ensure your pages get seen by the right users more often.
Avoid confusion and ambiguity.

The work may seem tedious. However, given time and effort, properly implementing Schema markup is good for your website and can lead to better user journeys through the accuracy of information you’re supplying to search engines.

Image Credits
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita
Screenshot taken by author
 
Read more:


    



            VIP CONTRIBUTOR                

                    Chuck Price                

                            Founder at Measurable SEO

                Looking for a Content Marketing Solution to Increase Traffic and Revenue? I’m the founder of Measurable SEO and former COO ...             



Advanced Technical SEO: A Complete Guide

Attribute Name	JSON-LD	Microdata	RDFa
Type	@type	itemtype	typeof
ID	@id	itemid	resource
Property	propertyName	itemprop	property
Name	name	itemprop=”name”	property=”name”
Description	description	itemprop=”description”	property=”description”

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How To Choose The Right Bid Strategy For Lead Generation Campaigns

Published

7 hours ago

September 22, 2024

Max

How To Choose The Right Bid Strategy For Lead Generation Campaigns

Welcome back to our series on getting started with value-based bidding for lead gen marketers!

We’ve discussed evaluating whether it makes sense for your business, setting your data strategy, and assigning the right values for your conversions.

Now, we’re going to cover the final step before activating your value-based bidding strategy: choosing the right bid strategy for your lead generation campaigns.

The big benefit of value-based bidding is that it allows you to prioritize conversions that are most likely to drive higher revenue or achieve your specific business goals, such as sales, profit margins, or customer lifetime value.

By assigning different values to different conversion actions, you gain greater control over your bidding strategy and optimize for conversions that deliver the most significant impact.

Whether it’s a purchase, a lead, or a specific action on your website, value-based bidding ensures that your bids reflect the true worth of each conversion, enabling you to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

The bidding strategy you select to optimize for value depends on a few factors. Check out this two-minute video for a quick overview, and then keep reading to dive deeper.

Which Value-Based Bidding Strategy Should You Choose?

With value-based bidding, Smart Bidding predicts the value of a potential conversion with each auction.

If the bid strategy determines that an impression is likely to generate a conversion with high value, it will place a higher bid.
If this bid strategy determines that the impression isn’t likely to generate a high-value conversion, it’ll place a lower bid.

Value-based bidding can use data from all of your campaigns, including the conversion values you are reporting, to optimize performance.

It also uses real-time signals, such as device, browser, location, and time of day, and can adjust bids based on whether or not someone is on one of your remarketing lists.

To start bidding for value, ensure the following:

Measure at least two unique conversion values optimized for your business.
Have at least 15 conversions at the account level in the past 30 days. (Note: Demand Gen should have at least 50 conversions in the past 35 days, with at least 10 in the last seven days or 100 conversions in the past 35 days.)

You’ve got two bidding strategy options to tell Google how you want to optimize for value:

Maximize conversion value.
Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS.

Here’s a quick way to think about each before we dig in further:

	Maximize conversion value	Target ROAS
Goal	Maximize conversion values for a specific budget.	Maximize conversion values for a target return on ad spend.
When	Your priority is to maximize value and spend the budget. You don’t have a specific ROI target.	You have a specific ROI target.

Maximize Conversion Value

This option focuses on maximizing conversion value within a defined budget.

It’s suited for advertisers who prioritize driving the highest possible value within a specific allocated budget.

Advertisers often start with this before moving to a target ROAS strategy.

Maximize Conversion Value At A Target ROAS

This option allows you to set a specific target return on ad spend (ROAS) and instructs Google Ads to optimize your bids to achieve that target while maximizing conversion value.

Target ROAS: Why Your Budget Should Be Uncapped

When bidding with a target ROAS, your campaign budget should not be limited or capped.

That may sound scary at first, but let me reassure you that it doesn’t mean you don’t have control over your campaign spend!

Your ROAS target is the lever that manages your spend.

