But you don’t want your Father’s Day message to be like a pencil with two erasers…pointless. (Get it!?)

You want it to resonate with your audience, communicate something important from your business, and be sensitive to those who may find Father’s Day difficult.

So we’re sharing Father’s Day messages that will hit those marks you can use in your social posts, email marketing campaigns, and more.

Contents

• Father’s Day email greetings
• Father’s Day social media messages
• Father’s Day messages for SMS
• Father’s Day quotes
• General Father’s Day messages
• AI-generated Father’s Day wishes
• Tips for your Father’s Day messages

Father’s Day greetings for email

Copy, paste, and customize these Father’s Day email messages.

Promotional email

Say thanks to the dad or father figure in your life.

We’ve got plenty of gifts for dad as part of our Father’s Day sale!

Stop in before Father’s Day or shop with us online for 30% off your purchase.*

You don’t want to miss this

Business logo
Business contact information
*Terms and conditions

📣 Speaking of promoting your business… Free guide >> The 30+ Best Ways to Promote Your Business (With or Without Money)

Event email

Looking for something fun to do with your dad or the father figure in your life this Father’s Day? Join us for our Father’s Day event!

On DAY from TIME-TIME, you can enjoy:

• Specifics of event here
• Specifics of event here
• Specifics of event here

Don’t miss this opportunity to make fun memories!

Let us know you’re coming here.

Business logo
Business contact information
*Terms and conditions

Father’s Day opt-out email

We know Father’s Day can be a difficult time for some. If you prefer not to see Father’s Day emails from us this year, we invite you to opt out below.

Button: Opt out

You’ll still hear from us about other events, promotions, and announcements.

Thinking of you,
Business name

Business logo
Business contact information
*Terms and conditions

Father’s Day wishes for social media

Use these Father’s Day messages on social media.

• Whether you’re a dad or like a dad, we want to wish you a Happy Father’s Day. Your love is the greatest and most precious gift in the world
• Happy Father’s Day to all those celebrating a special person in their lives. And to those struggling today, just know we’re thinking of you.
• We don’t say it enough, so say it extra today: Thanks for everything you do, dads.
• Happy Father’s Day to our dad (and father figure) customers!
• Cheers and beers! Father’s Day is here
• It’s not a dad bod. It’s a father figure

Source

Get copy-and-paste social media posts ready for Father’s Day and more holidays in our free social media template!

Father’s Day messages for SMS

Use these messages in your SMS marketing this Father’s Day:

• One for you, one for dad! Stop in for BOGO [product name] today through Father’s Day.
• Our Father’s Day sale is happening NOW! Don’t miss out. Check out our great deals [link]
• Looking for Father’s Day gift inspo? How about [product/service]? Get it 30% off TODAY ONLY [link]
• Happy Father’s Day! Stop in today for a special treat.
• Don’t forget Dad! We’ve got everything you need for a fantastic Father’s Day! [link]

Father’s Day quotes

You can use these Father’s Day quotes on social media, in your emails, and more.

• “A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.” – Unknown
• “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: He believed in me.” – Jim Valvano
• “No man stands taller than when he stoops to help a child.” – Abraham Lincoln
• “A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow.” – Unknown
• “My father didn’t tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.” – Clarence Budington Kelland
• “My father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future.” – Liza Minnelli
• “A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.” – Unknown

And, we had to include a couple of funny ones:

• “A father carries pictures where his money used to be.” – Steve Martin
• “Raising kids may be a thankless job with ridiculous hours, but at least the pay sucks.” – Jim Gaffigan

Source

😌 Free guide >> The 130+ Best Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion

General Father’s Day wishes for any business or occasion

Here are some more general Father’s Day greetings you can adapt for any of your marketing needs around this holiday.

• From all of us at [Business Name], we wish you a very Happy Father’s Day!
• If Father’s Day is hard for you, just know that you are loved and cared for.
• Wishing everyone a very Happy Father’s Day!
• Thanks to all the dads and father figures giving their time, support, and love. You’re appreciated!
• Dad, you are rad! Happy Father’s Day!

Source

AI-generated Father’s Day messages

To round out our list, we asked AI tool ChatGPT to come up with some messages you can copy and paste.

• Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, grandpas, stepdads, father figures, and mentors who show up with strength, support, and love every day. We appreciate all that you do
• Here’s to the dads who fix things, teach lessons, crack jokes, and make life better along the way. Wishing you a relaxing and well-deserved Father’s Day!
• Father’s Day is a chance to celebrate the dads and father figures who make a difference every day. From big moments to everyday support, we’re grateful for all they do.
• Wishing you and your family a wonderful Father’s Day weekend from all of us at [Business Name].
• Still searching for the perfect Father’s Day gift? We’ve got you covered. Stop by this week to find something Dad will actually love
• Celebrate Dad with something special this Father’s Day! Shop our Father’s Day favorites before they’re gone.
• Father’s Day is almost here! Whether you’re shopping for Dad, Grandpa, or another father figure, we’ve rounded up gifts and favorites perfect for celebrating the occasion.
• Shop now before Father’s Day and make his day extra special.
• Cheers to all the amazing dads out there
• Celebrating the father figures who make life better every day
• Father’s Day favorites are here
• Give Dad something he’ll actually use this year
• To the dads who always show up — today’s for you
• Big thanks to all the hardworking dads in our community
• Making Father’s Day gifting easy this year
• Don’t forget Dad this Father’s Day
• Weekend plans: celebrating Dad
• Here’s to dads, mentors, coaches, and role models everywhere

Quick tips for your happy Father’s Day messages

Before you schedule your Father’s Day greetings, here are some tips to keep in mind

• Be sensitive. Father’s Day can be a complicated or sad time for some. Keep that in mind as you plan your marketing campaigns around Father’s Day and schedule your messages.

• Use inclusive language. Many people can act as a father figure—stepfathers, uncles, brothers, fathers-in-law, and other trusted adults. That’s why it’s so important to use inclusive language where appropriate in your Father’s Day messages.
• Adjust your message. Depending on where and how you’re using your Father’s Day greeting, you may need to make tweaks to what we’re sharing. Customize these ideas and examples for your needs and the specific channel you’re sharing it on so it’s most effective for you.
• Stay on brand. It’s always important to keep your brand guidelines and brand personality in mind when selecting or creating marketing messages for your business. And Father’s Day is no exception.

Here are some Canva templates you can customize for social media to stay on brand:

[Facebook] [Instagram] [X]

Make Father’s Day memorable

Use these Father’s Day messages and greetings for memorable marketing. Just remember our tips: be inclusive, be sensitive, and stay on brand. And, to all the dads and father figures reading this: Happy Father’s Day!

Want more messages for your marketing? We’ve got you covered:

• Spirited 4th of July Messages & Greetings for Your Customers
• Back-to-School Messages for A+ Marketing
• Perfect Labor Day Messages & Greetings for Customers & Employees
• Halloween Greetings & Sayings for All Your Marketing Needs
• Thanksgiving Greetings & Messages for Customers, Comrades, & Coworkers
• Ready-to-Go Black Friday Messages & Email Templates
• Perfectly-Worded Christmas & Holiday Greetings
• Happy New Year Wishes & Images (Plus a Creative Word List!)
• Genuine Thank You for Your Order Messages, Templates & Images
• Valentine’s Day Messages for Your Clients (with Email Templates!)
• Memorial Day Messages for Your Customers, Coworkers & Community

The post 46 Father’s Day Messages & Quotes for All Your Marketing Needs (+Templates) appeared first on WordStream.

OTT ads, or over-the-top ads, show up when people watch their favorite content on streaming apps, YouTube, and more. Not only do OTT ads get you in front of a huge audience, but they also offer modern features, like interactive experiences, that help you capture leads, gather data, and convert viewers into customers.

In this guide, we’ll show you five OTT advertising examples that make use of traditional marketing techniques and modern ad platform features. Then we’ll dig into the details of OTT as an advertising platform so you can run high-performing ads of your own.

Contents

• 5 outstanding OTT advertising examples
• What is OTT advertising?
• What are OTT devices?
• What are OTT services?
• What is OTT advertising?
• What are the benefits of OTT advertising?
• How is OTT advertising priced?
• Tips from OTT video examples

5 outstanding OTT advertising examples

OTT advertising gives you several ways to engage and convert customers that traditional television ads don’t. Let’s look at a few examples to explore how you can take advantage of these powerful features.

The best aspect of all of these OTT ads is that they’re available to any business, big or small. Meaning, a local dentist or car dealer can easily copy the strategies of these big brands.

Looking for more conversions? Download 14 Super-Fast Ways to Boost Conversions

T. Rowe Price: OK to email

Advertising during your audience’s favorite shows has always been a good option to capture attention. But T. Rowe Price uses an innovative feature of OTT advertising to turn viewers into actionable leads.

The brand did it by letting viewers get more information sent directly to their email inbox simply by tapping the “OK” button on their ROKU streaming device.

Source

Why this OTT advertising example works

This ad removed friction for the viewer. They don’t have to go to a different device or stop enjoying their program to take the next step in their path to purchase. Reducing friction is a great way to improve lead generation and conversion rates.

Ring Camera: Add to cart

TV-era marketers would absolutely drool over this OTT advertising example. In it, Ring created a shoppable ad experience by including a way for viewers to add an alarm system to their Amazon cart right from their viewing device.

Source

Why this OTT advertising example works

Immediate gratification is a powerful emotional driver in consumer marketing. This ad gives viewers the immediate satisfaction of placing a product they just saw in their shopping cart (putting it one click away from shipping). This type of OTT ad would be a perfect pairing for your limited-time sales promotions and sense of urgent advertising.

Volvo: Ad Selector

Most businesses, regardless of size, can benefit from segmenting their audience. Doing so makes it possible to send super-relevant messages to groups of people who share common characteristics, needs, and interests.

Volvo appealed to three different market segments by creating three separate video ads. Then it used the Disney platform’s Ad Selector feature to let viewers choose which option they prefer.

Source

Why this OTT advertising example works

Volvo’s ad worked for two reasons. First, it made the ad experience much more relevant for each viewer. And second, it gave the brand a way to gather valuable first-party data about its audience. If most people chose the “Skater” option, Volvo could double down on that audience in its social media and display ads.

Maybelline: Binge Ad

Binge Ads are a type of OTT ad offered by several streaming services that allow brands to sponsor an ad-free episode for viewers. They typically show up after someone has watched two or three episodes of a show in a row.

Beauty brand Maybelline used this type of OTT ad on the Peakcock app to promote its Super Stay Coffee Addition lipstick line.

Source

Why this OTT advertising example works

Building brand awareness is as important as it’s ever been. And giving your buyers something valuable is a good way to generate positive awareness for your brand and products. It’s the backbone of many organic social media and SEO strategies. Now, you can apply it to OTT advertising.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital: In-Stream ad

Great storytelling is the heart of an effective ad. That goes doubly true for video ads people will see as they’re watching an entertaining or educational video on an OTT service.

In this example, the Och Spine Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital used its YouTube In-Stream ad to tell the story of how they helped a patient recover from a debilitating spinal tumor.

Source

Why this OTT advertising example works

The ad tells a compelling story in just 30 seconds. That’s brief enough to keep people from skipping, but still enough space to create a connection with the hospital’s target audience. These types of customer stories are fantastic topics for in-feed video ads.

Now, let’s get into the details of OTT advertising so you’re fully prepared for success.

What is OTT?

OTT (over-the-top) is video content delivered via the internet rather than traditional cable or satellite. It’s called “over-the-top” because the content goes directly to viewers over their internet connection, bypassing the traditional TV provider entirely.

Here’s a little more behind the name. The actual term for a cable box is set-top box. Because back in the day, when TVs were big clunkers and cable boxes were small, they sat on top of the TV. But even when screens became flat, and cable boxes got placed elsewhere, the term set-top box remained.

Memories, anyone?

Streamed content, on the other hand, does not require a cable box because it’s delivered via the internet. It bypasses, or goes over, set-top boxes. Hence, the term over-the-top.

What are OTT devices?

Basically, any device that displays video and connects to the internet is an OTT device. This includes:

• Smartphones, computers, tablets, and laptops.
• Connected TVs
  • Smart TVs (Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV).
  • Regular TVs using a device (Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Chromecast).
  • Regular TVs using gaming consoles.
  • Wi-Fi Blu-ray players.

Is OTT the same as connected TV?

OTT and connected TV (CTV) are sometimes used interchangeably. They are not the same, though. CTVs are just one device on which you can watch OTT media.

What are OTT services?

OTT services are the apps that stream over-the-top content to your device.

There are several OTT services and apps out there, and they follow various models.

Transactional video on demand (TVOD)

• This is where you pay for individual pieces of content.
• Examples of TVOD streaming services include iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and Vimeo.

Advertising-based video on demand (AVOD)

• Here, you can access streamed content for free, but with ads.
• Examples of AVOD streaming services include TubiTV, YouTube, and Hulu Ads.

Subscription video on demand (SVOD)

• For those who don’t want to see ads, you can pay for a subscription to see ad-free content.
• Examples of SVOD streaming services include Disney+, Hulu+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix. (Note: many of these services now show ads at the lower paid tiers).

Multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs)

• These are streamed content providers where you pay for a combination of both streamed and broadcast content.
• Examples of MVPDs include DirecTV, Sling, and YouTube TV.

To recap: You watch OTT (streamed) content (Schitt’s Creek) on an OTT device (iPhone) through an OTT streaming service (Netflix).

What is OTT advertising?

OTT advertising t is the practice of showing ads to consumers when they’re watching streamed (OTT) media. You can do this in a few different ways:

• Programmatic: Here, automation is used to serve OTT ads across multiple networks through demand-side platforms (DSPs) like Rocket Fuel, MediaMath, AppNexus, TubeMogul, and more. (This guide to programmatic advertising explains it in-depth)
• Platform direct: This is where you would purchase ads directly from the provider of the OTT device (such as Roku or Amazon Fire TV from our connected TV illustration).
• Publisher direct: Here, the exchange happens directly with the OTT service provider (our OTT streaming services above).

Source

What are the benefits of OTT advertising?

There are many reasons advertisers, especially at local businesses, are turning to over-the-top ads as an effective means of generating revenue.

The OTT audience is growing

More people are watching TV through streaming services than ever before, while fewer are watching traditional cable.

Cord-cutters now make up nearly half of all US internet households (about 56 million homes), with another 12% who never had cable to begin with. The OTT streaming market reflects that shift, growing from $221 billion in 2025 to a projected $264 billion in 2026.

OTT ads offer better targeting

With traditional cable TV advertising, the only way to target is by choosing a designated market area (DMA). There are just 210 DMAs across the entire U.S., meaning you’ll inevitably be reaching locations you don’t need (or want) to.

But with OTT advertising, you can target:

• Zip codes (much like with PPC geotargeting)
• Devices
• Demographics
• Behaviors

Local businesses can target OTT ads for their markets.

OTT advertising works without third-party cookies

Not only is streamed content becoming more popular, but it also provides opportunities for cookieless targeting. Here’s how:

• First, there’s contextual advertising—which does not require cookies because you’re targeting categories of TV/video content rather than individuals.
• Second, streaming subscription services collect sufficient first-party data from users (through registration and logged-in activity) to enable effective targeting.
• Third, there are still ways to report on the effectiveness of your OTT ads using IP addresses and timestamps.

