GIFs have been a fun feature for a long time and it was just considered as a way to add colors to your marketing content to make it interesting. One thing that you might not know is that GIPHY, and other such GIF search engines like Gfycat and Tenor, possess special accounts for different brands, agencies, and artists.
If you are wondering what a GIPHY brand account is and why is it important, then don’t worry. We have answers to all your questions. To know about creating a GIF strategy, how to create a brand channel on GIPHY, and how to get started with GIPHY advertising, keep on reading.
What Is a GIF Search Engine?
Like any search engine, a GIF search engine is a search engine that provides relevant results for your GIF searches. By understanding the algorithm of GIF search engines, brands can create and dispense GIF content to interested users.
According to the records, GIF search engines produce more than 10 billion GIFs to users every day across various social media platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Tinder, Instagram, etc.
Why Create a GIF Strategy?
GIFs are the new way of communicating. In fact, more than 70% of people living in the United States use emojis, GIFs, and stickers while communicating daily.
GIPHY is the largest GIF platform and has more than 700 million daily active users who share millions of GIFs every day over those platforms where GIPHY is embedded. Even brands like Red Bull, Jolly Rancher, Absolut, Benefit Cosmetics, and Gucci, have already started marketing partnerships with GIPHY. With GIPHY, brands can uniquely boost brand awareness by creating a GIPHY brand channel and uploading funny, relevant GIFs starring your logo or product.
How to Use GIPHY Marketing for Brand Awareness
1. Create a GIF Brand Channel
To start GIPHY marketing, the first step is to create a branded channel on GIPHY. First, you need to create an account on GIPHY and start uploading GIFs to the platform. GIPHY allows anybody to create an account and upload GIFs, but their GIFs will not appear in the search results on third-party social media and messaging apps. For that, one needs to have a verified brand channel.
First of all, you need to sign in/log in to your GIPHY account. In order to have a brand channel on GIPHY, one should have at least 5 GIFs on the platform, along with a website, and a good social media following. GIPHY will take 2 to 14 days to look and approve your brand channel. Meanwhile, you can work on building your library of branded GIFs and stickers. After you get verified, your GIFs will be available for use across all platforms that have a GIPHY search engine integration.
2. Target the Right Keywords
Just like digital marketing, GIF marketing strategy also starts with keyword research. For keyword research, you just need to check out different search terms and topics that are related to your brand. Adding appropriate keywords to your GIFs is vital because this way people will be able to find the GIFs that are related to your brand. You can also tag your GIFs with your brand name or any taglines you use. Now, some terms may not be directly related to your brand, but they are associated with the types of things your target audience is addressing. When you are targeting keywords, remember that some are more competitive than others and it takes a lot of time, effort, and optimization to rank among those competitive keywords. Therefore, go for less competitive keywords in the beginning.
3. Create Your GIFs
The main aspect of GIF marketing is creating GIF content around the targeted keywords.
Here are some basic types of GIFs:
Animated GIFs: A still image GIF in which animation has been added.
Video GIFs: This GIF is in the form of short video clips
GIF stickers: GIFs that usually have a transparent background that you can add over any video or image.
4. Track Your GIPHY Marketing Performance
When you have a verified channel on GIPHY, you get access to its analytics dashboard. The analytics dashboard shows you the view count on your GIF. This will help you know what kind of GIFs and content works the best for your audience.