With a target ROAS, you’re telling Google to optimize for value at that specific target rather than find as much value within a specific budget.

So, when your budget is limited, it potentially prevents the system from having the flexibility to find the next conversion at your target.

Setting Your ROAS Targets

You can choose whether to use a recommended target ROAS or set your own.

When setting ROAS targets, use the last 30 days’ return on ad spend as a benchmark.

Google’s target ROAS recommendations are calculated based on your actual ROAS over the last few weeks.

This recommendation excludes performance from the last few days to account for conversions that may take more than a day to complete following an ad click or interaction (such as an engaged view).

You can find more details on target ROAS here.

Get Started With An Experiment

While you can launch value-based bidding directly, you may want to start with a small test using a campaign experiment. This allows you to compare the performance of value-based bidding against your existing bidding strategy and make data-driven decisions.

You have two options to create a campaign experiment:

One-Click Experiment From Recommendations Page

You may see suggestions on implementing value-based bidding on your Recommendations page.

The recommendation to “Bid more efficiently with Maximize conversion value” will show if our simulations identify that your account is measuring two or more unique conversion values and will likely benefit from this strategy.

From this recommendation, you can create a one-click experiment to test the impact of value-based bidding on a specific campaign.

Custom Experiment

You also have the option to create a more tailored experiment to test value-based bidding in your campaign.

Be sure to choose a campaign that receives sufficient traffic and conversions to generate statistically significant results.

Configure the experiment to use value-based bidding, while the original campaign continues to use your existing bidding strategy.

See the instructions here to set up a custom experiment.

How To Jumpstart Value-Based Bidding

You can employ strategies to jumpstart the system, such as initially setting a low ROAS target or starting with Maximize conversion value without a ROAS target.

If you opt to start with Maximize conversion value without a target, be sure that your budgets are aligned with your daily spend goals.

Allow A Ramp-Up Period Before You Optimize

Once you’ve launched value-based bidding, give the system a ramp-up period of two weeks or three conversion cycles. This allows Google Ads to learn and optimize your bids effectively.

When measuring performance, be sure to exclude this initial period from your analysis to obtain accurate insights.

We’ve now covered all the basics for getting started with value-based bidding.

In our last segment, we’ll discuss monitoring and optimizing your performance to drive value for your business.

More resources:

Featured Image: Sammby/Shutterstock

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SEO

An In-Depth Guide For Businesses

Published

1 day ago

September 22, 2024

Max

Social media marketing is all about being where your audience is.

If your target audience is active on a platform, then you should be, too. And if you’re looking to speak to a younger demographic, Snapchat can be a powerful marketing tool for your business.

Snapchat is the fifth largest social media network in the world – but it’s one of the most misunderstood (and underestimated) by marketers.

So, if you’re concerned about missing the boat on this platform, you’re not alone. You’re also not out of touch – you just need a comprehensive guide to get started. And you’re in the right place.

In this updated guide to Snapchat marketing, we’ll provide you with a deep dive into the multimedia messaging platform, explain who’s using it, and give you the strategies you need to add it effectively to your marketing mix.

Why Use Snapchat For Marketing? (Is It Still Relevant?)

Successful marketers focus on grasping every opportunity to reach potential customers – and Snapchat continues to offer unique opportunities.

As of 2024, Snapchat boasts over 406 million active daily users, with more than 80% of them being 34 or younger. The platform reaches 90% of the 13-24-year-old population worldwide and 75% of 13-34-year-olds in over 25 countries.

This makes it an ideal platform for targeting Millennials, Gen Z, and, increasingly, Gen Alpha.

While it might not have the massive user base of Facebook or YouTube, it drives impressive engagement. According to recent data, the average Snapchat user opens the app over 40 times per day and spends about 30+ minutes daily on the platform – which means people interact with their social circles on Snapchat more than any other social network.