OTT video ads have high completion rates

Viewers cannot skip OTT ads, install ad blockers, or change the channel (they’re only on one). And when served an ad, they complete watching it 95% of the time.

Short, unskippable OTT ads have a high completion rate.

Yes, they could leave the room, but with consumers viewing content on mobile devices (on the train or in the car, for example), this is less likely.

How is OTT advertising priced?

To help you get even more familiar with this form of video marketing, here are some OTT pricing models and metrics to understand:

• CPM: Cost per thousand impressions.
• CPV: Cost per view, meaning how much you’ll pay for every time a video ad starts.
• CPCV: Cost per completed view. Here, you only pay for ads that have finished playing all the way through.
• VCPM: Cost per viewable impression, which is when the ad is viewed for at least two seconds.
• CPH/CPS: Cost per hour, cost per second. Here, you pay for the total time 1000 viewable impressions generate.
• CPE/CPI: Cost per engagement/cost per interaction, such as with a lightbox ad.

Tips from OTT video ad examples

When you pay attention to OTT ads, you’ll see a few best practices show up in the best ones. Use them to make your next ad more successful.

Target your personas

When you know your audience well, you can use language, images, and topics that resonate with the individuals in your audience. Be sure to consider all of your customer personas when coming up with OTT video ad scripts and ideas.

If you’re not sure which segment of your audience to target, just ask them.

Be relatable

For the most part, traditional TV commercial ads feel “distant” from us. We feel like a brand is advertising to us. With online video ads and personalized targeting, viewers expect more relatable and personable content.

Market with emotion

This is a best practice for any form of marketing, but video is the most effective medium for marketing with emotion. Use emotional images, emotional music, and emotional words to have a memorable and meaningful impact on your viewers. Can I say emotional one more time? (Yes.)

And yes, humor is an emotion.

Source

Use voice-overs

It’s a best practice with social media video ads to make it so that the message is communicated without the sound on. This is true for OTT ads, but you also have to remember that even though people can’t skip your OTT ad, they can tune out, switch to a different device while it’s playing, or go in the other room. So it’s important to have a voiceover in your ads that conveys the message with sound, as this will still afford your brand some form of exposure to your viewer.

Copy these OTT advertising examples

OTT advertising gives you the audience attention of traditional TV ads with the advanced targeting, tracking, and conversion tools of modern digital marketing. The examples and tips we’ve included in this guide will give you a great start on trying out this valuable channel.

When you do get started, remember what the best brands do with their OTT ads. They use interactive features, focus on storytelling, and get to know their specific audience so their messages are extremely relevant. With those ideas in mind, you’ll generate the best ROI from your OTT ads.

The post 5 OTT Advertising Examples (+Over-The-Top Ads Explained) appeared first on WordStream.

In my years as a PPC consultant, clients were always looking for tips, hacks, and tools to help them save money. Lucky for me, I had a trick up my sleeve that would almost always deliver budget-saving results: ad scheduling.

Ad scheduling is one of my personal favorite underrated moves to make when maximizing a campaign’s performance. While it sounds limiting to set your campaign’s ads to show only at certain times, it actually makes the most sense, as most businesses have certain times of the day or week where their potential customers are most active online.

In this article, I’m going to uncover the money-saving magic, as well as the finer details, of ad scheduling. I’ll talk about what ad scheduling is and how it cuts costs while boosting conversion rates. Plus, I’ll walk through the steps for how to set up ad scheduling in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Meta Ads.

Contents

• What is ad scheduling?
• Ad scheduling benefits
• How to set up ad scheduling in:
  • Google Ads
  • Microsoft Ads
  • Meta Ads

What is ad scheduling?

By default, all ad campaigns across platforms are due to run 24/7. Ad scheduling is the practice of limiting your campaigns to run only on certain days of the week and hours of the day. This way, you can ensure your ads are only showing during specific days/times that you know you’ll get the highest return on ad spend.

Ad scheduling saves you money by only showing your ads on the days and times they perform best.

For example, I can look at my data to identify that Mondays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. are my best converting times. But on the opposite end, I spend on clicks on Sundays at 3 a.m. that are not converting. Therefore, I may want to adjust my ads to only run on weekdays from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and not on weekends when I know this will be wasted spend.

If you’ve been in the PPC game a long time, you may also know ad scheduling by its old name from many years ago, when it was called “dayparting.”

Want to learn even more money-saving tips? Found out where you can save spend with our Free Google Ads Grader!

Why use ad scheduling?

Ad scheduling in Google Ads is assigned at the campaign level for any campaign type. This even includes automated campaigns, like Smart or PMax campaigns, which is a huge advantage. Why? While these automated campaigns do the heavy lifting for you, you’re not able to control much since they run on their own via Google’s algorithm. With ad scheduling, you can still regain at least some control over the campaign’s behavior. In fact, some campaigns, like PMax, may prompt you to assign a schedule in the setup process.

Additionally, being able to set this solely at the campaign level, regardless of campaign type, will help unify your ad groups and make things easier to manage at a high level.

Plus, even if you want to run ads 24/7, you can still leverage ad scheduling through bid adjustments. Both Google and Microsoft Ads allow for this. You can use this feature to pay more or less per click during specific hours on certain days, depending on how you’d expect to perform.

So, one workaround would be to set up an ad schedule that would still be inclusive of all hours and days. Then, add on schedule sets of what days or hours you’d want to bid up or down on to manage those separately. Or, even if you still wanted to leverage ad schedules to stop running 24/7 you can still apply bid adjustments on a more restrictive ad schedule. However, with any bid adjustment, they will only be taken into account if the campaign is on a manual bid strategy.

So, though the requirement is to have a manual bidding strategy to try out this loophole, it’s truly not one size fits all, and there are opportunities for bid adjustments for every account type!

An example of an ad schedule bid adjustment in play with a campaign’s location targeting.

How to set up ad scheduling in Google Ads

Before you set up scheduling in Google Ads, there are three things about time zones you need to know:

1. Google ad schedules default to the time zone your account is set to.
2. Once you set up your Google account, the time zone you set cannot be changed later on.
3. You can only choose one time zone.

This means that if you’re running Google ads in multiple time zones, you’ll need to stretch your ad schedule to cover both zones. So if you want your ad to show on both the east and west coast from 1-4 p.m. in both time zones, you’ll need to do the math and set your ad schedule for 1 p.m.-7 p.m. This isn’t ideal if you don’t want to run past 4 p.m. on the East Coast. This means that, in some cases with Google ad scheduling, wasted spend is unavoidable. But if you do the math, you can mitigate this as much as possible, and still see a return that’s well worth it.

One possible workaround would be to create separate campaigns and adjust those ad schedules zones accordingly, but this account structure gets hairy, and you’ll still need to do the math.

Now that you have that in mind, here are the steps to set up ad scheduling in Google Ads.

1. View your historical data

The key initial step to setting up a strong ad schedule in Google Ads is to analyze your historical data. You can do this by navigating to “where and when ads showed” under the reports section of the platform, or go to “ad schedules” under the audiences, keywords, and content section.

Either way, Google Ads will show you a view that includes a few different insights, like:

1. Ad schedule: Where you click into to actually set up or adjust a new or current ad schedule assigned to your selected campaign.
2. Day and hour: A combination of data with both information on best/least performing days and times together.

2. Consider additional scheduling factors

Aside from using data to see what historically works, you also need to take into account other factors that might not be accounted for in the data.

For example, if you know your business is only open on weekends or vice versa, you can adjust your ad schedule accordingly.

3. Select your schedule

Once you identify what days and times you want to schedule your ad, you can navigate over to the ad schedule subsection to set it up. Click the blue edit pencil, and Google will provide a drop-down with any and all available options for days and hours.

With this, you can even take it a step further and break up your ad schedule. You could set ads to run in the morning, take a pause during lunch hour, then enable them again in the afternoon. I encourage you to play around with different combinations to see what options you have and what you think would work best for your business.

For more cost-saving Google Ads tips, download our free guide to 6 easy ways to save money on Google Ads now!

How to set up Microsoft ad scheduling

As with Google Ads, Microsoft Ads also allows you to apply an ad schedule to any campaign type at the campaign level. But overall, Microsoft gives us more flexibility with ad scheduling. How? Not only does it allow us to set at the campaign level, but it can also be set at the ad group level.

Another major advantage of Microsoft Ads schedules is that your ad schedule dynamically adjusts to the time zone of the viewer. That’s right, while it may take more finesse to incorporate all time zones into your scheduling plan on Google Ads, over on Microsoft, the platform does the heavy lifting.

One thing to note here is that if you’re leveraging Microsoft Import to copy your Google Ads components over to Microsoft, then you’ll quickly find that you’ll want to manually manage your ad schedules between platforms since you’ll most likely be setting them up differently.

Microsoft also has two different spots where you can create and adjust ad schedules. The first being the campaign level settings, and the second being the actual ad schedule section on the left-hand panel.

Once there, the setup is essentially similar to Google Ads, where you can layer and select individual or groups of days/times that you prefer to run. Just like we talked about with Google Ads, you may want to hop into the Ad Schedule section for Microsoft and evaluate the day and hour data sections.

How to set up ad scheduling in Meta Ads

Not to be confused with Facebook Ad Set start and end dates, ad scheduling on Meta Ads shares similar spend-restricting qualities with Google and Microsoft. However, it’s only an available option when leveraging a lifetime budget instead of a daily budget.

Once you’re in a Meta campaign’s ad set that’s leveraging a lifetime budget, simply click into the “Show More Options” portion of the Budgets & Schedule section of the ad set editor.

From there, you’ll be able to select what days or times you’d like to show, just like in Google and Microsoft. Since Facebook can show to such large audiences, this is a great tool to ensure you always show at the right time: when it’s worth your money!

Save time and money with ad scheduling for your small business

On top of saving money, ad scheduling can be incorporated into your digital marketing strategy according to your business’s unique needs. There’s a place for ad scheduling for every small business, whether you are active on one or all of these three platforms, or want to continue running 24/7 while leveraging bid adjustments. Just keep the important details mentioned above in mind so you can get the highest return on ad spend. For more ways to maximize your paid campaigns across platforms, see how our solutions can help!

The post Ad Scheduling: How to Set It Up Right In Google, Meta, & Microsoft Ads appeared first on WordStream.

That’s why I’m sharing June marketing ideas to help your business create campaigns that make a seasonal splash this month.

And thankfully, June has tons of great themes, causes, and holidays to make your summer marketing campaigns hot! After this post, you’ll be set up for free and easy June marketing wins so you can stay connected with your customers and attract even more of them.

Contents

• Marketing ideas for June holidays
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion marketing ideas in June
• June national awareness causes and themes
• June national day highlights
• Full list of national days/holidays

Marketing ideas for June holidays

Let’s kick off our full list of June marketing ideas with two major holidays in June: Flag Day and Father’s Day.

Flag Day

Celebrated every June 14, Flag Day is a great way to continue to celebrate America, after Memorial Day has passed and July 4th is still a few weeks away. It commemorates the day that the stars and stripes were adopted for the flag. Here are some marketing ideas for this day:

• Incorporate an American flag theme into your offerings: American flag cookies, jewelry, clothing, and more.
• See if you can find a creative way to incorporate stars and stripes into your content.
• Offer discounts on red, white, or blue products you offer, whether that clothing, paint, or, in the case below, fabric:

Get more marketing ideas ready to go for June (and every month of 2026) in our free marketing calendar template!

Father’s Day

Of course, you can offer discounts and sales on this day, but here are some other ways to promote your business. We’re always looking for ways to think outside the [tie] box when it comes to Father’s Day gifts.

• Father’s Day gift guide: Compile some great gift ideas into a blog post, some of which can be your offerings. See if you can create a persona for the dads of your target audience. Are they young fathers? Old-timers? Gardeners? Gadget lovers? Readers? There are tons of Father’s Day gift guides out there, so keep it targeted for your audience.
• Gift baskets: Spare moms and kids from having to come up with ideas and put together creative gift baskets or combinations. Seeing everything together and artfully arranged gives added appeal.

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• Restaurants: Supply gift cards to your restaurant with a bottle from a local distillery or winery.
• Spa or salons: Run specials on men’s grooming supplies. Moms who come in to redeem their gift certificates from Mother’s Day will love the one-stop shopping!
• Don’t forget about last-minute shoppers! While diligent shoppers make careful decisions to find the right brand or product, last-minute shoppers are looking to make the fastest decision with the lowest risk.
• Make your flexible return policy prominent in your marketing copy, such as with “No hassle returns!” or “No return deadlines!”

Here are some more resources to help with your Father’s Day marketing:

• Inspiring Father’s Day Instagram Captions & Ready-to-Post Images
• Happy Father’s Day Messages & Greetings (+Templates)

Now, let’s continue on to other June marketing ideas based on national days and monthly observances

Flip a Coin Day

The first day of June every year is Flip a Coin Day. This holiday was made to celebrate math, but you can have some fun with it in your marketing content. Here are some ideas:

• Run a coin flip discount day: For each purchase, have customers flip a coin and call heads or tails. If the customer wins, they get a percentage discount based on the value of the coin. Quarter flips = 25% off, dime flips = 10% off, and nickel flips = 5% off. Of course, you can adjust the discounts depending on your budget and customer volume.

• Create content about decision-making. You can use the below blog post title formulas for just about any industry:
  Don’t Leave It to Chance: How to Choose a [X] Wisely
  It’s a Toss-Up: Should You Use X or Y?
  Can’t Make Heads or Tails of X? Read This
  Don’t Flip a Coin When Deciding on Your Next [industry] Partner.
• Gyms and trainers can share or run a coin flip workout.

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Donut Day

People love Fridays. And people love the donuts. And on the first Friday in June, they come together on National. Donut. DAY.

• Create a new tradition: Local bakeries, if you want to do something beyond just discounts and coupons, announce to your audience a week or so in advance that you’ll be introducing a brand-new, never-before-seen donut on this day—with a limited supply! Post little teasers on social media and your website to generate some excitement and mystery. Better yet, continue the tradition annually. Your patrons will look forward to it every year!
• Fitness businesses can offer or share an after-Donut Day workout. Donuts are delicious, but not exactly marketing materials for the fitness industry. Host or post a Day After Donut Day workout.
• Show customer appreciation: Bakeries can post pictures of their loyal customers, tagging them (with their permission)

World Environment Day

We know that consumers look for businesses that support causes they care about—one of which is environmental protection. Here are some ways to show your support for this cause, which occurs every year on June 5:

• Collect donations for a charity or offer limited edition eco-friendly items.
• Offer waste-reducing freebies with purchase, like a reusable bag or metal straws.
• Even just creating visuals with appealing and earthy tones for your June 5th Instagram post can make a mark.

Best Friend Day

National Best Friend Day, which occurs annually on June 8, is a relatable holiday and a great excuse for a sale. Run buy-one-get-one sales, promote your referral program, or run a tag-a-friend social media contest.

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Iced Tea Day

While not everyone drinks it, National Iced Tea Day (every June 10) is a reminder that summer is here and the weather is beautiful, which puts everyone in a good mood. Here are some simple ways to celebrate:

• If you collaborate with a local coffeehouse or bakery that specializes in tea, you can host a pop-up at your business and offer free tea for guests, or a coupon for a free tea with purchase.
• If you have a brick-and-mortar location, hand out iced tea samples to get foot traffic and spread brand awareness!
• Simply engage your audience on social media with questions about their iced tea preferences. Alternatively, you could share iced tea fun facts or recipes to get plenty of likes, comments, and reactions.

