In a world where customers are more discerning than ever, and companies expect immediate returns, one modern brand will rise above the fold to save the day and change the world of digital media marketing forever. This Summer, Tom Hanks and Jason Statham are… Leveraging Video. Get ready to convert.

Sound like the trailer to a movie you want to watch?

Maybe imagine those first few words in a deeper, more dramatic voice. IN A WORLD….

That’s better.

Okay, time to press ‘Play.’

To be successful, a modern business needs to rock its audience’s socks off with explosively engaging content. To that end, video marketing is the star of the show. (Sorry Tom Hanks.) Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, you name it — they all want a piece of video.

Maybe you’ve already adopted video marketing. Maybe you have yet to explore the amazing returns it has to offer. Either way, it’s high time you take a look at the best ways to leverage video content into your social media strategy.

After all, it’s only going to grow bigger and better.

So tell your marketing team to turn up the lights; video is ready for its closeup.

Video Marketing by the Numbers

To understand how effective video marketing is, what better place to look than its box office numbers.

Here are some current video marketing statistics to be wowed by:

• One-third of all online activity is spent watching video
• 92% of mobile video viewers share digital videos with others
• 87% of online marketers currently use video content
• 51% of marketing professionals report video is the content with the highest ROI
• Social video generates 12x more shares than images and text combined
• Video drives an average 157% increase in organic traffic in SERPs
• Simply adding a video to a landing page can boost conversions by 80% or more

That’s a blockbuster if we ever saw one.

Videos offer a high-engagement, high-ROI type of content, and adding them to your social strategy is an excellent way to give it a turbo-boost in the year ahead.

Why Focus on Video Marketing in 2020?

Since about 2016, the utilization of video has increased steadily across all marketing verticals. As we venture into an exciting new decade, brands are doubling down on using video in their content.

The reason?

Because 2020 is the year of the highly personalized video. (And here you thought it was the year of the rat.)

What does highly personalized video mean? It means using video to enhance relationships between customers and companies. It means promoting a more humanized, holistic approach to marketing through video content that viewers find instantly relatable and valuable.

And if there’s one trend this year, it’s to get more personal with your video content.

But don’t take our word for it.

According to a report by HubSpot, more than half of all consumers want to see more video content from brands.

Not only does video cater to our on-the-go lifestyle, but it provides more information in a more rapidly consumable format that consumers can use to differentiate between the brands they want to do business with and those they don’t.

To say the least, video is a highly versatile tool for shepherding customers through the buying journey. From claiming customers on social media to channeling them into making a purchase, video can deliver results at every stage of the sales funnel.

But how does one take advantage of all that video engagement going around?

6 Types of Video to Incorporate into Your Strategy

It’s evident that videos are an essential part of any social media strategy, but with so many types of marketing videos available, how do you know which to focus on?

Here are a few critical formats you should try incorporating into your social media marketing as soon as possible:

1. Demo Videos

Demo videos demonstrate the function of a product, good, or service. Sounds pretty straightforward, right?

Well, done in the right way and promoted to the right audience, these videos can pay off big. And your brand doesn’t even have to create the video to take advantage.

Consider Ryan’s Toys Review.

If you’re a parent, you’ve heard of him and are probably already running the other way right now to shield your children’s eyes. But there’s no denying the success (and mind-boggling hypnotic appeal) of this simple premise of using a kid to demo toys for other kids.

In a few short years, Ryan has amassed over 23 million subscribers on his channel. Even more impressive, he (or maybe better said, his parents) earns over $22 million a year, making Ryan one of the most successful YouTubers of all-time.

Demo videos come in several forms — from software tours to unboxing videos and reviews for products or services.

They can even be a commercial spot.

Or a walkthrough.

The best demo videos not only showcase how things work but provide unique value to different stages of your sales funnel, simultaneously. In such instances, they can act as a:

• Top Funnel: Awareness for your brand and product
• Mid-Funnel: Educational tool about your brand and products
• Bottom-Funnel: Sales, or brand loyalty for existing customers

This demo video from Ikea covers all those bases.

And as evidenced by this, a lot of the other video types we recommend leveraging below can be combined with demo videos to make your content all the more powerful and engaging.

2. Brand Videos

Brand videos are the standard marketing video virtually everyone is familiar with. Typically part of a larger advertising push, brand videos showcase a company’s culture, personnel, and mission.

There are dozens of excellent examples out there, including Dollar Shave Club’s iconic launch video:

Another great example includes Patagonia’s “family business” videos:

And then there’s Yeti’s short films:

These are more than just “brand videos” filled with syrupy promises and claims. Instead, they dive deeper into the heart of the brand, and they show, rather than tell, precisely what the company stands for.

In other words, they make the brand more relatable.

On top of achieving the primary purpose of building brand awareness, they forge an emotional connection with the customer and prove the brand can transcend its potentially corporate bonds and become something more human.

