SEO

How to Do a SERP Analysis

Published

1 year ago

January 18, 2023

SERP analysis is a process that helps you determine if and how you can rank for a keyword and whether the effort is worth the reward.

It’s important because not all keywords are created equal. Some are harder to rank for than others, so you must choose wisely.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to analyze a SERP to see if it’s crackable.

Let’s get started.

The first step of a SERP analysis is to get a rough sense of the traffic opportunity and ranking difficulty opportunity.

To do this, we can use two of Ahrefs’ core metrics: Keyword Difficulty and Traffic Potential.

Keyword Difficulty (KD) estimates how hard it will be to rank on the first page of Google for a keyword on a scale from 0 to 100.
Traffic Potential (TP) is the total estimated monthly search traffic to the top-ranking page for a keyword.

Using these two metrics, we will be able to get a top-level overview of the SERP and determine whether it’s worth further investigation.

Let’s use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to get a quick, high-level view of the keyword “when were dogs domesticated.”

Keyword overview for "when were dogs domesticated," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

So what exactly is the overview showing us?

We can see the keyword “when were dogs domesticated” has a super hard KD of 73 but a low TP of 3.2K.

At first glance, this query doesn’t appear to be worth the effort. But it may warrant further investigation if this topic is lucrative for your business.

With a super hard KD of 73, Ahrefs estimates that we will need ~235 links to rank in the top 10 for this SERP, which will require a fair amount of resources to compete.

Generally speaking, it is better to look for low-KD and high-TP queries, where possible.

To better understand the effort-to-reward ratio for this query, and any others, we can plot the effort-to-reward ratio in an XY graph:

Top left: Golden opportunities (low investment, high reward).
Top right: Long-term opportunities (high investment, high reward).
Bottom left: Possible opportunities (low rewards, so effort might not be worth it).
Bottom right: Try to avoid (unless it’s a highly lucrative topic for your business).

Our query for “when were dogs domesticated” falls into the “high effort, low reward” quadrant, so it may not be worth the effort.

We are looking for a query that falls in the top left-hand section. In most cases, these will be the golden keyword opportunities.

Avoid queries that fall into the bottom right section where possible unless it is particularly lucrative for your business.

Let’s try to find a search with more opportunity.

Let’s plug in “how to leash train a dog” into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and see if this keyword has better metrics.

Search for "how to leash train a dog," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

We can see that this query has a medium KD of 18 but a much higher TP of 24K. Great!

We can see that this search has a much better effort-to-reward ratio than our previous query, so let’s scroll down the page in Keywords Explorer to the SERP overview and investigate if (and how) we can rank.

Now that we have completed our top-level overview, we can consider other factors using the SERP overview in Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.

We should consider four key elements in our SERP analysis when investigating the ranking difficulty:

1. Domain Rating (DR)

DR is one of Ahrefs’ most widely used metrics in SEO. It shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.

It’s not a Google ranking factor, but there are a couple of reasons why it can be easier for high-DR sites to rank on Google:

They can boost a page’s strength with internal links – High-DR sites have lots of strong pages. They can funnel some of this strength to specific pages with internal links.
They are often trusted brands – People may prefer to click these results on the SERPs. They may also have more topical authority, which may help.

These reasons explain why 64.9% of SEOs pay attention to DR when analyzing their chances to rank:

Do you pay attention to Domain Rating (or any other “website authority” metric) when analysing your chances to rank for a given keyword?
— Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 (@timsoulo) April 27, 2022

While it’s certainly possible to outrank a higher DR site, a good rule of thumb is to look for pages ranking in the top 10 with the same DR as you or lower. By doing this, we can maximize our chances of appearing on the SERP.

If we return to our previous query “how to leash train a dog” and look at the SERP overview, we can see that the first result comes from a DR 90 site.

Even with a high-DR site, this looks hard to beat.

SERP overview for "how to leash train a dog," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Scanning down the DR column, we can see that 8 out of 10 sites have a DR of 70+, so we could potentially be on the back foot from the start with this query.
Jumping to the sixth result, we can see that it has a DR of 26, which suggests that this SERP is crackable, at least in terms of DR.