Yet, when it comes to marketing, Snapchat is a relatively untapped territory. While every brand seems to have a Facebook and Instagram presence these days, comparatively few have a foothold on Snapchat. And that just means more opportunity for your brand.

The boon of Snapchat is how it’s optimized for authenticity. Given the ephemeral nature of the app and the more unfiltered style of content approach, brands can use the platform to connect with their audience in ways that feel genuine and immediate – which is more valuable than ever.

And, as if all of this wasn’t enough, Snapchat has established itself as a competitive force in the social commerce market. With its augmented reality (AR) shopping experiences, you’re able to build immersive shopping experiences for users through the app – something most other platforms can’t compete with.

By now, it should be crystal clear why Snapchat could be a strong addition to your marketing strategy. So, how do you get started? Let’s break it down.

How Does Snapchat Work? A Brief Overview

If your social media experience is primarily with platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or X (Twitter), Snapchat’s interface may initially feel like a whole new world.

Snapchat’s design is unique – it’s built for spontaneity, exclusivity, and in-the-moment content creation. When you open the app, it goes directly to the camera, making it super easy for you to capture and share videos and photos (called “Snaps”) in just a few seconds.

You can then edit these Snaps using a variety of filters, stickers, and AR Lenses before sending them directly to your chosen friends or adding to your “Story,” which remains viewable for 24 hours. There’s also a newer Spotlight feature, similar to TikTok, for sharing short-form videos with wider audiences.

The app offers a host of other features, including a Snap Map, an AI-powered chatbot, and disappearing direct messages. Long story short: There are a bunch of innovative and creative ways for brands to engage with audiences on Snapchat.

What Brands Are Best Suited To Snapchat Marketing?

Let me be clear: Snapchat isn’t for every brand. There’s a reason why it’s less frequented than some other social media platforms. That said, if your target audience includes younger consumers, it’s absolutely worth considering.

Brands that are best suited to Snapchat are those that present a youthful image and tone and prioritize authenticity, “realness,” and creativity. If your brand image is highly professional or you have red tape around your marketing efforts, you should likely look elsewhere.

Lifestyle brands, fashion labels, beauty products, entertainment companies, and tech startups – these are the kinds of companies that typically see success on the app.

But really, the opportunity exists for any type of brand that is interested in using Snapchat’s tools to create immersive, engaging content that resonates with the platform’s users.

How To Get the Right “Tone Of Voice” For Snapchat

I mentioned tone above – and on Snapchat, tone of voice is a big deal. The platform itself is playful and casual, so you’re not likely to find success using an overly formal or professional tone.

Instead, your brand should focus on having a genuine conversation with users and infusing your content with humor.

Here are some tips for nailing the Snapchat tone of voice:

Keep it light: People go to Snapchat to be entertained. Leave your hard sales pitch at the door.
Prioritize authenticity: It’s a place to show the human side of your brand, whether it’s through user-generated content or behind-the-scenes Snaps.
Engage, engage, engage: Snapchat has a ton of interactive tools for engaging directly with users, like polls, Q&As, and more. Put them to use!

How To Create A Snapchat Strategy For Business

So, you want to create a successful Snapchat strategy. You can just start posting content sporadically, right? Wrong.

You need to start by understanding your brand’s goals and audience, and then determining the type of content that will best help you reach those people on Snapchat specifically. Here are some steps you can take to start building your Snapchat strategy:

Decide what you want to achieve on the platform. Maybe it’s brand awareness, community building, or increasing sales – once you know your goals, you can build your content approach around them.
Know your audience. As with any kind of marketing strategy, this is crucial.
Experiment and be creative. Try your hand with some of Snapchat’s different tools (like Bitmoji, AR Lenses, filters, etc.) to create content that resonates with your audience. Don’t just choose one type of content and settle – you can (and should) experiment with a variety of Snaps, Stories, and Spotlight videos.
Be consistent. All great marketers know that consistency is key – and it’s the same story on Snapchat.
Keep a good balance. Of course, you want to sell your brand to users, but don’t go all in on self-promotional content. Make sure you’re balancing organic, engaging storytelling with talking about yourself.
Learn (and follow) Snapchat best practices. This is a no-brainer. Spend time on the platform to find what works, and see how you can adopt it in your own strategy.

