How to get millions of views on your GIPHY channel

Gifs on GIPHY can rack up millions of views. I speak from experience - my own personal GIPHY 2.7 billion views and at New Future Creative we manage many client accounts with over 1 Million views! You may be wondering, “how does this happen” or “what strategy do you use to amass views”? In this article I’ll answer these questions and then some using one of our clients, Each and Every’s GIPHY brand channel as an example. Over the course of six months, their sticker gifs have amassed nearly 8 million views with an average of 40,000 views per day!

What is GIPHY?

The GIPHY gif database syncs with all major social networks, messaging apps and online platforms. By having a GIPHY brand channel you can reach a whole new audience with your branded content, engage your current audience and have your branded content at your fingertips across all social platforms. GIPHY channels track individual gif views so it’s easy to see what your top performing gifs are.

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Uploading Strategy

At New Future Creative we use a tried and tested method for setting up your GIPHY channel and maxing sure it attains maximum views. The first thing we do after we’ve created ten gif stickers for a brand is to apply for a GIPHY brand channel using 5 gifs and making sure to follow the application instructions to a tee (no room for error here - trust me!). The GIPHY application process takes up to 14 business days, and involves your channel being reviewed. 

Like all social networks, GIPHY values consistent and regular content. By posting gifs on GIPHY more regularly you can ensure that your channel’s content will rank higher in organic search. Once the channel is approved we will upload the next 5 gifs once a week for the next 5 weeks. This will show GIPHY that your channel is active and contributing to their content database and all gifs will rank higher in organic search.

Hashtag Strategy

GIPHY has a LOT of gifs in its database, but most are standard gifs and are not transparent gif stickers for Instagram. With gif stickers it’s easy to rank for certain keywords because the content on GIPHY is undersaturated and the competition is minimal. GIPHY allows 20 hashtags per gif, but from my insider knowledge and connections at GIPHY I have deduced that 10 specific and relevant hashtags per gif is ideal and GIPHY will prioritize these gifs.

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When deciding what hashtags to use for your branded sticker gifs it’s important to do research and identify keywords with undersaturated content. This involves searching keywords on gif search and finding ones that do not deliver a full page of gifs. Take this gif we made for our client Each and Every:

By using a refined and relevant hashtag strategy, this gif ranks in the top nine gifs for four high volume (purple), brand relevant keywords. By ranking on these keywords the sticker gif has amassed nearly 500,000 views in the six months it has been available! It also ranks as the top gif for the branded keywords (grey).

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Type of content

When creating sticker gifs for GIPHY it is important to keep in mind that most users will not be already familiar with your brand. When we create brand channels for our clients we advise that they make five brand specific gifs (ie logo, product illustration etc..) and five non branded or subtlety branded gifs that will appeal to a wide audience. This ensures that you have brand reflective content for your internal marketing as well as content that your direct audience and strangers will enjoy! Remember - the goal is to create sticker gifs that your target audience would enjoy using and sharing!

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Gif Promotion

Chances are you want to create branded gifs to share with and engage your online communities. This is exactly what you should do the minute your GIPHY channel becomes public! You should make Instagram stories and feed posts using your gifs and letting your followers know that they too can use these gifs by searching your brand name in Instagram gif search! The more views that your sticker gifs get initially will affect the ranking of your gifs for your keywords in gif search. The more shares and views a gif gets, the higher it will rank for its keywords and subsequently the higher your other gifs on your GIPHY brand channel will rank!

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Quality of content

As a rule of thumb, the better the animation, the more views it receives. At New Future Creative we specialize in creating the best sticker gifs for GIPHY. Our team of talented animators are familiar with GIPHY and understand the type of content that will amass millions of views. 

If you’re interested in creating a set of sticker gifs for your brand do not hesitate to contact us. You can also take a look at our recent work and learn more about our gif services.