Nature Photography Day

Nature Photography Day, which occurs annually on June 14, is more than, well, nature photography. It’s about using images to raise awareness and advance conservation and protection efforts for plants, wildlife, and landscapes.

Post some of your best nature photos on social and accompany them with an eye-opening stat pointing to the need for conservation.

Summer solstice

The summer solstice is the first, and longest, day of summer. This is the perfect time of year to launch a summer collection, throw a beach-themed event or sale, or offer a beach blanket or koozie with a purchase.

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Take Your Dog to Work Day

This excellent day is observed annually. on the Friday after Father’s Day. Invite employees to bring their pooches to the office, and don’t be shy about advertising their presence on Meta, TikTok, or LinkedIn. The promise of a puppy is enough motivation for people to brave the summer heat and stop by your shops. And of course, this is the perfect contest opportunity.

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Insurance Awareness Day

Insurance Awareness Day occurs every June 28, and there’s plenty you can do with this June marketing idea, even if you’re not directly in the insurance industry. You can post a video to create buzz or share tips on how to assess your insurance, like with the example below:

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Other ideas:

• Lawyers and accountants can blog about the benefits of insurance for individuals and business owners, or resurface old posts on the topic.
• Doctors and dentists can encourage patients to check out their insurance to make sure they have adequate coverage, or provide tips for connecting with insurance companies about procedures.
• Massage therapists, chiropractors, and fitness centers should encourage clients to check their insurance benefits—many insurance companies offer coverage for massage and chiropractic treatments or subscriber discounts for joining a fitness center or gym.
• Travel agents, bed and breakfasts, and hotels can use this day to blog about the benefits of travel insurance.

And let’s not forget about pet insurance…

More June marketing ideas

How about a few more June marketing ideas? Check these out.

• Repeat Day (Saturday, June 3): Re-run past promotions and campaigns that were popular among your customers.
• Cancer Survivor’s Day (Sunday, June 7): Spotlight a team member or customer who is a cancer survivor, or simply post inspirational articles, quotes, and photos.
• Selfie day (Wednesday, June 21): You know the drill!
• Public Service Day (Friday, June 23): Feature a prominent member of the community on social media or offer a discount to those in the public sector who show ID.Try out these June marketing ideas

Diversity, equity, and inclusion marketing ideas in June

Diversity, equity, and inclusion in your marketing should be a constant throughout the year, but here are a few observances you can include specifically in your June content plans:

LGBTQ+ Pride Month

The LGBTQ+ community is one of freedom, creativity, and expression. So why not incorporate those themes into your associated campaigns?

And why not with a pride art or pride flag contest? Encourage your social media followers, or even other businesses and nonprofits in your neighborhood, to create their own pride flag or pride art and post it to social media. Make sure they use a specific hashtag so you can gather all entries and pick the winner(s).

Also, depending on your business, you can give away a couples-themed service, such as a couples massage session or photoshoot.

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Black Music Appreciation Month

Black artists have had unparalleled influence and impact on the music industry. Amplify the voices of Black creators this month by creating a shareable playlist of songs you love from Black artists.

This unique trick is sure to help your business stand out while also fitting diversity and inclusion into your marketing. It’ll also help to make your brand more memorable as the playlist will cause your audience to think of your business while they listen. You could even take it a step further and host an event where you and your customers can listen to the playlist together.

Juneteenth (June 19)

While this June holiday has over 155 years of history behind it, Juneteenth just became federally recognized in 2021. You’ll want to close down your regular operating hours for this day and give your employees the day off to process and learn from Black history. In the meantime, partner up with a local Black-owned business or organization for the day. Whether you’re volunteering at a nearby Black history resource center or cross-promoting with a Black-owned brand, you can post about the partnership on social media to help inspire and educate your customers.

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Additional observances in June that help promote diversity, equity, and inclusion include:

• National Caribbean American Month
• National Soul Food Month
• PTSD Awareness Month
• National Loving Day (for interracial marriage) – annually on June 12

June national awareness causes and themes

June is home to National Safety Month, National Great Outdoors Month, and more. Let’s go through some great ways to market your business in June with these June awareness causes.

Download our free, definitive guide to social media (simplified!) to see how you can quickly become social savvy for June!

Safety Month

Safety is a versatile topic that can apply to just about any audience. For example, here are some evergreen blog post ideas for different audiences:

• Cyclers: 10 Must-Have Features for your Child’s Helmet; 10 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid When Riding at Night
• Parents: Quiz: Are You Truly Keeping Your Baby Safe?
• Businesses: 5 Ways to Safeguard Your Network Against Hackers
• Millennials: 8 Social Media Safety Tips You Didn’t Know You Needed

You could also take a more seasonal approach by creating content around staying safe in the summer, or by handing out travel-sized sunscreen bottles in your store or with online orders for a limited time.

Great Outdoors Month

After brutal winters and busy school years, people are always particularly excited to get outside in June. Here are some ways to apply this theme to your marketing:

• Create a blog or social media post on the best places around your state to get outside and experience nature. Ask your followers to share their favorite spots, too.
• You could also run a month-long email campaign that points out new ideas and places to visit each week.
• If you hold indoor classes, host them outside!
• Run a sidewalk sale (because hey, outdoors doesn’t have to mean sitting atop a mountain).
• If there’s a local business near you that sells outdoor gear, see if they’ll donate some products for an “outdoors essentials” kit or even just a discount that you could offer in a giveaway. In return, you can promote their business on social media or even offer to donate your products at a relevant time.
• Turn a beautiful outdoors image into a media ad you can run on the Google Display Network and other owned media ad sites, like the USA Today Network. As a bonus, you could also turn this display ad into an eye-catching print ad or direct mailer.

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Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month

Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month happens every June to remind folks of the 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older that live with Alzheimer’s disease. People dealing with Alzheimer’s and other related Brain diseases are also beloved grandparents, parents, friends, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and valued members of their community. Here is how your business can show it cares about this cause this June:

• Spread awareness in your campaigns by acknowledging this observance in your copy and creative.
• Donate money or volunteering time to a local senior center.

Candy Month

I would have assumed Candy Month falls in October, but actually it’s in June. This is great news for your business, as there’s plenty to play around with in your campaigns to connect with Candy Month. For example, you could hold a “guess how many” candy jar contest or sweepstakes.

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Summer vacation/graduation

Celebrate the end of the school year with specials geared toward high school or college graduates. Some marketing ideas for you:

• Moving companies can run special promotions for college grads.
• Restaurants can offer a gift card to graduates who post a picture of themselves at their restaurant wearing their cap and gown.
• Catering and events businesses can post the dates during which their services are still available.
• Don’t forget about running sales for graduation and teacher gifts!

More June monthly themes and observances

Here are more June awareness themes that you can use as a compass for your social media posts, blogs, emails, and promotions.

June national day highlights

There is an observance day for just about every niche out there that can be a fit for June marketing campaigns. The full list (with dates) is at the bottom of this post, but here are some notables:

And there you have it. A basketful of ideas and examples to keep your brand creative, attractive, and authentic! For more ways to squeeze the most out of your campaigns this June, see how our solutions can help!

Also, be sure to check out these other monthly marketing resources:

• May Marketing Ideas (and Examples) for Any Business or Budget
• Summer-Ready June Content Ideas
• Free and Creative July Marketing Ideas
• Easy & Engaging August Marketing Ideas
• Back-to-School Messages for A+ Marketing

Full list of June holidays and observances

And as promised, here’s the list of June holidays and observances.

June 1

• Go Barefoot Day
• Say Something Nice Day
• Penpal Day
• World Milk Day
• National Nail Polish Day
• Global Day of Parents
• National Leave The Office Early Day

June 2

• National Rotisserie Chicken Day

June 3

• Repeat Day
• National Black Bear Day
• National Running Day – First Wednesday in June

June 4

• Clean Beauty Day
• Hug Your Cat Day

June 5

• National Veggie Burger Day
• World Environment Day
• Donut Day – First Friday in June

June 6

• D-Day
• Eyewear Day
• Higher Education Day
• Gardening Exercise Day
• Bubbly Day – First Saturday in June
• Trails Day – First Saturday in June

June 7

• World Caring Day
• World Food Safety Day
• Cancer Survivor’s Day – First Sunday in June

June 8

• Best Friends Day
• World Brain Tumor Day
• SAFE Day

June 9

• National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day
• National Movie Night
• Call Your Doctor Day – Second Tuesday in June

June 10

• Iced Tea Day
• Herbs and Spices Day

June 11

• Making Life Beautiful Day

June 12

• Red Rose Day
• Loving Day

June 13

• Kitchen Klutzes of America Day
• Random Acts of Light Day
• First Lady’s Day
• Weed Your Garden Day
• Sewing Machine Day
• Rosé Day – Second Saturday in June

June 14

• Army Birthday
• Flag Day
• Children’s Day – Second Sunday in June

June 15

• Smile Power Day
• Nature Photography Day

June 17

• Garbage Man Day
• Eat Your Vegetables Day
• Mascot Day

June 18

• National Splurge Day
• International Sushi Day

June 19

• Juneteenth

June 20

• World Productivity Day

June 21

• Daylight Appreciation Day
• Selfie Day
• Father’s Day – Third Sunday in June
• Summer solstice/first day of summer/ longest Day of the Year

June 22

• HVAC Tech Day

June 23

• National Hydration Day
• National Pink Day

June 24

• National Take Back Lunch Break Day
• National Pralines Day

June 25

• Global Beatles Dazy
• National Catfish Day
• National Strawberry Parfait Day

June 26

• Beautician’s Day
• National Barcode Day
• National Chocolate Pudding Day
• International Day Against Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
• Take Your Dog to Work Day – Friday After Father’s Day

June 27

• Sunglasses Day
• PTSD Awareness Day

June 28

• Logistics Day
• Insurance Awareness Day

June 29

• Camera Day

June 30

• Meteor Watch Day
• Social Media Day

The post 58 Free June Marketing Ideas for Sizzling Campaigns appeared first on WordStream.

Their experience jives with consumer behaviors. 61% of buyers say they’ve discovered a new brand or product on social in the last 12 months. And social media is now the most preferred channel for product discovery among consumers aged 18 to 44.

To meet customers where they search and drive more traffic to your website, you need an intentional social media optimization strategy.

In this guide, we’ll define search engine optimization and then break down a successful social media optimization strategy into 21 tactics. We’ll start with quick wins you can do today, and then cover long-term techniques that’ll keep your social presence growing for years to come.

Contents

• What is social media optimization?
• What are the benefits of social media optimization?
• Social media optimization quick wins
• Long-term social media optimization tactics

What is social media optimization?

Social media optimization (SMO) is the practice of refining your social media profiles, content, and posting strategy to increase visibility, engagement, and traffic across social platforms and search engines.

SMO covers everything from keyword-rich bios and consistent branding to choosing the right formats, posting times, and platform-specific features that push your content to more of the right people.

Brands like Duolingo use social media optimization to build large online followings that translate into more customers.

Ready for even more social success? Download The Definitive Guide to Social Media Marketing (Simplified!)

What are the benefits of social media optimization?

If you’re spending any time posting to social media platforms, optimizing your efforts will help you get a lot more in return. Here are a few specific ways SMO will benefit your business:

• Gain visibility where your audience already spends time: Optimized profiles and content get surfaced by social media algorithms to more people on the platforms they’re already scrolling.
• Enjoy higher engagement rates: When your content matches what your audience actually wants to see, the likes, shares, and comments follow. Social platforms then reward that engagement with even more reach.
• Build a stronger search engine presence: Optimized social profiles rank in Google. A well-built Facebook or LinkedIn page can show up right alongside your website when someone searches your business name or category.

Optimized social media content appears on many search engine results pages.

• Increase visibility with AI platforms: AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews draw on social content to answer user questions. An optimized presence makes it more likely your business gets mentioned.
• Drive more referral traffic to your website: Strategic links, calls to action, and content that creates curiosity drive people from your social profiles to your site, where they can actually convert.
• Present a consistent brand that builds trust: SMO means your bios, visuals, tone, and messaging line up across every platform. That consistent brand personality makes your business look credible and professional before a customer ever reaches out.
• Get sharper audience insights: An important aspect of SMO is paying attention to what performs well, which tells you what your audience actually cares about. That will guide future social media strategies so they drive even better results.

Oatly maintains a consistent brand personality that’s attractive to its target audience.

9 quick social media optimization wins

Let’s start with a handful of ways you can optimize your social media presence in a few minutes. Not only are each of these quick and easy, but they’ll also have a huge impact on how many people see and engage with your content.

1. Optimize your profile and bio

Each social media platform offers some type of profile page you can customize, and they each have some space to write a bio. Together, they act as the home base for your brand for curious visitors and help algorithms and AI know what your account is all about.

What’s allowed in our bio varies by social site. But there are a few rules that apply to them all:

• Fill out all available business information (name, phone number, address if applicable, website, etc.)
• Use relevant keywords to help algorithms identify your page.
• Use clear, professional, recognizable header, profile, and banner images.
• Include a link to your website,

This coffee bar makes good use of its bio, including keywords, location information, and hours of operation.

2. Use the 80/20 rule for promoting products in organic posts

If you want to create long-term, compounding growth through social media, you’ll need to be more than just transactional. That means sharing educational, entertaining, community-building content that gives people a reason to follow you, even when they’re not ready to buy what you sell.

The general rule of thumb is that about 80% of your content should be helpful, brand-building posts, and the other 20% can feature a specific product, service, or promotion.

Goldieblox mixes purely educational posts with its product promotions.

Get an entire year’s worth of social media content ideas in this free resource >> Your Copy & Paste Social Media Calendar

3. Use hashtags strategically

Hashtags categorize your social media content so that people searching or following specific topics can find it, even if they don’t already follow you. That’s why they’re so important for growing beyond your current audience.

Try using a mix of popular hashtags, like #newhome, location hashtags, like #realestatedenver, and niche hashtags, like #firsttimehomebuyerfinancing.

There is a lot to learn about these little bits of copy. These guides will help:

• Hashtag Ideas for Every Industry & How to Use Them for Your Business
• Popular Instagram Hashtags (+How to Find & Use the Right Ones)
• TikTok Hashtags for Better Discoverability
• Creative Hashtags for Every Day of the Week

4. Add closed captions

92% of users view videos with the sound off on mobile. Closed captions, or subtitles, make sure your message reaches the majority of viewers.

Subtitles help make how-to videos easier to follow along.

Adding subtitles is a great way to make your videos more accessible to people with hearing disabilities.

5. Use the right image size

Social media platforms have different rules for the image and video sizes you can use. Follow the rules, and your content will be fully and correctly displayed.

We’ve compiled the latest image sizes for the most popular social networks here.

6. Add alt text to your profile images

Alt text is a short written description attached to an image that tells search engines what the image shows and makes your content accessible to people using screen readers. And it isn’t just for SEO-ing your website.

You can also add those important keywords in the alt text of your social media posts. Check out the advanced settings section in your social network of choice to update it.

7. Post at the right time

When you post on social media can influence how algorithms prioritize your content. That’s because recency is often a ranking factor (new content gets priority), and because early engagement can signal that your content deserves more exposure.