SERP overview detail of sixth result, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Finding outliers like this DR 26 site is what we need to be focusing on at this stage. It can mean that ranking on this SERP with a ≤ 70 DR site is possible.

Assuming that we don’t have a DR 70+ site, our hopes of ranking will most likely rest on equalling the ranking of the DR 26 site.

It is worth noting that the traffic this site receives is estimated to be around 833, which is a lot lower than our original estimated 24K TP.

With these revised figures, we need to reevaluate whether the effort is worth the reward at this stage. That depends on our website’s authority, our risk appetite, and the resources available.

Although DR plays an important initial role in our SERP analysis, there are other factors that we should consider as well, such as links.

2. Links

If you ask an SEO what the top Google ranking factors are, chances are they will mention “backlinks” in their reply.

But what exactly is a backlink? Simply put, backlinks are clickable links from one website to another.

Backlinks are also highly important for ranking on Google, as they are one of eight confirmed ranking factors.

8 confirmed Google ranking factors:
1. Backlinks
2. Relevance
3. Freshness
4. HTTPS
5. Mobile-friendliness
6. Page speed
7. Core Web Vitals
8. Intrusive interstitials
Let’s take a closer look. 👇
— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) October 27, 2022

We saw in step #1 that KD can give us a broad indication of how many links we will need to rank, but actual link numbers will vary from site to site.

Let’s return to our query for “how to leash train a dog” in the SERP overview and take a closer look at the links.

SERP overview for "how to leash train a dog," via Keywords Explorer

Looking at the Domains column in the above image, we can see that the first result has 521 referring domains. Unless we can acquire over 521 referring domains, we should rule out the possibility of outranking this result.
The second result has 116 domains. Again, this seems relatively high, so we should probably rule out outranking this result too.
Positions #3–10, however, have ≤ 36 domains each, which is where the most opportunities lie on this SERP.

We can see from this link analysis that the lower end of the SERP is much easier to crack—at least in terms of links.

If we hone in on the sixth result, we can see that this site only has eight domains.

Acquiring more than eight domains should be achievable for most businesses, so this could be a great opportunity.

We only need to be aware that the estimated traffic for the sixth result is much lower than our initial TP estimate of 24K and is now 851.

Looking at the rest of the SERP’s traffic, we can see that rather than gradually declining, the eighth and 10th results have more impressive estimated traffic, 5,895 and 3,643, respectively.

This may mean that the estimated traffic opportunity may not be as low as 851, but it can vary depending on our exact position.

So far, just using DR and links, we have seen how feasible it will be for us to rank on this SERP. We can see that the lower half of the SERP (from positions #6–10) is most achievable at this stage.

Now we will need to consider the role of search intent on the SERP.

3. Search intent

Search intent is used to describe the primary reason for an online search. In other words, it indicates why the user typed their query into the search engine in the first place.

But what does search intent mean in terms of our SERP analysis?

In a nutshell: Our webpage needs to provide the best answer for the query to rank well on the SERP. Identifying the dominant search intent on the SERP can help determine how or if we will compete.

Most content on the internet falls into the categories below and, for our SERP analysis, it makes sense to use this categorization:

Blog posts
Category pages
Product pages
Landing pages
Videos

Let’s use Ahrefs’ own keywords to explore this concept in more detail.

Say we have a website that we want to rank for “backlink checker,” and we have written a blog post targeting that query.

This alone will not enable us to rank for this query, as the intent of this search is strongly aligned toward SEO tool companies with big backlink databases—like Ahrefs. For these types of websites, the backlink checker is likely to be one of their main product pages.

If you thought of it, why would you click on a result for “backlink checker” that didn’t have a backlink checker product?

You probably wouldn’t.

This rules out the possibility of targeting this keyword for the average website creating a simple blog post on this topic.

Let’s consider another more visual example using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Let’s plug in the keyword “how to draw a picasso face” and scroll down to the SERP overview.