People love dealing with humans.

3. Expert Interviews

If the primary purpose of video content is to educate and excite, expert interviews fit the bill perfectly.

Designed to build trust and authority while providing sought-after, original content, expert interviews can build excitement around a topic and solidify brands as a source of world-class information.

Boost your brand image by associating with credible and knowledgeable pros in your industry. With expert videos, you can simultaneously provide valuable insight to your audience while increasing your brand’s reputability through social proof.

Not only that, but there’s a good chance your guests will share their interview with their followers, widening your content’s reach. That’s just smart marketing.

Of course, make sure you knock the interview out of the park.

A great interview is natural, informative, conversational, and ideally entertaining. Take the wildly popular YouTube series Hot Ones hosted by Sean Evans.

Having a crazy, fun gimmick doesn’t hurt either.

Overly prepped, rapid-fire questions aren’t entertaining and can feel empty. Remember, this is an interview, not an interrogation, so create relatable videos where the audience feels part of the conversation.

Even better, try leveraging your interviews into an ongoing series, preferably around a specific topic or event. Releasing regularly scheduled videos can spur return viewership and keep your audience coming back for more.

This all adds up to expert interviews being one of the easiest ways to generate high-quality, cost-effective content quickly.

4. Animated Videos

Animated videos are popular among brands with more modest marketing budgets since they’re easy to make and don’t require fancy camera equipment or lights. Instead, all you need is a computer, a well-spoken narrator, and some good animation.

Even companies with huge budgets, capable of turning out Marvel-esque video productions, love animated videos.

That’s because animated videos are great at explaining difficult-to-grasp concepts and ideas in a pleasant, digestible way. As such, they’re particularly popular among companies selling software solutions or online service platforms.

5. AR and VR Videos

It wouldn’t be 2020 if you didn’t build at least some augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) into your marketing.

AR videos create a digital layer over a real worldview. For example, you can use AR video films to “try on” glasses digitally from Warby Parker.

Not only do these types of videos have a certain attention-grabbing WOW factor, but they position you as a modern, cutting edge brand. That, and they provide your audience a uniquely personal way to interact with your brand, thus leading to a stronger relationship.

VR videos, meanwhile, allow viewers to control their experience within the video. These are popular in applications like VR real estate walkthroughs.

VR videos require a specialized headset for viewing, but that just makes them look all the more space agey. And don’t let the thought of headsets deter you from VR. The market for VR hardware and software is projected to rise to over $19 billion in 2020.

Who knows, soon enough we may be (virtually) walking around with VR goggles on our heads.

6. Live Video

You can’t get more personalized than interacting face-to-face with someone. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and other video streaming upload services practically make that happen by connecting you in real-time with your audience.

Livestreaming comes in many shapes and sizes:

• Updates
• Announcements
• Direct chats
• Seminars
• Q&As
• Behind-the-Scenes
• Product Reveals and Reviews
• How-To’s

Anything that pre-recorded video can do, live video can do better … when done right.

However, live streaming leaves a lot of room for error.

To ensure your brand leverages live video as well as it can, make sure you test your setup before broadcasting. That means lights, cameras, and audio. And while spontaneity can be more relatable, don’t film entirely cold. Have a scripted playbook of what you’re going to say. Also, and this is really important, make sure people tune-in. Promote, often and early, especially for long-form content.

You might want to also consider trying Facebook Premiere, which blends a live event with pre-recorded video. The feature allows you to upload and schedule pre-recorded videos to broadcast live on your Facebook page.

One of the benefits of live video (or scheduled pre-recorded video live events) is being able to respond to your audience — you guessed it — live.

Video: Your Not-So-Secret Marketing Weapon for 2020

When it comes to your 2020 social strategy, video marketing is essential. The cat’s out of the bag. Video marketing is one of the most important elements for any brand hoping to remain competitive.

By incorporating the above types of video content into your strategy, you can build out a more robust digital approach in 2020 and beyond, and help grow your brand’s visibility and bottom line.

Because you know what they say about the camera – it adds ten pounds of profit.

Timing is everything. Just ask that burnt souffle sitting in your oven. It probably wishes you had better timing. Being in the right place at the right time can not only alter the course of one’s dessert menu, but also their whole life. If you’re an online advertiser, the same goes for your business. That’s why we love in-market audiences so much. (Almost as much as a well-cooked souffle.)

Puff pastries aside, let’s focus our attention on how to boost sales with better-timed ads.

When advertisers go to bed at night, they dream of one thing: delivering a perfectly tailored message to a prospect at the exact moment they’re ready to take action. We know what you’re thinking — advertisers have really boring dreams. But it’s the right kind of dream to have if you find yourself knee-deep in bidding strategies and audience targeting all day long.

The good news? We’re about to make those dreams come true. Or at least show how Google can, with their in-market audiences.

