700 Million People Use Giphy Every Day: Here’s Why Your Brand Should Too

You read that right. Giphy serves 10 billion pieces of content to 700 million people every day.

 That’s a whole lot of GIFs!

GIFs have become a powerful form of communication — they’re engaging, entertaining, funny, and just plain interesting. People use GIFs in their everyday conversations as a way to express how they’re feeling and communicate their thoughts.

Brands have joined in on the fun and are creating all kinds of short-form content for their fans to share. In fact, you may share a brand’s GIF without even realizing it.

If you keep up with the latest digital trends, you probably know that brands can apply for a Giphy brand channel and create their own GIFs. What you may not know, however, is that you’re missing out on a big opportunity if your brand doesn’t have a presence on Giphy.

By creating an exclusive channel for your business, you’re directly communicating with potential customers in an engaging, not so “sales-y” way. Keep reading to learn why Giphy is a win-win for both marketers and consumers.

GIFs Bring Your Brand to Life

GIFs will bring your brand’s digital presence to a whole new level. In fact, it will even set it apart from competitors. Many brands have yet to discover the magic that is a 3-6 second looping video, so there are loads of opportunities to impress people with your GIFs.

The fascinating thing about a GIF is that it combines graphics and video to create a highly engaging, visually appealing piece of content that’s easily consumed. People consume thousands of pieces of content on their phones every day, so creating content that is entertaining and easy to consume is vital for your brand’s success.

Pro tip: When it comes to GIFs, think fun first, business second.

Yes, Giphy is another social network you can use to reach consumers, but be careful not to treat your brand channel the same way as you would Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Although your social strategy should stay the same, your tactics and content should vary for each platform.

In addition to sticking to your social strategy, make sure your GIFs align with your brand aesthetic and voice. You’ll only have a few seconds to grab a user’s attention — make sure it’s easy for them to recognize your brand without making it too obvious they’re looking at a branded GIF.

Example of a well-branded GIF

GIFs Help Build Community

If your brand has a strong online community, people are going to flip when you roll out your own GIFs — trust me. Those who are loyal to your brand are going to jump at the chance to share your GIFs with their own group of friends and followers. This will further strengthen your community and create a new way for consumers to show off the fact that they are proud to support your brand.

Since we know GIFs are such a popular form of communication, it’s essential to think about how the GIFs you create will fit into people’s everyday conversations. Creating the right GIFs for your community goes back to understanding your audience. Are there words or hashtags your customers use on social media when talking about your brand? What do they like to do in their free time? Asking yourself these questions can help you create the perfect GIFs for your channel.

GIFs are Available (Almost) Anywhere

The magical thing about Giphy and their API (which includes 600+ platforms) is that people can access their favorite GIFs from just about anywhere across the internet.

Including, but not limited to:

• Instagram Stories
• Facebook Stories
• Facebook Messenger
• WhatsApp
• Twitter
• Snapchat
• TikTok
• Slack
• GroupMe
• Tinder
• iMessages
• Skype
• Viber
• MailChimp

From text messaging to downloading the Giphy app, there are endless ways to share GIFs on a desktop or mobile device. For marketers, this means the opportunity to reach consumers in places you never thought possible.

Link GIFs Directly to Your Site

Yes, for real! Every GIF you upload to your brand’s channel has the ability to include a source link, which is a direct path to your website. Traffic from these source links could potentially lead to conversions. If you’re struggling to convince your client that having a presence on Giphy is worth their investment, mention this.

Pro tip: After establishing a presence on Giphy, check out Google Analytics to see what kind of traffic you’ve gained to your website. You may not see a dramatic increase at first, but this insight can help you gauge the effectiveness of the platform.

In addition to adding a link to your GIFs, Giphy also allows you to include a maximum of 20 tags (Giphy’s version of hashtags), that will help your content appear when people search for specific terms. The screenshot below is an example of how tags are displayed within the platform.

You can add up to 20 tags per GIF

Another way you can gauge the success of your efforts on Giphy is by checking out your brand’s Dashboard. This is your hub for all channel activity, which will show you how many GIFs you’ve uploaded, the total number of views, and your top-performing GIFs.

Example of a Giphy brand channel dashboard

GIFs Are Ads… but Not Really

Although the GIFs you upload to your channel will have a direct link back to your website and in some cases, include your logo, branded GIFs present themselves as just another piece of content. That’s why they can be so powerful.

When done right, your GIFs can communicate your brand’s voice and value propositions without coming across as an advertisement. When creating your own GIFs, try to strike a balance between what’s shareable and what you’d like to communicate with your audience.

As of now, there’s no self-serve ad platform for marketers to use. If you’d like to advertise on Giphy, you’ll need to reach out to them directly. Personally, I look at this as a good thing, as it forces marketers to create GIFs that grab attention organically. The lack of ads on the platform allows your community to authentically engage with your brand rather than feel like they're being pushed to buy something.

The opportunities for your Giphy channel are literally endless. My suggestion? Apply for one right now and get started! Explore your website for ideas on what to create and think about what your audience wants to see. If the GIFs you’re creating aren’t impressing your audience, don’t get discouraged. Test different ideas and creative and see what resonates the most. After about a week of consistent testing, you should start to see the views roll in.

Questions about creating a Giphy brand channel? Shoot me a message on Twitter or LinkedIn and I’ll do my best to answer them.

P.S. We made a Giphy brand channel for our agency. Check it out!