With this query, we can see that 4 out of the top 6 results on this SERP are video-based. Therefore, we can see that the search intent is focused on video content.

SERP overview for "how to draw a picasso face," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Because this format of content is so dominant at the top of the SERP, it will likely be tough to rank near the top of this SERP unless we create video content ourselves.

Returning to the SERP overview for our “how to leash train a dog” search query, we can see that the majority of the articles here are blog posts, but the fifth result is a video SERP feature.

This indicates that, at least for some searches, searchers are looking for video guides rather than blog posts about this topic.

With this type of mixed search intent, it is best to create content in both formats, assuming you have the expertise and resources to compete. This will likely increase the chances of appearing on the SERP for this particular keyword.

In summary, we have seen how analyzing search intent can help inform our SERP strategy and determine if and how we will compete.

Let’s now take a look at content quality.

4. Content quality

It’s worth being aware that the standard of content Google expects can be much higher for certain topics.

For example, in a Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topic, such as medical advice, you likely need to provide content created or reviewed by doctors to compete on the SERP.

Google defines YMYL topics as the following:

YMYL definition, via Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines

Unless you have the resources to compete on these types of SERPs, then it is a good idea to stay clear of them.

Even in non-YMYL topics, such as product reviews, there are sites like Wirecutter independently reviewing thousands of products every year with great success. So it’s not just YMYL topics that have extremely high-quality content.

Wirecutter's "about us" page, via nytimes.com

Wirecutter now has the backing of The New York Times, so it has tremendous resources at hand.

Looking at its website, it typically updates or publishes around 10 articles per day, and this is despite its reviews taking “weeks or months of research” to complete.

So how do high-quality sites like Wirecutter impact our SERP analysis?

Simply put, if there is a website that has high-quality content within the SERP, then you should consider whether you have the resources to compete and outrank them.

The final step of our SERP analysis is to check for any other opportunities. One of the biggest opportunities you can take advantage of is SERP features.

Google seems to have hinted it as one of its priorities for search as far back as 2007. According to then-representative Marissa Mayer:

We [Google] want to help you find the very best answer, even if you don’t know where to look.

But what exactly is a SERP feature, and how can we identify it?

A SERP feature is any result on the SERPs that is not a traditional organic search result.

In brief, these are some of the most common SERP features and their basic requirements:

Featured snippets – Provide a concise answer to a query.
Video carousels – Create a YouTube video on the topic.
Image packs – Provide a relevant image of what people are looking for.
Top stories – Publish relevant news stories on the topic.
People Also Ask – Answer a related question on the topic.

Using Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, we can see a list of current SERP features in the Organic keywords report by entering any website into the search bar and then clicking on the SERP features filter.

In the example below, I have used ahrefs.com.

SERP features dropdown, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer

Filtering results by specific SERP features can be useful for competitor analysis or simply understanding which SERP features your website ranks for.

So what do SERP features look like in the wild?

Let’s take a look at a featured snippet for “what are cats whiskers for” in Google search.

Featured snippet search result for "what are cats whiskers for," via Google.com

As we can see above, appearing in a featured snippet will mean you get more SERP real estate than a standard organic listing and will also mean that the result appears at the top of the search results.

This is why SERP features are considered by some SEOs as the cheat codes for SEO. They can also potentially drive more traffic than your average organic result.

If we return to our previous example of “how to leash train a dog,” we can see that the SERP overview has identified the fifth result on this SERP as a video SERP feature.

Let’s click on the caret next to Videos to expand this result.

Once we click on the caret, we can see the expanded result.

SERP overview video carousel featured snippet, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

There are three videos in the carousel from 2016, 2017, and 2021. If we had the resources to create video content for this query, creating a more up-to-date, high-quality video could be a valuable shortcut to ranking well on this SERP.

Assuming we managed to rank a video in the fifth position, this would leapfrog the DR 26 website we looked at earlier in the sixth position.

If you created a blog post and a YouTube video targeting this search, you could acquire traffic from two sources rather than just one.