So set your watches to “sell” because we’re about to optimize your timing.

Using In-Market Audiences to Capitalize on Purchase Intent

Digital marketing has always been about understanding behavior and intent. But this focus is important now more than ever. Just look at the crazy impact of Google’s BERT update on search — where intent usurped the almighty keyword as the best way to match content with queries.

Similarly, understanding intent is revolutionizing the online ad space.

In-market audiences are groups of users that demonstrate a high likelihood of purchasing what you’re selling. These audiences are collected by analyzing browsing behavior, like the websites they visit, the ads they click, and the content they read to help determine what products they are “in-market” for.

In other words, in-market audiences’ past behavior is used to predict future purchasing, which is not only cool, but incredibly useful.

Not sold yet?

What could be better than having an ad shown directly to a customer who is actively looking for a product or service you provide? How about having an ad served to a customer who is ready to purchase a product or service you provide.

That’s where in-market audiences shine.

Google lets you set in-market audiences as a targeting method in your Google Ad campaigns. (Bing also lets you use in-market audiences, and although we’ll focus specifically on Google here, implementation is very similar on either platform.) Google will then show your ad to people who are most likely to click through and convert.

Why?

Because based on their online activity up to that point, that particular user has shown a very high probability of taking the exact action you want them to.

Pretty sweet, right? Google does all the work, and you swoop in at the last moment to save the day (and make a sale).

Goodbye Sales Funnel, Hello Sales Driver

What makes in-market audiences so special (and valuable) is that they connect you with consumers on the final stages of the sales funnel, where they are more likely to make a purchase.

That’s the golden goose of sales stages.

The very top of the sales funnel comprises all those people who might purchase your product. The mid and lower stages of the sales funnel comprise those who want to buy your product. Getting a customer to take the journey from top to bottom, and weeding out those who will never pull the trigger and make a purchase, is time-consuming and costly.

So what if you could skip all that tedious work of leading your customers down the funnel, and jump right to the good part where they buy stuff and you make money?

In-market audiences to the rescue!

With in-market audiences, the part of the sales process where you must greet, listen, and determine the buyer’s needs is already done.  That’s because the audience is comprised of users who have already “bought in.” Now all you have to do is close the sale.

So, in essence, in-market audiences serve up purchase-ready customers on a silver platter. Your ads get shown to those who have already made the decision to purchase and are just looking for the right opportunity to do so. Lucky for them, you’re that opportunity.

Best of all, by using in-market audiences, you spend a lot less time, money, and resources marketing to people at the top of the sales funnel. And what does that spell? A high R-O-I!

But enough talk about the benefits of in-market audiences. Time is money, and these audiences aren’t going to sell to themselves.

So let’s get down to business and get your awesome ads in front of them already…

How to Set Up In-Market Audiences in Google Ads

Here all the steps you need to set up an in-market audience campaign in Google Ads.

1. Sign in to Google Ads
2. Select “Audiences” in the left menu
3. Hit the “New Audiences” plus sign at the bottom or blue pencil button
   
4. In the dropdown choose to “Add to” a campaign or ad group
5. Select the campaign or ad group you want to assign the audience
   
   
6. Choose between “targeting” or “observation” mode
   Observation broadens the reach of your ad to see how it performs on a larger scale while allowing you to still set bids specifically to your chosen audience. Targeting narrows the reach of your ad to only those in your chosen audience and no one else. (In Bing, these are called “target and bid” and “bid only.”) If you’re unsure which to use, try A/B testing an ad group using “targeting” versus one using “observation” and see which provides better results.
7. Find the audience category or product that best matches your offering
   There are two ways to find in-market audiences. In the table, you will see tabs for “Search” and “Browse.” Under Search, you can enter your specific product or the topic of your ad, and Google will provide recommended in-market audiences for you to choose from.
   
   Under Browse, you start by telling Google the type of audience behavior you’re interested in. (For in-market audiences select, “What they are actively researching or planning.”) You then navigate through category dropdowns to find the best possible in-market audience for your ad.
   Once you find the perfect audience:
8. Select the in-market audience
9. Hit “Save”

Congratulations! You’ve set up an in-market audience for your ads.

Wait, what’s that sound?

Oh, that’s just customers knocking on your door to buy things.

But before you get too excited, a few pearls of wisdom:

Pearl #1: Remember to take special care when picking your campaign or ad group (step #4). If you have multiple ad groups in a campaign with different messaging, you might want to start at the ad group level. If you choose a campaign, then in-market audience targeting will be applied to all of your ad groups within that campaign.

Pearl #2: Also, avoid choosing campaigns or ad groups with other targeting options already assigned. For example, don’t have an ad group target both an in-market audience and keywords at the same time. Set up a separate ad group for each. (As a bonus, this is a great way to A/B test different ad targeting methods.)