The best time to post depends on several factors, like your time zone, when your audience is online, and the rules of each platform. We’ve dug through the data for each major social network to give you a head start:

• The Best Time to Post on Instagram (For Every Scenario)
• The Best Time to Post on Facebook (+Why it Matters)
• The Best Time to Post on TikTok For Your Business
• The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn for Maximum Engagement
• The Absolute Best Time to Post on YouTube

8. Use compelling calls to action (CTA)

A key component of social media optimization is getting people to take the next step towards buying from your business. A strong CTA helps move people from viewer to buyer.

Most social media platforms offer a set menu of CTA buttons you can add to a post. But don’t let that stop you from including another one in the copy or caption.

Adding a big, bold CTA is one of the easiest and most effective social media optimization strategies.

9. Fill out all business info

Never miss a chance to offer more details about your business. Especially when you can do it for free on social media platforms.

This is especially true on Facebook and LinkedIn, where there are copious places to include business descriptions, images, links, and more.

Fitbit maximizes its Facebook presence with plenty of details about its business.

11 advanced social media optimization tactics

With those quick wins knocked out and your social media presence on the rise, let’s take it to the next level with these more advanced (but still very doable) optimization tactics.

10. Use social media management tools

We’re listing this first because it can help with just about every other strategy on this list. Social media tools come in many flavors, but they typically fit in three categories:

• Paid social media management tools: These are comprehensive tools that usually have scheduling, content creation, and tracking features. Hootsuite and Social Sprout are examples.
• Native social media tools: These include the tools built into each social platform. Facebook’s analytics dashboard and TikTok tools for creators belong in this category.
• Free social media optimization tools: These third-party tools are available at no cost and typically focus on a single aspect of optimization. WordStream’s Facebook Ads Performance Grader and Ahrefs Free AI Social Media Hashtag Generator are part of this group.

11. Engage in the comments

Social media gives you an incredible two-way communication channel that most other marketing platforms can’t match. Use it to create community, encourage discussion, and learn more about your followers and customers.

There’s a big bonus here. Your additional comments and conversations with followers are a signal to algorithms that your content is popular and deserves to be shown in more people’s feeds.

12. Move negative conversations to private messages

Stay on social long enough, and you’re bound to get a negative message or twelve. It’s critical that you respond to them quickly and professionally because people are watching. A misstep could cost you followers, which is the opposite of most optimization goals.

There are two steps to follow. First, show compassion. Second, move the conversation to a private channel.

Moving customer concerns to private channels can keep a small incident from becoming a social media crisis.

13. Use social media SEO

Social media platforms work similarly to search engines in that an algorithm, or an AI system, decides which content to show on a user’s screen. And that’s why social SEO is an important part of long-term social media optimization.

To boost your social SEO, find and use relevant keywords in your:

• Bio
• Captions
• Post titles
• Video descriptions
• Video scripts
• Document file names
• Image alt text (as mentioned before)

This sporting goods outfitter loaded its Instagram profile with lots of keywords.

14. Customize your thumbnail images

A thumbnail is the preview image people see before clicking on your video or post. It works like a book cover, motivating people to open and view your content. And that engagement becomes contagious as more people see and watch what you’ve shared.

Your thumbnail image should tell people exactly what they’ll get when they click. It helps to express some emotion and add enough color contrast for it to stand out.

Match your thumbnail to your message and audience. 

15. Learn from your competitors

Your competitors offer a masterclass in what to do (or not do) to get results on social media. Tracking their actions is a powerful takeaway that should be a recurring part of your SMO.

To start, simply look for your closest competitors’ accounts, see what kind of content they publish, how often, and the results it gets. If you’re in the lawn care industry and your biggest competitor gets a ton of engagement on how-to videos, add them to your strategy.

You can also peruse the Meta Ad Library (Facebook and Instagram ads) and the TikTok Ads Library to see what their paid promotions look like.

16. Make use of all formats

Social media platforms let you post a variety of content types in various formats. Systematically try each one to learn which generates the best results (and which you can keep up with).

For example, on Instagram alone, there are video and static-image feed posts, carousels, Reels, Lives, and Stories.

Get Sunday makes use of video ads, still images, and Stories in its Instagram account.

17. Share user-generated content (UGC)

There are two common challenges with optimizing your social media presence. One is that it’s hard to create enough content to post constantly. The other is that it’s hard to get in front of new audiences quickly.

UGC—photos, videos, reviews, or posts that your customers create about your brand—addresses both of those hurdles. That’s because it’s a free source of new content and, when you tag the creator, you can get in front of their social network.

Chewy’s customers post about their products, giving the brand access to fresh, trusted content.

18. Add UTMs to your links

UTMs are short tracking codes you add to the end of a URL that let you track where traffic comes from. They don’t change anything about how the link operates for viewers. They just create a unique URL that you can single out for different channels.

For SMO, UTMs make it possible to tell if a link to your website came from Facebook, Instagram, and so on. Or, you can create them for a specific promotion. That’ll let you know if a discount code or a new product drop is better at driving traffic.

19. Use polls and ask questions

We’ve mentioned a couple of times that getting engagement is both a goal of SMO and a way to generate even more engagement. Polls and questions are excellent ways to get that engagement snowball rolling.

Here’s a simple and powerful example. Staples used an Instagram Story Ads Poll to ask the age-old question of which way the roll should go.

This kind of cultural quiz can drum up a lot of buzz. But you can also use this tactic to learn about your customers and even guide things like product or service design. Just ask which colors or features your followers like most, for example.

20. Test, track, and tweak

The final social media optimization tactic is also the most important. Nothing in social is set it and forget it. You have to be intentional in trying new things, identifying which ones work, and adjusting your strategy to improve.

This isn’t only to find new tactics that work best now. It’ll help you adapt as social evolves. Whether it’s the influence of AI or the rise of a new social network, you’ll be ahead of the curve if you have a solid testing method in place.

Here are a few questions to ask as you design each test:

• Who will run the test?
• What parameters are you comparing (copy variations, video vs still images, different platforms)?
• Which social media metrics will you use to measure the outcome?
• What will you do with the data?

Social media optimization starts with an audit

We’ve shared 20 of the best ways to optimize your social media presence. But before you dig into any of these tactics, you should take a beat to figure out where you are.

If you’ve never posted on social for your brand before, then you’re done. But if you’ve been active already, start with a social media audit. That will give you a baseline for things like follower counts and engagement rates to build off of. It will also offer early insights into what’s worked in the past, so you’re not starting from scratch.

The post Our 21 Best Social Media Optimization Tactics (With Examples) appeared first on WordStream.

Brand personality can level the playing field and help small businesses win over customers’ hearts (and wallets) even with a limited budget. That’s because an intentional brand personality makes your business more memorable and relevant to the people you need to influence. The return on that is immeasurable.

In this guide, I’ll explain exactly what a brand personality is and how you can develop one that woos even the most skeptical of buyers. Plus, I’ll dissect standout examples from brands that have crafted unmistakable personalities.

Contents

• What is brand personality?
• Why does brand personality matter?
• How to develop your brand personality (7-step framework)
• 5 brands doing brand personality right

What is brand personality?

Brand personality is the set of human qualities a brand consistently shows through how it looks, speaks, and behaves. It includes each detail that helps your brand become recognizable, relatable, and, ideally, adored.

Your brand personality guides will guide your decisions, from visual design and messaging to customer interactions, and help your audience understand what the brand stands for in consistent and sometimes subtle ways.

Every aspect of Red Bull’s brand image screams bold, edgy, and unapologetically extreme. 

It’s good to note that brand personality is different from brand voice.

Let’s break it down. Brand personality defines all aspects of your presence. It is the set of human traits the brand embodies, like confident, playful, thoughtful, or rebellious.

Brand voice is how the brand speaks. It is the expression of that personality in words, tone, and language choices.

In simple terms, personality is the character, and voice is the way that character communicates.

Every successful business, big or small, has a very distinctive brand personality. For example, Oatly comes across as outspoken and a little rebellious, using humor and blunt honesty to challenge industry norms. Olipop feels optimistic and modern, with a friendly, wellness-first tone that makes better-for-you choices feel easy. Airbnb’s personality is warm and human, centered on belonging and curiosity, inviting people to experience places as locals.

Say it with feeling! Get 135 of the Best Words & Phrases for Marketing with Emotion

Why does brand personality matter?

Brand personality matters because it’s often the reason people notice a brand, remember it, and feel something about it—often before they ever even consider what they sell. It’s how you “live rent-free” in your target audience’s head until they’re ready to buy.

More than anything, your brand’s personality quietly shapes how it shows up in the world and why that presence makes a difference. Here’s why brand personality plays such an important role:

• It makes a brand recognizable: A clear personality helps people identify your brand instantly, even when your logo or name is not front and center.
• It builds trust through consistency: When a brand sounds and behaves the same way over time, it feels reliable. That reliability is what turns familiarity into trust, which in turn becomes loyalty.
• It guides better decisions: A strong personality acts as a filter, helping you decide what fits and what does not, from campaign ideas to customer experiences.
• It creates an emotional connection: People do not connect with products or services alone. They connect with brands that feel human, align with their values, or reflect who they are.
• It sets you apart when offers look alike: In competitive categories, personality becomes the differentiator, giving customers a reason to choose you when everything else feels interchangeable. This is especially important for services, where differentiation happens through human interaction, tone, and experience rather than tangible features or specs.

How to develop your brand personality: 7-step framework

Your brand personality shouldn’t be an afterthought. That said, developing a brand personality is not about picking adjectives off a list just to check a box. It is about making intentional choices that reflect who you are, who you are for, and how you want to show up consistently over time. This framework keeps the process practical and easy to follow.

1. Start with your truth (not your aspirations)

Before you define how you want to sound or feel, get clear on what is already true about your business. Look at why the company exists, how decisions are made, and what you would still stand for even if no one were watching.

In this review, include your founding story and how your values show up in action. For many small businesses, the founder’s personality naturally shapes the brand’s personality as well. A strong brand personality is always rooted in reality, not aspiration.

2. Understand the emotional needs of your audience

Brand personality lives in the relationship between you and your audience. To shape it well, you need to understand not just who your audience is, but how they want to feel when they interact with a brand like yours. Are they looking for reassurance, momentum, belonging, confidence, or escape?

The goal is to understand those needs and use your brand personality as an anchor for how you show up across everything you do.

This is what Pandora, the leading global jewelry brand, does with its well-known customizable charm bracelets. Or as they would say: Mini charms, big meanings. Pandora positions itself as a brand that helps people tell their own stories. It has a romantic, personal, and emotionally expressive brand personality, with a strong emphasis on sentiment over status.

Make your marketing even more meaningful. Download 26 Brilliant Ways to Use Psychology in Your Copywriting (with Examples)

3. Define your personality traits with intention

Once you understand your foundation and your audience, you can define your core personality traits. Three to five traits are usually enough, as long as each one is specific, meaningful, and actionable.

Focus on your audience’s perception here. Confident is better than professional. Curious reads more useful and interesting than innovative.

For every trait, clarify what it means in practice, and just as importantly, what it does not mean. This prevents vague language and makes the personality easier to apply consistently.

Remember Apple’s “Think different” campaign? It embodies Apple’s essence: calm, confident, and precise, letting craftsmanship speak for itself.

4. Create a personality statement and brand style guide

Once your traits are defined, bring them together in a clear personality statement and supporting brand style guide.

The personality statement captures the essence of your brand in a few grounded sentences, making it easy for anyone to understand how the brand should feel. The style guide then translates that personality into practical direction, from voice and tone to visual cues and examples of what to do and what to avoid.

And since AI is becoming so prevalent in marketing, make sure to create AI brand guidelines, too.

This step turns abstract traits into shared language and everyday tools, helping everyone show up in a way that feels consistent and intentional.

5. Translate personality into behavior

A brand personality is not just a PDF that collects digital dust. In other words, a brand personality only matters if it shows up in real decisions. This is where many brands fall short.

Ask how your personality influences the way you write headlines, design packages, handle complaints, onboard customers, or say no to opportunities. If your brand is bold, where do you take risks?

Let’s say a core tenet of your brand is caring. How does that show up when something goes wrong? If you can’t identify the traits in everyday situations, your brand personality serves only as a decorative label, which means you’ve missed the point.

One of the clearest ways brands translate personality into behavior is through mascots. Duo, the iconic green owl from Duolingo, is the obvious example. Duo’s chaotic, persistent behavior reinforces the brand’s playful and relentless personality. That personality shows up consistently in notifications, social posts, and product copy.

6. Turn your employees into brand ambassadors

Employees are the most powerful carriers of your brand, because they bring its personality into real conversations and everyday moments. That starts with helping them understand what the brand is and how it should feel in practice.

When people are empowered to make decisions through the lens of brand personality, they stop following scripts and start showing up with confidence. The ultimate goal is to turn everyday interactions into consistent, on-brand experiences. And encouraging your employees to share content around it all.

7. Stress-test it for consistency and longevity

Before locking anything in, test your brand personality against real scenarios. How does it hold up in a crisis? Does it work across channels, teams, and growth stages? Will it still feel right in five or ten years? Here’s the thing: a good personality should be flexible enough to evolve, but strong enough to remain recognizable.

5 businesses doing brand personality right

It’s time to see brand personality in action and get your creative gears turning. These businesses show what happens when brand personality is clear, consistent, and woven into every decision.

Heinz: confident and iconic

Talking about brand personality, one can’t help but mention Heniz. Heinz’s brand personality is confident, dependable, and unapologetically classic. It presents itself as the authority in its category, grounded in heritage and quality rather than trends.

There’s a sense of quiet confidence in how Heinz shows up, trusting that consistency, familiarity, and great taste speak for themselves. At the same time, the brand knows how to use wit and cultural relevance, reinforcing its iconic status without trying too hard to prove it. And that’s perfectly reflected in their latest campaign, which unveiled the Heinz Dipper, a French fry box with a built-in ketchup compartment for dipping on the go.

Native: honest and reliable

Native is another excellent example of a strong brand personality. Native’s personality is honest, approachable, and feel-good.

The brand speaks with straightforward clarity about making products that are clean, simple, effective, and free of unwanted ingredients. Native makes sure its brand personality is front and center in their advertising as well—reliable, welcoming, and focused on helping people feel confident about what they use on their bodies.

Headspace: calm and supportive

Headspace’s brand personality is calm, reassuring, and human. It positions itself as a friendly guide, making mindfulness and mental health feel accessible instead of intimidating. The brand knows how sensitive the topic of mental health is. That’s why it speaks in a warm, simple way that reduces pressure and invites people to start where they are.

There’s a strong sense of empathy in how Headspace shows up, acknowledging stress, overwhelm, and everyday struggles without dramatizing them. The brand builds trust through its gentle visuals and clear language.

This approach is reinforced through Ebb, Headspace’s empathetic AI companion, which offers personalized recommendations based on how you’re feeling.

Petbarn: caring and knowledgeable

If you have a pet, there’s no need to explain how important pets are to people. Petbarn knows this. The moment you open its website, you can tell it’s a trusted partner for pet owners, combining genuine affection for animals with clear expertise and guidance.

Petbarn’s brand personality is caring, practical, and deeply pet-focused. And so is the way they communicate—warm while staying grounded in helpful advice and real solutions.

The brand highlights the bond people have with their pets and reflects that care across its messaging, while also reinforcing reliability through education, services, and everyday support. It’s in the thoughtful details, like personalizing their search bar with your pet’s name after completing your pet’s profile.