In summary, targeting SERP features is worth your time if you have the resources available. Winning SERP features allows us to acquire more SERP real estate instead of just appearing for a single organic result for a search query.

Final thoughts

Conducting a SERP analysis may sound daunting at first, but Keywords Explorer makes it easy by giving you an overview of the key metrics you need to consider.

After that, it’s just a case of following the process and asking yourself:

Can you provide a better answer to a keyword query than what is on the current SERP?
Can you create higher-quality content than the top result for the query?
Do you have sufficient resources to create the content?
Are there any SERP features you can target to win more SERP real estate?

If the answer is “yes” to most of the above questions, you should have a decent chance of cracking the SERP.

What’s your experience with SERP analysis? Got more questions? Ping me on Twitter. 🙂

SEO

OpenAI Expected to Integrate Real-Time Data In ChatGPT

Published

12 hours ago

May 12, 2024

Max

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, dispelled rumors that a new search engine would be announced on Monday, May 13. Recent deals have raised the expectation that OpenAI will announce the integration of real-time content from English, Spanish, and French publications into ChatGPT, complete with links to the original sources.

OpenAI Search Is Not Happening

Many competing search engines have tried and failed to challenge Google as the leading search engine. A new wave of hybrid generative AI search engines is currently trying to knock Google from the top spot with arguably very little success.

Sam Altman is on record saying that creating a search engine to compete against Google is not a viable approach. He suggested that technological disruption was the way to replace Google by changing the search paradigm altogether. The speculation that Altman is going to announce a me-too search engine on Monday never made sense given his recent history of dismissing the concept as a non-starter.

So perhaps it’s not a surprise that he recently ended the speculation by explicitly saying that he will not be announcing a search engine on Monday.

He tweeted:

“not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me.”

“New Stuff” May Be Iterative Improvement

It’s quite likely that what’s going to be announced is iterative which means it improves ChatGPT but not replaces it. This fits into how Altman recently expressed his approach with ChatGPT.

He remarked:

“And it does kind of suck to ship a product that you’re embarrassed about, but it’s much better than the alternative. And in this case in particular, where I think we really owe it to society to deploy iteratively.
There could totally be things in the future that would change where we think iterative deployment isn’t such a good strategy, but it does feel like the current best approach that we have and I think we’ve gained a lot from from doing this and… hopefully the larger world has gained something too.”

Improving ChatGPT iteratively is Sam Altman’s preference and recent clues point to what those changes may be.

Recent Deals Contain Clues

OpenAI has been making deals with news media and User Generated Content publishers since December 2023. Mainstream media has reported these deals as being about licensing content for training large language models. But they overlooked a a key detail that we reported on last month which is that these deals give OpenAI access to real-time information that they stated will be used to give attribution to that real-time data in the form of links.

That means that ChatGPT users will gain the ability to access real-time news and to use that information creatively within ChatGPT.

Dotdash Meredith Deal

Dotdash Meredith (DDM) is the publisher of big brand publications such as Better Homes & Gardens, FOOD & WINE, InStyle, Investopedia, and People magazine. The deal that was announced goes way beyond using the content as training data. The deal is explicitly about surfacing the Dotdash Meredith content itself in ChatGPT.

The announcement stated:

“As part of the agreement, OpenAI will display content and links attributed to DDM in relevant ChatGPT responses. …This deal is a testament to the great work OpenAI is doing on both fronts to partner with creators and publishers and ensure a healthy Internet for the future.
Over 200 million Americans each month trust our content to help them make decisions, solve problems, find inspiration, and live fuller lives. This partnership delivers the best, most relevant content right to the heart of ChatGPT.”

A statement from OpenAI gives credibility to the speculation that OpenAI intends to directly show licensed third-party content as part of ChatGPT answers.

OpenAI explained:

“We’re thrilled to partner with Dotdash Meredith to bring its trusted brands to ChatGPT and to explore new approaches in advancing the publishing and marketing industries.”