Types Of Content That Work Best On Snapchat

Snapchat is all about driving engagement. What does that look like in action? Here are some examples of content approaches that work particularly well on the platform.

1. Sneak Peeks & Teasers

Launching a new product or service? Snapchat is a great place to drive excitement by giving your audience teasers or sneak peeks at what’s to come.

You might think about dropping hints about the product, sharing a quick glimpse, or some other behind-the-scenes moments to encourage anticipation among your Snapchat followers.

Warner Bros., for example, has used teaser content to promote its upcoming movie releases.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

2. Behind-The-Scenes Content

Speaking of behind-the-scenes, this type of content is tailor-made for Snapchat.

Showing your audience what goes on behind the curtain at your brand is a clever way to create a sense of exclusivity and make people feel like insiders.

3. User-Generated Content (UGC)

You’ve heard about user-generated content – well, Snapchat is a place where UGC really thrives. Consider prompting your followers to create their own Snaps that feature your products or brand, and then share them along with a custom hashtag. Then, you can amplify the strongest ones in your own Stories.

UGC is proven to be a highly effective way to generate social proof, increase brand loyalty, and build a stronger social community.

Javy Coffee is one example of a brand that leveraged UGC by featuring real customer testimonials and stories about how they enjoy the coffee concentrate. This helped the company create relatable ads that resonated with its audience.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

4. Interactive Content

One thing that separates Snapchat from most other social media platforms is its interactivity. And brands have plenty of opportunities to get in on the action!

Try devising interactive moments for your followers, whether it’s a simple poll, a challenge, or a unique AR Lens. These allow users to really get involved and have a fun experience with your brand – and can lead to new UGC for you, as well.

For example, e.l.f. Cosmetics used AR Lenses combined with Bitmoji to allow users to virtually try on makeup, creating a highly interactive experience for its audience.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

5. Exclusive Offers

Want to really impress your Snapchat followers? Reward them. From promo codes to exclusive discounts or early bird access to new products, there is no shortage of ways to treat your audience.

It’s great for them but beneficial for you, too. It gives people a reason to keep engaging with your content and following your brand.

Advertising On Snapchat

While organic content is at the heart of Snapchat, the platform also offers some unique and powerful paid advertising options. The company also rolled out a new ad platform update in August 2024 that provides enhanced analytics, improved targeting, and more.

1. Snapchat Ads

Served to users in between user-generated content, these are full-screen, vertical video ads. They’re not dissimilar to Instagram Stories, and can include interactive elements such as having a user swipe up to visit a website.

The Salvation Army’s Snapchat Ads featured videos depicting real-life stories of individuals impacted by its services, emphasizing themes of hope and transformation. These ads connected emotionally with viewers and included a swipe-up option to learn more or donate, making the content both impactful and actionable.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

2. Sponsored AR Lenses

One of Snapchat’s unique offerings is its custom AR Lenses, which brands can create for users to experience.

You can create Lenses that allow users to virtually “try on” products, for example, put people in a humorous visual setting or even have them play games. At times, they can even respond to users’ movements or the environment around them.

These can be hyper-engaging and drive a lot of interactions – like Volkswagen did when it used an AR Lens to enable people to experience its ID.3 electric vehicle virtually. Using the Lens, people could place a virtual model of the car in their environment, explore its features, and even change the color.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

3. Filters

These are static overlays that you can apply to your Snaps once they’re created – and brands are able to design their own to delight Snapchat users. These are typically non-interactive but are fun visual enhancements that enable people to add some creative flair to their content.

Post Consumer Brands created its own custom Snapchat Filter to promote its Honeycomb cereal – and it was very sweet!