Cherrypick: helpful and intuitive

Cherrypick’s brand personality is helpful and practical. The brand positions itself as an everyday assistant that simplifies meal planning and grocery shopping without adding extra complexity. Its voice feels clear and reassuring, focused on saving time and reducing decision fatigue.

What makes Cherrypick stand out is how seamlessly it fits into daily routines. By bringing recipes, meal planning, and grocery ordering into one place, the brand communicates ease and efficiency at every touchpoint. It uses bold design, colorful visuals, and witty copy to communicate its mission. Cherrypick exists to make healthier, more sustainable food choices easier and more affordable by removing friction from everyday cooking and shopping.

Brand personality is what keeps your brand consistent

Brand personality is what holds everything together. It shapes how people recognize you, how they feel when they interact with you, and whether your brand feels cohesive or fragmented over time. When it’s clear and consistently applied, it creates trust. When it’s not, even strong tactics can feel disjointed or forgettable.

If you’re unsure of your current brand perception, ask AI. Tell your tool of choice to review available mentions of your brand across Google, Reddit, and other online locations. Then have it summarize the overarching themes.

The post Brand Personality: Definition, Examples, & How to Build Your Own appeared first on WordStream.

In this easy guide to keyword research, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to find the best keywords for your business, including what keyword research is and why it’s essential, along with the steps and tools to perform easy and effective keyword research.

Once you nail down your keywords, you can start to have fun with your campaigns, so let’s get it done and dusted. Use these recommendations and tips to show up exactly where your potential customers are looking!

Contents

• What is keyword research?
• Why is keyword research important?
• How to do keyword research in 10 steps
• Our favorite keyword research tools

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the terms people use to search for information on a topic, as well as how often those keywords are used in search engines like Google and Bing. Keyword research is the best way to find new, relevant keywords to expand your paid and organic search marketing campaigns.

“Keyword research helps you discover and prioritize the search terms that truly matter to your business and goals—so your ads appear for the right searches, not just more searches. The strongest keyword lists aren’t the largest; they’re filtered by intent, ensuring every click has a clear purpose,” said Jennah Patel, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at LocaliQ and WordStream.

Keyword research can be conducted through a variety of tools that we’ll discuss in more detail below, but the main goal is to find the right search terms that have intent aligned with your business’s content and offerings, along with decent search volume.

In addition to search volume, other keyword metrics may be helpful when conducting research and prioritizing which keywords to target, such as:

• Cost per click (CPC)
• Competition (how difficult it is to rank for that keyword)
• Your own site authority

Why should you do keyword research?

Keywords are the building blocks of not only your online presence, but also your business growth, since keywords help you get found by customers online. Google processes over 14 billion search queries each day. That’s a lot of keywords! But you can’t just target any and every keyword. You need to do your research to find the most fruitful ones for your business.

You want your content to consistently target the terms and topics your audience is interested in. There’s an art and science to it.

If your targeted keywords’ search volumes are too low, leads won’t be able to discover your ads or organic listings, visit your website, and turn into paying customers. But if the keywords you’re trying to rank for or bid on are too popular, you might not get on the SERP at all or end up overpaying for your ad clicks.

Here are three areas where having the right balance of quality keywords is most critical.

For SEO

The first and most obvious reason we need keyword research is to optimize for organic search. Search engine optimization (SEO) helps Google bots crawl and index our websites to rank organically on the search engine results pages (SERPs). One of the primary ways that search engines decide what to rank is by crawling for keywords that show relevance between the user’s search query and the content on your website.

Keyword research is a critical step in building your business’s SEO strategy. 

 See how businesses like yours are approaching keyword research this year with our latest small business website trends report that covers SEO, GEO, and the future of traffic!

To fuel your content strategy

We all know that SEO and content go hand-in-hand. Without content on your website, strong SEO will not follow.

“Effective content strategies start with keyword research,” says Search Engine Land columnist Nate Dame. “Modern keyword research provides significant insight into what audiences want and need.”

Every single piece of content on your site, whether it be a 300-word blog post or a 5,000-word guide, should be written with SEO in mind. That is, it is focused around a keyword that strikes the right balance between high search volume and competition.

For paid campaigns

Marketers often think about SEO and content when referring to keyword research, but most of your paid campaigns should also be keyword-focused. Whether it be your paid search ads, display ads, remarketing, or social media campaigns, all of these strategies need to be centered around the terms that people are searching for.

For example, with paid search, you’re literally bidding on individual keywords. Keywords make up your ad groups, which make up your campaigns. If these keywords have low search volume, then your ads are going to get little or no traction. Also, if your keywords do not pertain to your target audience, you’re going to get the wrong people clicking on your ads, which wastes your precious budget.

The bottom line is that keyword research is key in all search marketing campaigns!

“Keyword research is especially critical when launching a new campaign, expanding into a new service or category, or when performance shifts and results start to plateau or decline,” Jennah said.

How to do keyword research like a pro in 10 steps

Keyword research may sound intimidating, but it’s actually much easier than you’d think. Here are the steps to get you off to a productive start.

1. Understand keyword intent

Before we get into the logistics of how to conduct keyword research, it’s critical to mention the importance of keyword intent. Keyword intent is the reason a person is searching for something in the first place.

There are four main types of keyword intent:

1. Informational: Searching for specific answers or background knowledge on a topic.
2. Commercial: Searching to research a purchase.
3. Transactional: Searching to make a purchase.
4. Navigational: Searching for a specific site or brand.

You can see why this would be important for keyword research, right? If you’re unable to understand the true intent of your keywords or if the keywords you’re targeting have the wrong intent that isn’t aligned with your business goals, then they are essentially useless.

Let’s take paid search as an example. The keywords “wedding cake” or “wedding cake ideas” show a very different intent than “buy wedding cake in Boston” or even “wedding cake shops near me.” These latter two options have much higher commercial intent, meaning they indicate that the goal is to find a store and purchase a cake.

People searching those keywords are closer to the bottom of the funnel, the point of purchase.

So while it makes sense to target commercial keywords with shopping ads, conversion-optimized landing pages, and other content that makes it easy to buy, the intent of higher-funnel, less commercial keywords might be better met with a blog post full of wedding cake ideas.

Being able to truly understand your prospects’ intent is critical to being successful at keyword research and search marketing in general.

Find the best keywords for your business with our easy Free Keyword Tool.

2. Brainstorm a list of broad topics related to your business

Start thinking of the different categories and topics that pertain to your business. Start broad, and don’t worry about getting too specific right away.

For example, if you’re a bakery, you might break down your topics by the types of baked goods you sell, like cakes, quiches, croissants, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc. It can help to use a Google document or an Excel spreadsheet and create tabs for each of these main topics you’ve brainstormed.

3. Use keyword tools to find specific keywords within each topic

Alright, this is where the fun begins! You really need to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and think about how you would discover your business if you were them. If you’re a marketer with little customer-facing interaction, it can help to speak with your sales team to see the language that new leads typically use.

You can start with a simple brainstorm. Let’s go back to our bakery example for this one, focusing on the “cakes” category. Since you make cakes for special occasions, you might write down some keywords like “wedding cakes,” “affordable wedding cakes,” “stylish wedding cakes,” “summer wedding cakes,” etc. Then you may focus on other occasions that you sell cakes for, like birthdays or anniversaries. You’ll then recall that people often search for specific flavors like “red velvet” and “marble.”

Oh, and location is important! You should mention your target locations in some of your keywords to help you show up in local results.

Should you stop there? NO! Instinct will only get you so far. It’s easy to miss whole pockets of relevant keywords that you should be targeting, or you may find that the keywords you think would drive traffic are so low-volume that they won’t get you anywhere. You need to use keyword tools to make sure you’re surfacing all the relevant keywords that should be in your content plan and search campaigns.

Type each of your main topics (“cakes,” “cookies,” etc.) into a keyword tool to get a list of related keywords, their associated search volume, and other data. You can also type in any specific keywords from your brainstorming session to see what kind of volume they get.

Remember, if they’re far-fetched or too specific, keyword research tools will reveal that your keywords are not worth focusing on. On the other end of the spectrum, your keywords might be too broad, resulting in super high search volume or a high level of competition. If you’re a small, local bakery, you wouldn’t want to compete with a global cookie company. Rather, your keywords should be more targeted to your location.

Keyword research tools will help you discover which keywords are worth investing in. The list of the top tools below will help you determine which ones to try first.

4. Consider competitor keywords

Don’t forget to put your spy gear on when conducting keyword research! It’s important not to forget about the competition when pursuing keywords found through keyword research.

For instance, when a keyword has very high search volume, it can often be seen as much more competitive. But how can you be sure your competitors are ranking for such terms? Well, as mentioned, one of the easiest ways is Google! Simply Googling the keywords you’re looking to target to see what is currently ranking is a great approach.

What about your paid search competitors? You can use the Google Ads Auction Insights report to see how your main competitors are doing compared to you, in terms of impression share, average position, and more.

Once you know who you’re competing with, you can use a tool, like WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool or Ahrefs, to see what keywords they’re ranking for. Just drop in their URL instead of a keyword or topic.

To gain background from your competitors in paid search, think about how you can be more compelling. For instance, you can add assets to your ad or try writing more emotional, intriguing ad copy, which may entice searchers to choose your wedding cakes over the not-so-tasty cake shop down the street.

Here are some more tips on how to write ads that get high CTR (which in turn raises your Quality Score and saves you money!).

5. Include questions in your keyword list

One of the best ways to build brand trust and affinity is to provide great answers to your prospects’ burning questions.

Targeting questions will allow you to get right at the problems your customers are having, in turn leading them to discover your business and engage with your content. Question keywords can also benefit you greatly in the organic search results. If you provide the highest quality answers to difficult questions, your credibility will rise, allowing you to rank higher on the SERPs.

So how do you find these ideal questions? What questions are your searchers asking? If you can figure this out, then you’ll have a long list of informative keyword phrases to incorporate into your SEO, paid search, and content strategy.

If you’re at a standstill when it comes to brainstorming questions, there are some really great keyword tools out there, like Answer the Public. This awesome free tool, with a super weird homepage, works like so: Type in a keyword, and behold the beautiful visual that appears, with a circular display of questions grouped by the word they start with (where, which, who, how, why, etc.):

If my intent was to sell cleaning services, I could target some high-intent questions from the list, like “who offers cleaning services” or “where to hire a residential cleaner.” You’ll also find higher-funnel questions that people in the market for a maid or cleaner need help with, like “how much does a maid cost in [location].”

The next step would then be using one of your keyword research tools to get search volume data for these questions, as well as other helpful metrics to ensure the keywords are worth pursuing. One strategy would be to target as many of these keywords as possible in a single “ultimate guide” type resource for maintaining home cleanliness.

6. Research the associated costs for your PPC keywords

Let’s take a moment to review some of the specific considerations related to keyword research for PPC, or paid search marketing. Keyword research for paid search can be a bit more daunting, since your budget is on the line. Keeping cost in mind will help you determine if certain keywords are in or out of budget for your upcoming campaigns.

You want to ensure you’re able to bid high enough to rank in the first 0-3 slots on Google, but not so high that you’re paying an absurd amount for one single click. Pay attention to these metrics when researching and deciding on keywords for your ad groups. Our latest Google Ads benchmarks report can help you get an idea of what the average keyword might cost your business.

7. Do negative keyword research

Conducting negative keyword research is just as important as regular keyword research when it comes to PPC, because if you’re not excluding irrelevant words, you could be wasting money on irrelevant clicks. You’d be amazed at how much money you can waste this way. This is especially important when using broad or even phrase match types.

Also, just typing your keyword into Google and seeing what appears as suggestions to search for can help you identify negative keyword terms. For instance, if you’re selling cakes, you’re probably not interested in showing up for any “recipe” queries, since you’d have to pay for those low-intent clicks.

Our study of over 15,000 Google Ads accounts found that adding just one negative keyword can triple conversion rates.

8. Include commercial intent keywords

Your goal in getting seen on Google, whether organically or through ads, is likely not just to drive clicks, but also to increase conversions.

However, if you’re actually looking to target the most interested and qualified searchers, driving more conversions and sales, you should focus most of your budget on commercial intent keywords, such as those containing words like “buy now,” “discount,” “free shipping,” brand names, and any other terms that demonstrate the searcher is ready to make a purchase.

While you may still need to target keywords outside of this bucket, I’d recommend allocating a higher budget to keywords with high commercial intent since they’re the most likely to have the highest return.

Find more tips on how to allocate your Google Ads budget to different keyword types here.

9. Group your keywords properly

Once you’ve identified your high-intent, commercial, appropriately priced keywords, you need to group them in order to configure your campaign. Small groupings of tightly related keywords are how you should approach structuring your ad groups. If you have a long list of keywords, and this task seems daunting, you could lean on AI to take the first stab.

10. Use AI to cross-check your keyword research

You’ll want to be extremely careful using AI for keyword research, since our research on AI in SEO, as well as AI in PPC, showed that no AI tool can provide 100% accurate keyword data.

However, like I just mentioned, AI can be helpful for keyword list organization or updates. You could also use AI to build off a list you manually created. Just be sure to give your final AI-powered keyword list another final edit before using it, in case an AI tool throws in a wildcard term you don’t want. You might also need to test a few AI tools to see which would be best for your keyword research, since they are all slightly different in their user experience as well as their topic and platform-specific expertise.

Our 5 favorite keyword research tools

You may want to check out our latest list of the best keyword research tools (free and paid), but here are our favorites.

#1: WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool

WordStream’s keyword research tool not only provides keyword ideas and search volume, but it also gives you the ability to filter by industry and country to get more targeted data.

Results will show you search volume, CPC, and competition for both Google and Bing on one page. You can then get the results emailed to you for free.

“My go‑to tools include Google Keyword Planner, WordStream’s keyword tool, the Google search bar and related searches, and AI tools like Copilot—all of which are most effective when paired with a strong intent-focused filter,” Jennah said.

#2: Google’s Keyword Planner

If you’ve got a Google Ads account, then you’ve got access to Google’s free Keyword Planner. To navigate to this tool, log in to your Google Ads account and click the “Tools” bar on the right.

There are lots of ways to use Keyword Planner for keyword research. You can:

• Enter a broad topic to get specific keyword ideas
• Upload an existing list of keywords to check their search volume, seasonal trends and other data
• Enter a website URL (your own, or someone else’s) to see what keywords they are bidding on and ranking for

#3: Moz’s Keyword Explorer

If you’re looking to go down more of a premium route for your keyword research, I’d recommend exploring Moz’s Keyword Explorer. You can start a free trial of the paid tool to see if it’s worth the investment.

Source

#4: Semrush

Semrush is another great tool that allows for extensive keyword research with both a premium paid and a free version to try. The free version still provides very useful information, from organic search volume and CPC to competitive info and a list of organic search results for each keyword.

For more in-depth analysis with 10,000 results per report, you can upgrade to the paid version, but depending upon your goals, the free version just may do the trick.

Source

#5: Google!

Google itself is an underrated keyword research tool. You can start typing a keyword into Google to get more helpful suggestions. For example, see some of the keywords that appear when I type “wedding cakes” into Google.

“Wedding cake with flowers” and “wedding cake ideas” could not only be keywords worth bidding on, but they could also be keywords worth creating additional content on. For instance, a blog post on “wedding cake ideas” or a comparison chart of “wedding cake prices.”