Something that DDM also gets out of this deal is that OpenAI will enhance DDM’s in-house ad targeting in order show more tightly focused contextual advertising.

Le Monde And Prisa Media Deals

In March 2024 OpenAI announced a deal with two global media companies, Le Monde and Prisa Media. Le Monde is a French news publication and Prisa Media is a Spanish language multimedia company. The interesting aspects of these two deals is that it gives OpenAI access to real-time data in French and Spanish.

Prisa Media is a global Spanish language media company based in Madrid, Spain that is comprised of magazines, newspapers, podcasts, radio stations, and television networks. It’s reach extends from Spain to America. American media companies include publications in the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Panama. That is a massive amount of real-time information in addition to a massive audience of millions.

OpenAI explicitly announced that the purpose of this deal was to bring this content directly to ChatGPT users.

The announcement explained:

“We are continually making improvements to ChatGPT and are supporting the essential role of the news industry in delivering real-time, authoritative information to users. …Our partnerships will enable ChatGPT users to engage with Le Monde and Prisa Media’s high-quality content on recent events in ChatGPT, and their content will also contribute to the training of our models.”

That deal is not just about training data. It’s about bringing current events data to ChatGPT users.

The announcement elaborated in more detail:

“…our goal is to enable ChatGPT users around the world to connect with the news in new ways that are interactive and insightful.”

As noted in our April 30th article that revealed that OpenAI will show links in ChatGPT, OpenAI intends to show third party content with links to that content.

OpenAI commented on the purpose of the Le Monde and Prisa Media partnership:

“Over the coming months, ChatGPT users will be able to interact with relevant news content from these publishers through select summaries with attribution and enhanced links to the original articles, giving users the ability to access additional information or related articles from their news sites.”

There are additional deals with other groups like The Financial Times which also stress that this deal will result in a new ChatGPT feature that will allow users to interact with real-time news and current events .

OpenAI’s Monday May 13 Announcement

There are many clues that the announcement on Monday will be that ChatGPT users will gain the ability to interact with content about current events. This fits into the terms of recent deals with news media organizations. There may be other features announced as well but this part is something that there are many clues pointing to.

Watch Altman’s interview at Stanford University

Featured Image by Shutterstock/photosince

SEO

Google’s Strategies For Dealing With Content Decay

Published

1 day ago

May 11, 2024

Max

Disappointed stressed businessman staring at the stacked paperwork on his desk

In the latest episode of the Search Off The Record podcast, Google Search Relations team members John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman did a deep dive into dealing with “content decay” on websites.

Outdated content is a natural issue all sites face over time, and Google has outlined strategies beyond just deleting old pages.

While removing stale content is sometimes necessary, Google recommends taking an intentional, format-specific approach to tackling content decay.

Archiving vs. Transitional Guides

Google advises against immediately removing content that becomes obsolete, like materials referencing discontinued products or services.

Removing content too soon could confuse readers and lead to a poor experience, Sassman explains:

“So, if I’m trying to find out like what happened, I almost need that first thing to know. Like, “What happened to you?” And, otherwise, it feels almost like an error. Like, “Did I click a wrong link or they redirect to the wrong thing?””

Sassman says you can avoid confusion by providing transitional “explainer” pages during deprecation periods.

A temporary transition guide informs readers of the outdated content while steering them toward updated resources.

Sassman continues:

“That could be like an intermediary step where maybe you don’t do that forever, but you do it during the transition period where, for like six months, you have them go funnel them to the explanation, and then after that, all right, call it a day. Like enough people know about it. Enough time has passed. We can just redirect right to the thing and people aren’t as confused anymore.”

When To Update Vs. When To Write New Content

For reference guides and content that provide authoritative overviews, Google suggests updating information to maintain accuracy and relevance.

However, for archival purposes, major updates may warrant creating a new piece instead of editing the original.

Sassman explains:

“I still want to retain the original piece of content as it was, in case we need to look back or refer to it, and to change it or rehabilitate it into a new thing would almost be worth republishing as a new blog post if we had that much additional things to say about it.”