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

4. Dynamic Ads

Snapchat’s Dynamic Ads enable brands to automatically create and deliver personalized ads to users based on their behavior and interactions with your company. For example, if a user visits your website and looks at a specific hat, Snapchat might serve them an ad for that product.

If you work for an ecommerce company, these might be particularly interesting to you, as you can automate ad creation based on your product catalog – so you don’t need to lift a finger.

Fashion brand Free People has used Dynamic Ads to automate personalized ads for users, ensuring that those who viewed specific items on its website were later served ads featuring those exact products on Snapchat. It resulted in a 396% increase in demand.

Screenshot from Snapchat.com, August 2024

5. Commercials

These are non-skippable Snapchat video ads that usually appear within the platform’s premium content, like Snap Originals.

They’re short – three to six seconds for a Standard Commercial and up to 180 seconds for an Extended Play Commercial (though users can skip after the first 6 seconds) – and are optimized for high visibility.

They typically focus more on storytelling than some of the other ads on the network.

Let’s Get Snapping!

Yes, Snapchat is still an effective marketing platform for reaching younger audiences – but you must be mindful about your strategy and approach.

With its unique blend of high engagement, unique creative tools, and loyal audience, Snapchat offers brands a variety of ways to connect with their target consumers.

Hopefully, this guide has given you the insights and inspiration you need to build a successful Snapchat marketing strategy in 2024.

Now, it’s time to put these ideas into action and start Snapping your way to success.

More resources:

Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

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SEO

How to Leverage AI Video Enhancements

Published

2 days ago

September 21, 2024

Max

Earlier this year, Google introduced new AI features into its Google Ads platform to help streamline work for many advertisers.

One of those new features comes in the form of AI video enhancements.

This is no surprise since video makes up over 65% of all internet traffic.

Read on to learn more about the AI video enhancements tutorial and how they can help streamline your PPC campaign optimization.

How do AI Video Enhancements Work?

In Google Ads, the AI video enhancement tool uses smart automation features to enhance your videos in a variety of ways.

It’s important to note that video enhancements are turned on by default but can easily be turned off at any time.

The feature can be found within your Google Ads campaign settings.

If you’re creating a new Google Ads campaign, this setting will only be available if you choose “Sales” as the goal and “Video” as the campaign type.

From there, go down to “Additional settings” to find the AI video enhancements settings:

Types of Enhancements Available

Google’s new AI video enhancements provide marketers with two areas to optimize current video assets.

#1: Additional video sizes and ratios

The first enhancement type can take existing horizontal videos and create additional versions for vertical and square ratios for optimal viewing.

The new ratio sizes that Google can create include:

This feature can help the new video sizes feel more native to users viewing on mobile devices and create a better user experience.

#2: Get shorter versions of video ads

Say you’ve got a stellar video asset, but it may be too long to keep a user’s attention.

This new video enhancement uses Google AI to select key moments in the existing video to create shorter versions while keeping the original video message and appearance.

Per Google, these shorter video versions will automatically start running if they pass a quality review.

What are the benefits of using AI Video Enhancements?

As we come into Q4, time is of the essence for every marketer.

Resources are trying to do more with less, all while producing optimal PPC campaign results.

If you or your team are strapped for time or have a heavy workload, testing the Google AI video enhancements could be a key helper for your creative assets.

Some key benefits of testing out video enhancements include:

Reducing workload and budget
Takes the heavy lifting out of manually optimizing creatives
Can help boost campaign effectiveness
May help improve conversions

In Summary

With the ability to automatically generate different video sizes and ratios and create shorter versions of longer video ads, these tools are designed to save time and reduce the manual effort of video editing.

As marketers head into Q4 and face increasing demands, utilizing Google’s AI video enhancements can help lighten workloads, improve campaign effectiveness, and potentially increase conversions while keeping within budget constraints.

Featured image: monticello/Shutterstock

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