When you’re considering keywords to target, you can also use Google to see what’s already ranking. Get a sense of the competitive landscape.

Ask yourself questions like:

• Is the SERP highly commercial? I.e., are there lots of ads? Does it make more sense to enter the ad auction with an ad than to try to rank organically?
• Are the top-ranking sites much larger than you? (It’s hard to compete with the likes of the New York Times and Forbes.)
• Do the current results meet the intent of the keyword? If not, you could swoop in and beat them with a better answer to the question!

You should also look for SERP features like the “People also search” box and related searches at the bottom of the SERP. Including these additional related keywords in your content can help you meet the searcher’s intent and help your content rank!

The post How to Do Keyword Research (+Best Tips & Tools!) appeared first on WordStream.

1. Citations were viewed as less important than in prior years for local map organic search rankings.
2. Citations are viewed as critical for AI search, making up three of the top five AI search visibility factors in the survey.

My company has helped build thousands of local citations over several years.

In my experience, most small businesses don’t really understand the process for getting and managing citations, and don’t fully understand the impact they have on local SEO (and now AI search).

Some points of confusion:

• Many people don’t know whether citations impact map listings, organic listings, AI search, or all three.
• Most people aren’t sure how many citations they need to build, or how frequently they need to build them.
• Citations are often confused with updating information across data providers and “NAP” consistency.
• Citations are sometimes confused with links and link building.

And perhaps most importantly: Many small business owners aren’t sure whether they should contract out work on citation building or do it themselves (and if they should do it themselves, how to do it).

In this article, I’ll answer all of these questions and walk through how to build citations yourself.

If you’re not interested in the nitty-gritty and just want an answer to “how should I handle citations for my small business” you can skip ahead to the last section, where I’ll answer that for you based on budget and how competitive your industry and area are.

Additionally, we built some free tools to help with the citation-building process.

Contents

• What are local citations?
• Local citation examples
• How much do local citations cost?
• Is citation building the same as link building?
• Is building citations the same as NAP consistency?
• What’s the difference between structured vs. unstructured citations?
• How valuable are local citations?
• How many local citations does my business need?
• How can I build local SEO citations myself?
• How do I find citation opportunities?
• How do I make sure my citations are indexed?
• Free local citation tools
• What’s the bottom line?

What are local citations?

A local citation is an online mention of a business. In the context of local SEO, this typically refers to a structured listing on an external website that includes the business name, address, and phone number (NAP).

These are usually business listings at any of a variety of sites, most frequently directory-style websites. They come in different flavors such as:

• General local business information across all types of businesses (e.g., Yellow Pages, Yelp)
• Industry-specific (e.g., a directory of home remodeling companies across the US)
• Location-specific (e.g., a directory of small businesses in Mississippi)

Local citation examples

So, let’s say we own a home remodeling business in Oxford, Mississippi. We can get our business listed on general sites like the Yellow Pages:

Chamber of commerce, government or travel directories, or other town/city, county, or state directories:

Or we could find directories focused on construction or resources for homeowners:

Free guide >> 10 Tangible & Free Ways to Get on the First Page of Google

How much do local citations cost?

The citation market has a lot of different players and a wide range of pricing and quality. We did a deep dive to research over 50 different local citation providers to get a sense of the range of costs. You can get more information in the interactive pricing guide we built below, but a few key takeaways:

• The price spread is large: The cheapest per-citation cost ($0.13 for bulk freelance packages of 500+) is roughly 36X less than the most expensive manual service ($4.73 per citation for white-label hybrid packages with GBP optimization).
• The “sweet spot” seems to be 50–150 citations at $1–2 each.
• Freelance services are cheaper but may not offer additional items like a NAP consistency audit, photos/videos with submission, etc.
• Most of the volume discounts plateau after the first step up.

If you’re considering the cost of getting citations built for your business, there are a few factors to keep in mind:

• Are citations being built once, or are new citations being added regularly/monthly?
• Are citations maintaining NAP data consistency with new and existing listings?
• Is the service provider checking for duplicates as they build citations?
• Are you getting login credentials?
• Are they comprehensively filling out your profiles with information, videos, photos, etc.?
• What are the volume discounts, and are they worth it?

Once you know some of the typical pitfalls, you know the right questions to ask a vendor so that you can find the right mix of service quality and price.

Alternatively, you can think about the cost to build citations yourself–how much time and effort would it take for you to hand this process off, and is that worth it versus the cost of a service provider?

Are local citations links? Is citation building the same as link building?

Many local citations that you build will include links to your website, but some will not.

The focus in building citations is not solely to get links, it’s to have your business listed in key directories where legitimate small businesses frequently appear, and in local and industry directories to help signal to Google that your business is noteworthy and trustworthy when it comes to your business focus and location.

That said, building citations will typically lead to an increase in the number of links to your website, as many sites will allow you to include a link.

Looking for more ways to drive people to your site? Free guide >> 25 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website

Is building citations the same as NAP consistency?

NAP consistency refers to the consistency with which your business listings across the web and with major data providers is the same.

If your business has changed names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, etc. you may have inconsistent data in different listings on the web. This can hurt local rankings as it’s a signal to Google that your business may not be reliable and trustworthy.

Building citations generally refers to the practice of creating new local citations for your business which is not the same as updating your existing citations for consistency, but many vendors will simultaneously work on “cleaning up” any NAP inconsistencies (claiming your business profiles places where you may not have known they exist, updating them in instances where you, a vendor, or someone within your company may have created them before a change in business name, phone number, or physical address, etc.), and building out new citations.

What’s the difference between structured vs. unstructured citations?

Citations are sometimes referred to as “structured” or “unstructured.”

A structured citation is simply a citation that’s created on directory-style sites that have uniform (or structured) fields for information.

An unstructured citation is a citation that happens outside of a company or website profile, typically in an article or blog post. This may be a site getting listed in a listicle, an employee being quoted in an article, etc.

Local citations vs. data aggregators

Data aggregators are services that collect, verify, and distribute business information to hundreds of downstream directories, apps, and mapping services. It’s basically a bulk submission to several directories (creating many citations at once).

Some of the major data aggregators are:

• Data Axle (formerly Infogroup): Feeds data to a huge network including YP.com, CitySearch, and many local newspaper sites.
• Neustar Localeze: Supplies business data to search engines, GPS systems, and 911 databases.
• Foursquare: Powers location data for Apple Maps, Uber, Snapchat, and many other apps.

Data aggregators are often included with citation services, or you can go directly to these companies and typically pay a stand-alone one-off fee to get listed and syndicated.

How valuable are citations?

I recently came across two different tweets from folks who share a lot of good local SEO information on X (formerly Twitter) with different perspectives on citations.

This case study:

And then this tweet and reply:

constant citation building is so underrated for maps rankings imo

— Cole | Dental + Local SEO (@AllGasSeo) October 23, 2024

In the first example, the case study did find that citations boosted organic rankings for a landing page, even though Maps rankings weren’t impacted. The responding tweet notes something that I’ve observed myself: Citations do have a direct impact on rankings in some cases.

So like with many SEO questions, the answer here is likely “it depends.”

A few things are true:

• Many practitioners have seen Maps rankings improve when building local citations, so they do likely have a positive impact here.
• The listings showing up for branded searches and listings that are indexed, as Joy points out in the case study cited above, are likely to have the largest impact.
• If you are in a low-competition vertical with limited resources, you’re likely best served sticking to those citations.
• If you are in a more competitive market, you’re likely best served to at least test building regular citations over time to determine their impact on both your maps and organic rankings.

You can test effectiveness by measuring the same things you would with local SEO campaigns in general: rankings, visibility, and leads across Google Maps, organic search, and AI search.

To the extent that you’re able, you can isolate the citation-building activity, measure leads and sales from these channels, and back out your ROI from citation building.

If you have too many activities running concurrently while you’re building citations (you’re building new content, updating Google Business posts, building links, etc.), you can measure search leads and sales generally while baking the cost of citations into your overall SEO and AI search investment.

How many local citations does my business need?

In terms of “how many” local citations your business needs, here are some guidelines:

• Every business should have citations on the 10-20 most important sites.
• A standard starting point is to build ~50 citations, particularly in a competitive market.
• If you’re in a very competitive market and want to test regular citation building, 10-25 is a standard range.

How can I build local SEO citations myself?

Building local citations is a time-consuming process, but a relatively simple one.

First, you want to start by making sure you have the right information to bring to the citation-building process, namely:

• Your company name: This seems simple enough, but you want this to be consistent with your Google Business Profile, and with your official company name or DBA name. If my company name is “Tom’s Construction” but I want to rank well for bathroom remodeling jobs in search results, just calling myself “Tom’s Construction & Bathroom Remodeling” can get me into trouble with Name, Address, Phone (NAP) consistency.
• Address: This is the physical address where a customer could theoretically show up to conduct business (not a virtual address or PO Box).
• Phone number: Whether you have a standard business number, or a standard call tracking number from a call tracking company, use that number everywhere. When you switch to a call tracking solution you need to update your citations, and if you’re using one currently you want to use that as you build new citations (for both consistency and tracking).
• Description: Have a brief and compelling company description ready to submit to third parties.
• URL: Use your website’s home page as you submit local citations.
• Categories: Have your categories ready (if you’ve optimized your GBP, you likely know these).
• Email: You usually want to set up an email dedicated to citations that someone will occasionally monitor, as you can sometimes get spam and cold outreach at these addresses.

It’s a good idea to keep a spreadsheet handy and add fields that you run across as you’re building citations to your sheet, as they’ll often come up again. For instance, if a site asks you for an alternate phone number, plug what you submit there into your spreadsheet (or, in some cases, if the field is optional, you may want to just leave those blank).

You also want to be able to access the email you’re going to use and to be able to access the phone number you’re giving for verification across these citations.

Local citations audit

Are your listings up to date? Find out with a free, instant audit using the LocaliQ Business Listings Grader.

How to find citation opportunities

Looking for ways to build citations? Follow these steps.

Get on the top citation sites

The simplest way to start here is to make sure you have the “major players” and most common citation sources covered first. Start with these:

1. Google Business Profile
2. Apple Maps
3. Facebook
4. Foursquare
5. Bing Places
6. Yelp
7. Yellow Pages

From there, you can also get to 50+ local citations easily by leveraging lists like this top 50 citations by WhiteSpark, this one by BrightLocal, etc. (I’ll get more into how to evaluate different citations in a minute).

Submit your business information to data aggregators

While it’s not a direct citation, by having your data submitted to the major data aggregators you can then have those sites submit your data to multiple additional directories in turn. Here are the largest data aggregators:

1. Data Axle
2. Neustar Localeze
3. Foursquare
4. Factual

If you submitted to these 11 places, you’d be off to a good start, and in some niches in some areas, you may even be ahead of some of your competitors. In even a moderately competitive industry/geography combination, though, all of your competitors will have these citations. How can you get more, impactful citations?

Look at competitor citations

The quality and impact a citation has will vary depending on your industry and geography. There are some ways to gauge likely impact here.

Start by looking at competitors. Think more about your SERP (search engine result page) competitors than your “real life” competitors. The company you think of as your closest competitor may not be the company you’re competing with for real estate in search engine results. When I search for Oxford, MS, home remodeling, I can see the first competitors I want to investigate in the Map pack:

I type in the full name of the company with the geo-modifier to make sure I get the right results and look at the listings showing the highest for the company name:

Here is a second company:

As you go through multiple competitors, you’ll quickly get insights like:

• Facebook popping up first for many queries.
• Houzz as a good possible source here.
• BBB and Chamber of Commerce listings as options.

You can use this as an exercise both to help prioritize citations if you have limited time and resources and to find new citation opportunities.

Once you have a sense of which competitor seems to be getting a lot of these types of citations (which you can usually tell just by looking at the search results above) you can then unearth more citation opportunities by going to Google.com and typing in “competitorwebsite.com:”

As you scroll through these results, you can really start to find some gems that may not show up just by searching for the competitor name:

This is a useful tactic as well because it allows you to:

• See which citations Google views as most relevant to your competitor’s site.
• Filter out other companies with a similar name in different areas.
• Find a list of citations that your competitor has that are all indexed by Google.

Use SEO tools

You can also use paid tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to look at the backlinks a competitor has to see which sites are linking to them, and paid local SEO tools like BrightLocal and WhiteSpark offer tools to find citations generally, and to look at competitor citations as well.

How to make sure your citations are indexed

If Google doesn’t acknowledge your citations, there’s not really any value in having them. Checking to see if your specific citation is indexed is a good way to determine if the citation has been “counted” by Google.

To manually do this for one citation is pretty simple. Just go to Google and type in site:directory.com/toms-construction-listing. If you see your listing, that means it’s indexed:

If not, then your listing (or a competitor’s listing) likely isn’t indexed:

If you want to check your citations in bulk it’s a little trickier, but you can use some paid tools and services like URL Profiler or IndexCheckr.com.

If you find your URLs aren’t getting indexed, there are a few methods you can use to get them indexed:

• You can share a link to the profile on social media.
• You can use services like IndexMeNow or similar.

A couple of things to be aware of with indexing services:

• Often these services use things like social media profiles or low-quality link sources to force indexation of pages. For third-party profiles, that’s not usually an issue, but it’s not a great idea to fire this type of activity at your main website.
• They will occasionally fail to get your page indexed (usually they’ll refund in these instances), and it’s not uncommon that they get a page indexed, and then it later falls out of the index (which is why it’s a good idea to replicate citations that are already indexed, as it’s a signal that Google is likely to index and leave indexed your own citations)

If you’re in a particularly competitive industry and geography and you want to go beyond the core citations and your direct competitors’ best citations, there are a few ways to expand your citation reach:

1. Look at the towns you service outside of your physical location and research those competitors for citations unique to those towns.
2. You can also use the loc: site search operator in Google to find different types of directory or industry opportunities you may not have uncovered:

As with many tasks in your local business, however, you need to ask yourself the question: Should I be building these local citations myself in the first place?

What are the biggest challenges small businesses are facing? Find out that and more in our Small Business Marketing Trends Report.

Free local citation tools

First, you can use this interactive, weighted citation coverage calculator to track your progress in getting citations as you work through getting listings if you decide to tackle the process manually (these are weighted for the most important citations):

We also built this searchable and filterable citation directory where you can drill down to find important citations by category:

And finally our interactive guide on citation tiers, NAP consistency, and ranking factors for local search based on our own experience and expertise as well as data from Whitespark’s search rankings survey:

Bottom line this for me: What should I do in regards to local citations?

Here are your basic choices for building citations if you’re a small business owner:

• You can hire a contractor specifically for citation building.
• You can ask your SEO company to execute this task (likely if you have an SEO vendor, they’re doing this for you already in some capacity).
• You can do the work yourself on the cheap or with the use of a paid tool or multiple paid tools.

Things to consider here will be:

• Industry and location competition: If your competitors in Google Maps all have a couple of reviews, many don’t seem to be building citations, and generally, you know your industry/area isn’t competitive when it comes to SEO, you may not need to be consistently building citations. Just the key citations and some you find key competitors have may be enough.
• Resources: If you or an employee have both time and the ability to execute relatively simple data entry tasks and you’re cash-constrained, this may be a good task to hand off to someone in the company. If you don’t want to worry about handing this process off or completing it yourself, and you can spare a few hundred dollars to have citations built and updated, and then potentially a monthly fee to build more citations over time in a competitive market, it may be worth it to outsource this task.