Remove Potentially Harmful Content

Google recommends removing pages in cases where the outdated information is potentially harmful.

Sassman says she arrived at this conclusion when deciding what to do with a guide involving obsolete structured data:

“I think something that we deleted recently was the “How to Structure Data” documentation page, which I thought we should just get rid of it… it almost felt like that’s going to be more confusing to leave it up for a period of time.
And actually it would be negative if people are still adding markup, thinking they’re going to get something. So what we ended up doing was just delete the page and redirect to the changelog entry so that, if people clicked “How To Structure Data” still, if there was a link somewhere, they could still find out what happened to that feature.”

Internal Auditing Processes

To keep your content current, Google advises implementing a system for auditing aging content and flagging it for review.

Sassman says she sets automated alerts for pages that haven’t been checked in set periods:

“Oh, so we have a little robot to come and remind us, “Hey, you should come investigate this documentation page. It’s been x amount of time. Please come and look at it again to make sure that all of your links are still up to date, that it’s still fresh.””

Context Is Key

Google’s tips for dealing with content decay center around understanding the context of outdated materials.

You want to prevent visitors from stumbling across obsolete pages without clarity.

Additional Google-recommended tactics include:

Prominent banners or notices clarifying a page’s dated nature
Listing original publish dates
Providing inline annotations explaining how older references or screenshots may be obsolete

How This Can Help You

Following Google’s recommendations for tackling content decay can benefit you in several ways:

Improved user experience: By providing clear explanations, transition guides, and redirects, you can ensure that visitors don’t encounter confusing or broken pages.
Maintained trust and credibility: Removing potentially harmful or inaccurate content and keeping your information up-to-date demonstrates your commitment to providing reliable and trustworthy resources.
Better SEO: Regularly auditing and updating your pages can benefit your website’s search rankings and visibility.
Archival purposes: By creating new content instead of editing older pieces, you can maintain a historical record of your website’s evolution.
Streamlined content management: Implementing internal auditing processes makes it easier to identify and address outdated or problematic pages.

By proactively tackling content decay, you can keep your website a valuable resource, improve SEO, and maintain an organized content library.

Listen to the full episode of Google’s podcast below:

Featured Image: Stokkete/Shutterstock

SEO

25 Snapchat Statistics & Facts For 2024

Published

2 days ago

May 10, 2024

Max

Snapchat, known for its ephemeral content, innovative augmented reality (AR) features, and fiercely loyal user base, is a vital player in the social media landscape.

While it sometimes flies under the radar – as other platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram tend to dominate the cultural conversation – Snapchat is an incredibly powerful marketing tool that holds a unique place in the hearts and minds of its users.

In this article, we’ll explore what you need to know about Snapchat, with insights that shed light on what audiences think of the app and where its strengths lie.

From user growth trends to advertising effectiveness, let’s look at the state of Snapchat right now.

What Is Snapchat?

Snapchat is a social media app that allows users to share photos and videos with friends and followers online.

Unlike other social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok – where much of the content is stored permanently – Snapchat prioritizes ephemeral content only.

Once viewed, Snapchat content disappears, which adds a layer of spontaneity and privacy to digital interactions.

Snapchat leverages the power of augmented reality to entertain its audience by creating interactive and immersive experiences through features like AR lenses.

Users can also explore a variety of stickers, drawing tools, and emojis to add a personal touch to everything they post.

What started as a small collection of tools in 2011 has now expanded to a massive library of innovative features, such as a personalized 3D Snap Map, gesture recognition, audio recommendations for lenses, generative AI capabilities, and much more.

Creating an account on Snapchat is easy. Simply download the app on Google Play or the App Store. Install it on your device, and you’re ready!

Screenshot from Google Play, December 2023

25 Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About Snapchat

Let’s dive in!

1. Snapchat Has 406 Million Daily Active Users

That number, released by the company in October 2023, represents an increase of 43 million year-over-year – a 12% increase.

Here’s a chart from Statista showing Snapchat’s user growth from 2014 to 2023:

Screenshot from Statista.com, December 2023

And with 750 million monthly active users (MAUs), Snapchat is the fifth-biggest social media network in the world.

2. Users 18-24 Years Old Account For The Biggest Chunk Of Snapchat’s Audience

According to Snapchat’s own advertising data, the platform has 243.5 million users aged 18 to 24 – representing 38.6% of its total ad audience.

The second largest group of users are between the ages of 25 and 34, followed by 13-17-year-olds – proving that Snapchat is reaching young people around the world.

On the flip side, the platform isn’t huge with older users; people aged 50 and over account for only 3.8% of Snapchat’s total ad audience.

As a marketer, you can take a hint on what your campaign should focus on if you use Snapchat. As Snapchat’s own report puts it:

“From its inception, Snapchat has inherently created a frictionless space where Gen Z creatives can experiment with their identities, yet not have to feel like they’re ‘on brand’ in communicating to their close friend groups.”

3. Snapchat Reaches 90% Of The 13 To 24-Year-Old Population

It also reaches 75% of people between the ages of 13 and 34 in over 25 countries, according to Snapchat’s estimates.

In the US, 59% of American teenagers (between the ages of 13 and 17) report using Snapchat. This number amounts to roughly six in 10 US teens.

4. Snapchat Users Open The App Nearly 40 Times A Day

According to the company, this means people interact with their social circles on Snapchat more than any other social network.

In the US, about half of teenagers (51%) report using Snapchat at least once a day – making it slightly more popular than Instagram, but not quite as popular as YouTube or TikTok.

5. Taco Bell Paid $75,000 For 24 Hours Of The Taco Filter/Ad

To boost sales, Taco Bell launched the taco filter on Snapchat. Here’s what it looked like.

Today only: turn yourself into a taco using our @Snapchat lens. Because Cinco de Mayo. pic.twitter.com/P4KwLdFNFZ
— Taco Bell (@tacobell) May 5, 2016

The filter is humorous, relevant, and unique. Users adored it, and it got 224 million views.

That’s great, considering Taco Bell paid $75,000 for the ad – which actually proved to be a great investment for the exposure the brand received.

6. More Than Half (50.6%) Of Snapchat Users Are Female

In contrast, 48.7% of the platform’s global users are male.

While there is not a huge discrepancy between the demographics here, it’s helpful information for any marketers looking to put together Snapchat campaigns.

7. Snapchat Is The No. 1 App People Use To Share What They Bought

Is your brand looking to reach young social media users around the world? Snapchat could be the perfect platform for you.

People are 45% more likely to recommend brands to friends on Snapchat compared to other platforms.

They’re also 2X more likely to post about a gift after receiving it – making Snapchat a powerful tool for influencer marketing and brand partnerships.

8. Snapchat Pioneered Vertical Video Ads

Once a novelty in the social media industry, vertical video ads have become one of the most popular ways to advertise on social media and reach global audiences.

What are vertical video ads? It’s self-explanatory: They’re ads that can be viewed with your phone held vertically. The ad format is optimized for how we use our mobile devices and designed to create a non-disruptive experience for users.

You’ve definitely seen countless video ads by now, but did you know Snapchat pioneered them?

9. You Can Follow Rock Star Business Experts On Snapchat

Who knew Snapchat could be a powerful business tool? Here are the top three experts you should follow right now:

10. More Than 250 Million Snapchatters Engage With AR Every Day, On Average

Snapchat was the first social media app to really prioritize the development of AR features, and it’s paid off.

Over 70% of users engage with AR on the first day that they download the app – and, to date, there have been more than 3 million lenses launched on Snapchat.

11. People Are 34% More Likely To Purchase Products They See Advertised On Snapchat

When compared to watching the same ad on other social media platform, Snapchat proves to be an effective way to reach and convert.

12. Snapchat Is The King Of Ephemeral Content Marketing

Ephemeral content marketing uses video, photos, and media that are only accessible for a limited time.