Given the fact that citation building can have a significant impact on local SEO results, tends to be time-intensive to execute on your own, and is a relatively low-cost service compared to other marketing activities, it’s often the right choice to outsource. If you do hire an agency or contractor for this task, make sure:

• You understand the types and volume of citations you’re getting (ask about their process, and whether monitoring indexation and attempting to get citations indexed is included).
• They use an email you have access to and give you login information for any profiles they create on your behalf in a shared spreadsheet.
• They share the actual citations they’ve built with you in a shared document (which you can then check for indexation yourself!).

Want help building local citations? We can take this off your plate!

The post How to Build Local Citations & Boost Your Visibility Online appeared first on WordStream.

That AI answer becomes the reference point, and it shapes how buyers think before they ever look at a website.

This changes the role of your website. It no longer introduces the category or sets the terms. It reacts to a frame that already exists. You either confirm it, correct it, or lose the buyer.

This article explains how AI answers reshape the buyer’s journey before the click, how these systems describe your business, and where positioning breaks when messaging is vague or inconsistent. I’ll share practical tips to fix these problems so you can position your business better in AI answers and convert more customers after the click.

Contents

• How AI has changed the buyer’s journey
• What AI looks for when shaping buyer perception
• Where AI gets its buyer signals from
• How to influence the way AI positions your business to buyers
• What success looks like in the AI-assisted buyer’s journey

How AI has changed the buyer’s journey

If you’re a seasoned business owner or marketer, you probably remember that the buyer funnel looked like this:

someone searched > landed on a web page > began evaluating options there

Messaging, structure, and persuasion lived on the website. In the new buyer journey, that’s no longer the case.

Today, the funnel often looks like this:

ask > summarize > narrow > decide > maybe click

Now, AI doesn’t move people through funnel stages; it skips them.

One question produces one answer that explains the problem, names options, and narrows the field. That single response now replaces reading blog articles, comparison pages, and other sales content.

By the time someone clicks, they are no longer learning; they are checking what they got from the AI.

Why this matters in practice

The most important change is not the loss of traffic, but when the evaluation begins. Buyers now arrive on sites having already:

• Learned the category
• Seen alternatives
• Internalized tradeoffs

Your site confirms a decision instead of shaping it.

What gets lost

Nuance disappears first. If your differentiation requires explanation or context, it rarely survives summarization.

AI keeps what it can explain quickly and safely. Everything else gets flattened.

This is why many businesses sound interchangeable in AI answers, even when they are not in reality.

What this looks like (real-world example)

You can see this clearly with real regional HVAC businesses. Take Morris-Jenkins, a family-owned HVAC company operating in North and South Carolina. Their site repeatedly states what they focus on: residential heating and cooling, fast response times, and clear pricing. They also clearly separate HVAC work from plumbing and electrical services.

When AI tools describe Morris-Jenkins, they usually call it a “residential HVAC specialist.” The description is consistent.

Now compare that with smaller regional HVAC businesses that use generic copy like:

• “Full-service HVAC solutions”
• “Serving all your heating and cooling needs”
• “Quality service you can trust”

When those businesses appear in AI answers, they often appear only as names. In some cases, AI describes them as general contractors or bundled home services companies.

That is not because the businesses are worse. It is because their sites never say what they specialize in.

How AI fills the gaps

• If a site lists every service equally, AI assumes none are core.
• If every location page uses the same copy, AI assumes the business is generic.
• If there is no clear “this is what we do best” statement, AI makes one up.

Several SMB HVAC companies have corrected this with very simple changes.

For example, Parker & Sons in Arizona clearly separates HVAC installation from repair work, highlights energy-efficient systems, and states which services they do not prioritize. Their site uses plain language and avoids broad claims.

As a result, AI summaries tend to describe them as a specialist in residential HVAC and energy-efficient systems, not just another name in a list.

Why this matters for the funnel

Once AI frames a business as “a specialist” or “just another option,” that framing sticks.

Buyers who click through already carry assumptions:

• Who the company is for
• What kind of work they do
• How premium or basic they might be

By the time they reach your site, the narrowing has already happened.

Need help understanding the modern rules for SEO? Download our free guide >> How to Do SEO Right—Right Now!

What AI looks for when shaping buyer perception

AI doesn’t care how clever your copy sounds. It looks for early decision signals it can reuse without guessing.

When someone asks an AI tool about a business, the system scans for a few basic things it can state with confidence. Those signals determine how the business gets explained to the buyer.

The signals AI pulls first

Across SMB categories, the same signals show up again and again:

• What category the business belongs to
• Who the service is meant for
• What problem it mainly solves
• How premium or basic it seems
• What it does well and what it does not

Most of these signals come from the first 200 words of important pages. Homepages. Service pages. FAQs. Location pages.

If those sections are vague, AI has nothing solid to anchor to. That is when it starts blending.

Why consistency matters more than persuasion

AI rewards low ambiguity.

If your homepage says one thing, your service pages suggest another, and reviews imply something else, AI does not choose the best version. It averages them.

The result is usually a safe but unhelpful description.

What this looks like (real-world example)

Take Arctic Air Conditioning, a regional HVAC company. Their site states clearly, early, and repeatedly that they focus on residential air conditioning, electrical, or plumbing repair in New Jersey. That focus appears on the homepage, service pages, and Google Business Profile.

When AI tools describe Arctic Air Conditioning, the explanation is stable.

Now compare that to many smaller HVAC businesses whose sites say things like:

• “Full-service HVAC solutions”
• “Heating and cooling experts”
• “Residential and commercial services”

Service pages list everything equally. Location pages reuse the same copy. Reviews mention a mix of repairs, installs, and unrelated work.

When AI pulls from that, it blends the signals.

The business gets described as “an HVAC contractor” with no specialization, even if most of its revenue comes from AC installs or specific system types.

How AI fills the gaps

If a site never states what the business focuses on, AI assumes it does everything.

If residential and commercial work are mentioned equally, AI treats them as equal. If there is no clear “we do this best” signal, AI removes differentiation entirely.

Several HVAC SMBs fixed this with simple changes:

• Stating residential AC installation as the primary service.
• Clearly separating commercial work into a secondary section.
• Adding short FAQs explaining what they do not handle.
• Updating service descriptions to reflect real revenue drivers.

Once those signals became consistent, AI summaries followed. Instead of sounding like “an HVAC company,” the businesses started being described as specialists.

Get ready-to-use AI prompts for email marketing, social media, content creation, and more >> 200+ Best AI Prompts Any Business Can Use

Where AI gets its buyer signals from

AI does not trust a single page. It looks for repetition across sources.

Primary inputs AI relies on

These carry the most weight:

• Opening paragraphs of core pages
• FAQs and definition sections
• Service comparison pages
• Third-party descriptions

Source

If these agree, AI treats the framing as reliable.

Secondary inputs that reinforce or dilute

• Reviews
• Forums
• Listicles
• Local directories
• Blog summaries

If these repeat the same message, it sticks. If they conflict, AI smooths them into something generic.

Key insight

AI trusts repetition across sources more than polish on one page. That’s why review language, FAQ wording, and service descriptions matter as much as homepage headlines.

Need help articulating what makes your business special? Get the guide >> How to Create a Unique Value Proposition From the Ground Up

How to influence how AI presents your business to buyers

The SMBs that show up consistently in AI answers all do one thing well. They make themselves easy to explain.

Most teams still think positioning happens late: on landing pages, during sales calls, etc. That assumes the buyer arrives without a frame. In the new buyer journey, that assumption is wrong.

What changes structurally

Today:

• Positioning must exist before the click.
• AI must understand your angle without explanation.
• Your framing must survive summarization.

If AI cannot explain what your business does accurately in a short paragraph, your positioning is incomplete.

What works in practice

• Plain category statements
• Explicit “best for” language
• Clear tradeoffs
• Narrow service definitions

This bakery is clear on the types of ingredients they use (and don’t use).

That sentence is not clever. It is reusable.

What fails consistently

• Brand slogans
• Abstract value statements
• Soft qualifiers

Words like “trusted,” “modern,” or “high-quality” collapse under summarization. They give AI nothing to work with.

What this looks like (real-world example)

Look at law firms. Many small firms describe themselves as:

• “Full-service law firms”
• “Handling a wide range of legal matters”

That language sounds flexible. To AI, it is vague.

When users ask: “Do I need a personal injury lawyer or a general attorney,” AI tends to favor firms like Rob Levine Law, because the specialization is obvious. Personal injury. Clear scope. Clear audience.

Generalist firms often get grouped into broad “local law firm” categories, even if most of their revenue comes from one type of case.

The firms that clarified early, stating clearly that they focused on personal injury, workers’ compensation, or immigration law, saw a different outcome.

AI explanations became narrower. The wrong inquiries dropped off. The right ones increased. They did not lose traffic. They lost bad-fit leads.

What success looks like in the AI-assisted buyer’s journey

None of the SMBs above saw instant traffic spikes. What they saw instead:

• AI descriptions became more accurate.
• Explanations stayed consistent across tools.
• Fewer wrong inquiries.
• Better-fit customers reached out.

That’s how influence shows up in the new buyer journey. Clicks and attribution usually lag behind these changes.

Looking for ways to get more leads for your business (for free)? We’ve got you covered >> Fast & Easy Ways to Get Free Leads (+Examples You Can Copy)

Win big by influencing throughout the new buyer’s journey

Buyers still evaluate, compare, and decide. But that work now happens inside AI systems.

The businesses that adapted haven’t optimized harder—they’re clarifying earlier. Winning in the new buyer journey means shaping decisions before your site ever loads.

The post How AI Is Changing the Buyer’s Journey (+What to Do About It) appeared first on WordStream.

Brand awareness works differently. It’s designed to create a baseline of trust and affinity with a target consumer that compounds over time. So, when it comes time for them to make a purchase, businesses that consistently show up in feeds, forums, inboxes, and articles aren’t starting from scratch. They stand out as the top choice.

AI search only makes brand awareness more important. All of those references from across the web are authority and trust signals that increase your visibility on platforms like ChatGPT and Claude.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover the basics of brand awareness, provide a list of strategies and examples you can use, and share tips from marketing experts to make sure your brand is known and trusted by both customers and the AI search platforms they use.

Contents

• What is brand awareness?
• What are the types of brand awareness?
• What are the benefits of building brand awareness?
• 13 proven brand awareness techniques
• 6 creative brand awareness strategies
• 4 bold brand awareness examples
• How to create a brand awareness strategy
• How to measure brand awareness

What is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is the level of familiarity your target audience has with your business, brand, products or services, reputation, and what sets you apart from competitors. It’s the starting point of every purchase decision and one of the biggest drivers of customer trust.

When you recognize a letter font, recall an ad jingle, spot your favorite dish soap on the shelf, or remember seeing a helpful video from a local lawn care business, that’s brand awareness.

When a single letter in a particular font and color suggests the smell of fresh fries, that’s brand awareness.

Want more? Download The Definitive Guide to Brand Awareness: Top Strategies, Examples, & How to Measure Success

What are the types of brand awareness?

Brand awareness exists on a spectrum. It ranges from someone being able to recall your brand when prompted to being the only brand most consumers think of in your category.

The four types of brand awareness include:

1. Brand recall: The ability of customers to remember your brand from memory when prompted by a category or need, without seeing your name or logo first.
2. Brand recognition: The ability of customers to identify your brand when they see it, including aspects like your logo, colors, tagline, or other visual cues.
3. Top-of-mind awareness: When your brand is the first one a customer thinks of in your category, putting you ahead of every competitor before the search even begins.
4. Brand dominance: When your brand is the only one a customer can recall in a category, making you the choice by default.

What are the benefits of building brand awareness?

Brand awareness creates a compounding return that can make finding, engaging, and converting customers easier and less expensive over time.

Here are some of the specific ways building brand awareness will help you grow your business.

Builds early trust

81% of consumers say they need to trust a brand before buying from it, making trust a non-negotiable goal for growing a business.

Awareness does a lot of the heavy lifting in building credibility with buyers long before they make first contact with your business. That helps shorten their decision time and keeps you at the top of their list.

Positive trust signals help build brand awareness. 

“Performance without awareness is fragile,” said Andrew Chernoff, Vice President of Sales and Strategy at LocaliQ. “Short‑term performance tactics degrade quickly without awareness upstream. Intentional awareness campaigns build mental availability, so when consumers (or AI agents) need an answer, your brand is already known, trusted, and preferred.”

Increases performance for all marketing channels

Brand awareness is the rising tide that lifts all marketing boats. Whether it’s SEO, paid ads, email, or social, when people already know who you are, they’re more likely to pay attention and click.

For example, when consumers were asked what would make them more likely to open a cold email, company familiarity came in at 46%, nearly tied with promotional offers (46.2%) and well ahead of an attention-grabbing subject line (42.6%).

“Signal loss from privacy changes, AI-driven auction dynamics, crowded feeds—they all create significant barriers to building a brand in the current landscape,” said Stephanie Asrymbetov, a Senior Product Manager for Media Products at LocaliQ. “The brands winning right now built familiarity before the click. Your brand awareness is what makes every downstream dollar work harder.”

Boosts search and AI visibility

Search engines and AI tools favor brands that are frequently mentioned, searched by name, and discussed online. The more people know you, the more the algorithms notice you, too.

These brand mentions are only becoming more important. As we learn about generative engine optimization (GEO), we’re finding that positive discussions of your brand on places like Reddit and social media have a significant impact on the chance your business gets cited by platforms like AI Overviews and ChatGPT.

Brand awareness campaigns increase your AI and search visibility.

“Brand awareness matters more today because discovery is changing,” said Dennis Wilson, VP of Product Management at LocaliQ. “Users are getting answers without clicks; AI is summarizing options before people ever visit a website. If your brand isn’t trusted, it may never be considered at all.”

Reduces pricing pressure

A strong awareness campaign that highlights your unique selling proposition and establishes you as a trusted solution can also help position your brand as a premium solution, taking the downward spiral of price competition off the table.

There’s actually lots of data to back this up, like:

• 87% of shoppers will pay more for brands they trust.
• Consumers spend 51% more with retailers they trust.
• The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that trust is now considered equal to price and quality as a purchase consideration.

“Attention is fragmented, and decisions are faster,” said Chadi Irani, Regional Vice President of Advertising at USA TODAY Co. “Whether it’s AI summaries, social feeds, or headlines, people are making quicker choices with less research. If your brand isn’t already familiar, you’re often not even considered. Awareness today is what gets you into the decision set in the first place.”

Turn awareness into revenue! Get 14 Super-Fast Ways to Boost Conversions

13 proven brand awareness techniques

Brand awareness isn’t new; archeologists found 3,000-year-old decorative signs from shops and taverns that told patrons what to expect from a local merchant. Here we’ve gathered up some proven—and slightly more modern—methods of generating awareness for your brand.

1. Create consistent branding

Before you promote your brand to the world, it’s really important to have a cohesive set of essential elements that make your brand unique. Otherwise, you’ll get attention that doesn’t stick.

A branding exercise is a great start. During the work, you’ll review things like your:

• Target audience: This will guide the rest of your decisions here. (Learn how to find your target audience.)
• Your value proposition: This is what you want to be known for. (Get ideas from these value proposition examples.)
• Your mission and values: This outlines what change you want to create in the world.
• Visual branding: This includes your logo, color scheme, font, etc.
• Voice and tone: This describes the personality of your brand.