Here are three reasons it works:

It creates a sense of urgency.
It appeals to buyers who don’t want to feel “sold.”
It’s more personalized than traditional sales funnel marketing.

Guess who’s one of the kings of ephemeral content marketing? That’s right: Snapchat.

Consider that if it weren’t for Snapchat, Instagram Stories would likely not exist right now.

13. More Than 5 Million People Subscribe To Snapchat+

Snapchat+ is the platform’s paid subscription service that gives users access to exclusive and pre-release features on the platform.

Subscribers also receive a range of other perks, including options to customize their app experience and the ability to see how many times their content has been rewatched.

The fact that so many millions of users are willing to pay for special access and features to Snapchat should be a sign to brands and marketers everywhere that the platform has a strong pull with its audience.

Beyond that, the fact that Snapchat+ drew 5 million subscribers within just a year or so of launching is impressive on its own.

14. Snapchat Reaches Nearly Half Of US Smartphone Users

According to Statista, approximately 309 million American adults use smartphones today.

Snapchat’s ability to reach such a considerable portion of US smartphone users is notable.

15. Snapchat Users Spend An Average Of 19 Minutes Per Day On The App

That’s 19 minutes brands can use to connect with people, grow brand awareness, and convey their message.

16. Snapchat’s Original Name Was Picaboo

In fact, Snapchat did run as Picaboo for about a year.

17. Snapchat Was Created After 34 Failures

Snapchat creators Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Frank Reginald Brown worked on the Snapchat project while they were studying at Stanford University.

After 34 failures, they finally developed the app as we know it today.

18. Snapchat’s Creators Had A Major Falling-Out Before The App Was Released

Frank Reginald Brown was ousted from the Snapchat project by his friends.

Although no one knows the real story, Brown claims Spiegel and Murphy changed the server passwords and ceased communication with him a month before Snapchat was launched.

19. Snapchat Downloads Doubled After The Launch Of The Toddler & Gender Swap Filters

Users downloaded Snapchat 41.5 million times in a month after the release of these filters!

20. Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Buy Snapchat

Snapchat’s owners refused to sell Snapchat to Zuckerberg (even though the offer went as high as $3 billion!).

21. Snapchat’s Mascot Is Called Ghostface Chillah

The mascot was inspired by Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan – and when you consider that the app was once called “Picaboo,” the ghost logo makes more sense.

Apparently, Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel has said that he developed the mascot himself and chose a ghost based on the ephemeral nature of Snapchat content.

22. Facebook And Instagram Borrowed Ephemeral Content From Snapchat

As we mentioned above, we have Snapchat to thank for Facebook and Instagram Stories, which have since become integral to the social media experience.

Snapchat also pioneered the use of AR filters, which were adopted by Instagram and paved the way for the filters that dominate the world of TikTok today.

23. 75% Of Gen Z And Millennials Say Snapchat Is The No. 1 Platform For Sharing Real-Life Experiences

Social media is all about authentic moments and human connection – and social media marketing is no different.

With such a large number of young people preferring Snapchat over other platforms for sharing their life experiences, marketers should follow suit.

Find ways to share behind-the-scenes moments with your team and company, and emphasize the humans behind the brand.

24. Snapchat Users Have Over $4.4 Trillion In Global Spending Power

That’s nothing to sneeze at.

25. In 2022, Snapchat Generated $4.6 Billion In Revenue

It is currently valued at over $20 billion.

Looking Ahead With Snapchat

Snapchat’s ephemeral content, intimacy, and spontaneity are strong points for everyday users, content creators, and businesses alike.

Marketers should keep a keen eye on emerging trends within the platform, such as new AR advancements and evolving user demographics.

Those looking to reach younger audiences or show an authentic, human side of their brand should consider wading into the waters of Snapchat.

By harnessing the power of ephemeral content and engaging features, brands can effectively use Snapchat to grow their brand awareness, engage with audiences on a more personal level, and stay relevant in the fast-paced world of digital marketing.

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Featured Image: Trismegist san/Shutterstock