Think unique! The more differentiated your brand, the easier it will be to stand out and be remembered.

Liquid Death makes its brand memorable with an aggressively funny tone that stands out in its market.

2. Boost your SEO and GEO

Yes, SEO is a brand awareness strategy. It’s actually one of the most powerful awareness plays available because you can do it on a shoestring budget and it’ll provide compounding returns over time.

It works because billions of times each month, people search for information online without yet planning to buy something. When your brand is the one that pops up on the results page, they become aware of it.

People with lawns in South Carolina will find these brands when they search for help.

While the rules of GEO aren’t 100% the same, the result is similar. If AI tools like ChatGPT cite you as a source, you get a chance at being recognized as the brand that solved a future customer’s problem.

Here are some resources to help with SEO and GEO:

• The New SEO Checklist for Content That Ranks
• SEO Keywords: How Better Keyword Research Gets You Better Results
• GEO for SMBs: What It Is & How to Do It Right

3. Launch a referral program

Customer referral programs are a big win for building brand awareness. Not only do you get to reach new potential customers, but it’s in a way that automatically builds genuine trust.

At the very least, make it a habit to ask every customer to leave a review. But you can scale the program quickly by offering incentives and running referral marketing campaigns.

4. Offer something for free

People love free stuff. They also love to show off free stuff and tell others about it.

Free stuff is a great way to share your brand.

There are lots of ways to use freebies to gain brand awareness:

• Give out physical branded swag.
• Hand out free samples at an event.
• Give free quotes or estimates for services.
• Offer a BOGO that’s tied to your referral campaign.
• Provide a basic version of your product or service for free.
• Offer free, limited-time trial access to your online tools.

5. Partner with other brands

This brand awareness strategy lets you multiply your audience quickly. To do it, partner with complementary brands and organize co-hosted events, contests, promotions, etc.

Look for brands that don’t sell what you sell, but that sell to the same people. Your holistic yoga studio would be a great complement to the healthy smoothie shop.

A variation of this strategy is to partner with a non-profit to support a cause while building brand awareness. For example, the TAZO tea company partnered with America’s Forests for a campaign to plant trees.

Another easy option is to either trade leads or mention each other’s business on your social feeds.

6. Collaborate with influencers

Influencer marketing is good for direct selling, but it’s also a great way to quickly introduce your brand to an existing audience.

The key is to find the right influencer. You want someone who:

• Matches your brand’s ethos.
• Has an engaged audience (engagement is more important than audience size).
• Speaks to your target audience.

7. Share your brand on social media

Social media marketing has become a key driver of website traffic, leads, and sales. It’s also a perfect platform to get in front of new people and let them know what your brand is all about.

Any positive exposure is good here. But if you’re able to show up with personality, even better.

Take KFC, for example. Their chicken isn’t the only thing with spice.

Remember to keep your brand consistent. If you’re aiming for “professional guide,” posting on X like KFC will hurt your brand.

8. Invest in display ads

Display ads are often used as a direct marketing tactic where the goal is to get a click. But they can also be really helpful when you’re trying to build brand awareness with a specific audience.

Display ads can put your brand in front of the right people at the right time.

Jeff Book, VP of Sales Operations at USA TODAY Co., explained that display ads can even help grow awareness for your brand with AI search engines.

“Instead of optimizing display design for just CTR [click-through rate], design ads with a clear brand message and business category association,” he said. “Use consistent phrasing, like ‘Brand X, local HVAC expert,’ across all ad units along with matching language on your website. This will allow AI large language models and ranking systems to match brands to business categories and context in relevant queries.”

9. Run social media contests

You can use opt-in social media contests to amplify your brand through network effects. The idea is to ask your followers to tag their friends and like the post as part of the contest.

Not only will you get an instant connection to your followers’ network, but the engagement will motivate the Instagram algorithm to show your post to more people.

10. Share helpful content

Content marketing is a tried-and-true brand awareness strategy. Long before the internet, brands like John Deere published articles helping farmers grow better crops.

The best part of content is that it’s useful for almost any channel, from social media to email to a blog on your website.

You can localize your content to reach people in your target area.

11. Manage remarketing campaigns

Repetition is an important part of brand awareness. Repetition is an important part of brand awareness. Remarketing lets you remind people about your brand after they’ve engaged with it.

It works by tagging people who have visited your site or engaged with your brand, and then showing them display ads on different websites.

To get the most out of this technique, Stephanie suggests connecting several channels.

“A cross-channel remarketing strategy to your site visitors through social, display,  and even email campaigns using your acquired leads with upper-funnel creative can be easily overlooked as a brand play,” she said. “When you serve someone a brand story after they’ve already shown interest, you’re reinforcing recognition without paying to reach a cold audience.”

“You can also use that same data to build lookalike audiences, expanding your brand reach to the people most likely to become customers,” she added.

12. Collect and use user-generated content (UGC)

UGC is content that someone outside of your business creates about your brand or products. It’s often a video or image showing someone using what you sell, but it can be a blog post, too.

UGC is free, authentic marketing that’s often more convincing than anything you could make yourself.

13. Hand out business cards

Business cards are an inexpensive, versatile brand-awareness tool that’s especially useful for service businesses like real estate agents and massage therapists.

There’s nothing “grater” for brand awareness than a clever business card.

Add a QR code to your card so people can scan it and add you to their contacts.

6 creative brand awareness strategies to try

Now that we’ve covered the tried and true options, we’ll dig into a few brand awareness tactics that aren’t as common (meaning, they’ll help you stand out!).

14. Publish branded content

Branded content combines the memorable storytelling of content marketing with the audience reach and targeting of paid ads.

Branded content lets you generate trust and awareness among an existing audience.

With branded content, you can write or record your content and pay to have it published, or you can work with a publisher that helps you plan, produce, and publish it.

“It’s important to own the environment where the story lives, not just buy impressions,” Andrew said. “Brand awareness increases when brands are embedded within trusted editorial content, not layered on top of it. Premium branded content, blogs, and article integrations place brands in moments of high attention and credibility rather than fleeting ad exposure.”

15. Send marketing mailers

Direct mail marketing has the benefit of putting something tangible in your audience’s hands. A well-designed mailer can stick around for days or weeks, especially if it includes a coupon they can use later.

While direct mail used to be a relied-upon tactic, many businesses have ditched it in favor of going digital. But modern direct mail campaigns can actually blend online and offline tactics to help you reach a targeted, personalized audience—making it a great way to engage with your local audience right in their homes.

16. Place print ads

Print ads are one of the original brand awareness plays, and they’ve lasted the test of time because they work. People read publications they trust, and when your ad sits among that content, it gains credibility, too.

It’s important to work with a publisher that has lots of audience data and a large reach to make sure your ad gets in front of the right people.

“One of the most overlooked ways to build brand awareness is consistent presence within trusted environments people already engage with daily,” said Cami Porter, Regional Vice President of Sales at USA TODAY Co. “For us, that means leveraging our platforms not just for campaigns, but for ongoing visibility through recurring content series, sponsorships, and high-impact placements that become familiar over time.”

17. Try guest posting

A guest post is an article you write for another website. It can be a paid placement, but often you trade your expertise for citation, backlink, and exposure to the publication’s audience.

Guest posts let you build your brand as an expert in your field. And there are lots of opportunities. Just use a search phrase on Google like “[niche] + submit a guest post” and see what comes up.

18. Appear on podcasts

The podcast medium has enjoyed consistent audience growth for years. It’s becoming a common way for people to learn while they drive, walk their dog, or cook dinner.

They’re also growing as a creative way to build brand awareness. The number of topics covered rivals subreddits. You can even start your own show if you see a topic gap.

The great thing about podcasts is that they get attention. Over 70% of podcast listeners hear most or all of the episode.

19. Engage with a like-minded community

No matter what you sell, there’s likely a group of people somewhere online talking about it passionately (if you want to join a heated debate about whetstones, head to the subreddit r/sharpening).

As an expert in your field, you’d be a valuable voice in these communities. And with every post, comment, and reply, you’re laying another brick in your brand-awareness foundation.

Find the places people talk about what you sell and show up as a trusted adviser.

Just remember you’re there to help, educate, learn, and share, not sell. Get salesy, and you’ll be moderated out.

An easy way to find your community is to prompt an AI tool. Ask it to “List 10 online communities that discuss [topic].” Or consider starting your own brand community if you have the following to support it.

4 bold brand awareness examples

Let’s take a look at some of the coolest brand awareness campaigns and how you can adapt them to your strategy.

Lean Cuisine: #WeighThis

Lean Cuisine launched the #WeighThis campaign in 2015 as part of a full rebrand, pivoting away from its “diet food” image toward a more sustainable lifestyle brand.

Changing the perception of a legacy brand is a tough job. Lean Cuisine attacked this challenge with:

• A launch video that invited women to step up to a scale, but instead of weighing themselves, they were asked to write on it the things that mattered most to them.
• A branded hashtag (#WeighThis) that let people share their own stories.
• An interactive display at Grand Central Terminal in New York with 244 bathroom scales painted with inspirational messages.

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What you can take away from this brand awareness example

You may not be able to take over Grand Central Station, but you can take a counterintuitive stance on something in your industry and create a branded hashtag that encourages people to share that message (and generates some new UGC for your brand).

For example, a lawncare company could encourage the use of clover instead of grass for a more sustainable, drought-resistant lawn and use the hashtag “#nomowbeehappy.”

“Own moments, not just placements,” Chadi advised. “Brands often focus on impressions, but the real impact comes from aligning with high-interest cultural or seasonal moments, like the World Cup, major local events, or tentpole editorial series. When a brand is consistently present around what people care about in real time, it builds relevance faster than standalone campaigns.”

Spotify: Wrapped

Spotify Wrapped is an annual campaign where Spotify gives every user a personalized recap of their listening habits for the year.

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It’s incredibly shareable, so millions of Spotify users become enthusiastic (and unpaid) brand ambassadors every December.

What you can take away from this brand awareness example

The core premise behind Spotify Wrapped is that you take data you already have about your customers and turn it into something fun, flattering, and shareable.

Ask yourself, what do you know about your customers? Here are some examples:

• A restaurant or coffee shop: “You were our 47th most loyal customer this year. You ordered our house latte 34 times. That’s 34 good mornings.” A printed card at the end of the year, or an email to loyalty members. Simple and personal.
• A hair salon or barbershop: “In 2024, we gave you 8 cuts, saved you approximately 4 hours of bad hair days, and your most requested style was the taper fade.” Clients would absolutely share that.
• A gym or fitness studio: “You showed up 94 times this year. You burned an estimated 47,000 calories. You never once skipped leg day.” (Even if they did.)
• A veterinary clinic: “Bella had a great year. She visited us 3 times, got her shots, and is officially in the top 10% of our best-behaved patients.” Pet owners would frame that.

M&M: Flavor Room

In 2018, M&M’s set up a pop-up in lower Manhattan where fans could vote on the brand’s next flavor. Three immersive rooms were each decorated and scented to match one of three candidates: raspberry, espresso, or mint. Visitors go to try the flavors, take photos, and cast their vote.

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What you can take away from this brand awareness example

M&Ms used a pop-up to get the word out, and so can you. These can take the form of a table at a local 5K all the way to a pop-up shop in a busy town center. You get exposure and a chance to actually speak with people. Plus, you can add it to a giveaway to collect leads.

Staples: Social media poll

Not all creative awareness tactics have to be huge and flashy. Take this simple social media poll from office supply retailer Staples.

They stirred the conversational pot by posting a poll that asks about the correct orientation of toilet paper rolls.

What you can take away from this brand awareness example

This awareness strategy is genius because:

• It’s simple: You can post a poll in a minute, and it’s free unless you pay to promote the post.
• It’s versatile: You use this idea on just about any social media platform.
• It has built-in organic distribution: If you choose the right question, lots of people will answer and share it, which will also give it an algorithm boost.

All you need is a question your audience will want to answer.

How to create your brand awareness strategy

As you can see, there are a LOT of brand awareness tactics you can use to build buzz and generate affinity for your business. How do you create a brand awareness strategy for yourself? Start with these steps:

• Define your audience: Get specific about who you’re trying to reach, where they spend their time, and what they actually care about.
• Clarify what makes you different: Nail down the one or two things that set you apart, because awareness without a memorable message is just static.
• Choose your channels: Pick two or three places where your audience already is and focus your energy there instead of spreading it thin everywhere.
• Create consistent, recognizable content: Show up regularly with a look, voice, and message people can start to associate with you.
• Measure and adjust: Track what’s working, cut what isn’t, and double down on the channels and content driving real recognition.

How to measure brand awareness

No marketing strategy is complete without a plan to measure the results. It’ll tell you if your investment was worthwhile, where to double down, and where you can pivot for even more success.

Since brand awareness can have a positive effect across your business, there are several areas to track.

What people are searching

Ideally, once people know your name, they’ll look for it online. So look for:

• Branded search volume: How often people search your business name directly, tracked in Google Search Console.
• Share of voice: How often your brand shows up in search results compared to competitors.

You can use SEO tools to track how often people search for your brand.

“Track brand lift by monitoring branded search volume,” Stephanie said. “When someone types your brand name into Google unprompted, that’s real recall, not a vanity metric. Watch how that volume moves in response to your campaigns over time. That movement is your signal that awareness is actually working.”

How people are engaging

Audience behavior is another signal that your awareness efforts are moving the needle. Track:

• Social media reach and impressions: How many people are your posts actually getting in front of?
• Video views and completion rates: Are people watching, or bouncing?
• Website direct traffic: This measures the number of people who type your URL directly, which is a pure awareness signal.

“I think the biggest pitfall in measuring awareness is yesterday’s metrics,” Dennis said.
“There is no single number that captures impact anymore. Modern brand measurement should combine growth of branded searches, share of answer, share of voice, and sentiment, while also accounting for how AI systems surface and describe your brand.”

What people are saying

If your brand awareness campaign is working, you should see more discussions that include your brand online. You can use social listening and track them by:

• Social mentions and hashtag usage: Look at the volume of conversations about your brand.
• Sentiment: Is the conversation positive, negative, or neutral?
• User-generated content volume: How much are customers posting about you on their own?

Social media management tools help you track conversation volume and sentiment.

What people tell you

One simple way to learn how well your brand awareness campaigns are working is to ask new customers how they heard about you. As you collect their answers, you’ll start to see which tactics have the greatest impact.

You may also be able to automate this. “On the USA TODAY Network, we can measure brand awareness by asking readers via an online survey whether they are aware of a particular brand where we know we delivered them media,” Jeff said. “ Additionally, we further measure their preference, consideration, and intent to call, visit, or purchase from the brand.  Cumulatively, across all these studies we conduct, we can see how much we lift brand awareness for customers.

Generate brand awareness for your business

Brand awareness is no longer something you can afford to do “when there’s time.” It’s an important part of not just converting customers, but of getting found in the first place.

The important part is to right-size your brand awareness strategy for your business. A local house painter can lean heavily on yard signs and business cards. A national daycare will benefit from display ads and a strong social media presence.

From there, just be consistent. Keep showing up, and always look for the little ways you can create a buzz with your audience.

And of course, we’re here to help. Let us show you how our marketing solutions can accelerate your brand awareness, lead generation, and customer conversion success.

The post How to Build Brand Awareness (23 Ideas & Expert Tips) appeared first on WordStream.