Pearl #3: Likewise, try to avoid selecting multiple audience types. For instance, don’t use affinity audiences and in-market audiences together. The point here is to target your ads better, not muddy the waters with different audience types.

Setting up an in-market audience is good and all, but you know what’s even better?

Optimizing In-Market Audiences to Boost Sales Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

Tip 1: Use CPA Bidding

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) bidding is ideal for targeting potential customers at the top of the sales funnel. However, the farther you get toward the bottom of the funnel, the more refined your bidding strategy should become.

For in-market audiences, try using cost per acquisition (CPA) bidding. CPA bidding’s sole goal is to maximize sales by getting your ad as many conversions as possible.

There are exceptions, of course. But since in-market audiences have high purchase intent, you should test a CPA bidding strategy.

Tip 2: Layer Targeting

Google’s machine learning is frighteningly impressive, but no one knows your customers better than you.

Further improve your in-market audiences by adding multiple layers of hyper-focused demographic and geographic targeting. By putting into action all the data you’ve gathered about your ideal customer persona (ICP), together with Google’s AI, you’ll become the dynamic duo of selling.

Tip 3: Don’t Underestimate Your Competition

In-market audiences have been around for a while, which means the word is out, and you won’t be one of the few taking advantage.

Expect to face some stiff competition, especially since building in-market audiences relies on finding people who have shown previous interest in your competitors.

In fact, your ad spend could go up in highly competitive markets.

As competition grows, so too will your costs. Be sure you’re ready to throw your hat into the ring when implementing in-market audiences.

How can you get battle-ready?

Start with excellent competitor research.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you don’t have any competitors. They’re out there. Our competitor analysis guide can help you find them. Once you do, you can come up with brilliant ways to top them.

Like…

Tip 4: Give Your Audience an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Picking the perfect in-market audience alone will not ensure success.

First and foremost, you want to have a superior product. Ideally, one that practically sells itself.

Short of that, you want to have great messaging. Not good messaging. Not pretty good messaging. AMAZING messaging. Messaging so appealing people have no choice but to click it. Take the infamous DeBeers campaign for example.

Focus on pain points and offer a firm solution. If you have a promotion or any other deal that will make an ad more enticing to click, go for it! Create a sense of urgency and a timeframe.  Remember, your competitors are in this landscape, too, so demonstrate what sets you apart.

We’ve outlined several strategies for crafting compelling, sales-driven copy for your ads.

Last, but certainly not least, prime your landing page to convert. Your offer is more than just a single headline or CTA. It is the entire experience of your ad campaign. So, create an experience that capitalizes on the purchase intent of your audience every step of the way.

Tip 5: Start Branding Before They’re Ready to Buy

Remember the movie Inception? You probably thought it was about watching Leonardo DiCaprio navigate dreams and spin tops. But it was actually about digital marketing.

You see, the premise revolves around inserting ideas into people’s minds so they willingly take a desired action in the future. Or as we like to call it creating “brand awareness.”

And it’s something you should consider when using in-market audiences.

Because even though in-market audiences let you skip ahead and target people at the later stages of the sales funnel, you shouldn’t ignore them when they’re at the top. In fact, early investing in brand awareness campaigns will only enhance the sales effectiveness of your later in-market ad campaigns.

Remember, in-market audiences are not a get rich quick scheme. They are a single (albeit kickass) component of your larger paid media strategy.

So channel your inner-DiCaprio and get your customers loving your products before they even know they exist.

Tip 6: Exclude In-Market Audiences

In-market audiences aren’t just for targeting potential customers. They are also for eliminating non-customers.

Excluding PPC audiences is one of the most effective ways to improve ROI in an ad campaign. To do this in Google, click into the “exclusions” tab and select the “add filter” button (as seen below).

Sometimes you might not be able to find an in-market audience that perfectly matches your offer. Sometimes you’ll need to refine your targeting further. In these cases, try excluding irrelevant in-market audiences that you don’t want engaging with your ad.

For example, if you are selling used cars, it’s a good idea to exclude anyone looking for new cars.

Tip 7: Don’t Stop Believing (or Monitoring Performance)

As is, in-market audiences are incredibly powerful. But there’s always room for improvement.

So don’t get down if you target an in-market audience and don’t see immediate results. There’s still value to be had in analyzing performance, regardless if it’s good or bad.

Start by looking at your Quality Score to make sure your ad is actually appearing.

Then take a look at CTR. If click-through-rate is lower, then you might want to improve your ad copy, or A/B test different in-market audiences against one another. For instance, your ad might be appearing in front of the wrong audience, or the audience needs to be further refined by excluding other audiences.

If you have a high CTR but no one’s buying your product, then your landing page probably needs some work. Make sure you’re following the 12 steps to doing CRO like a pro.

If, after all that, your ROI is still too low, try testing between “targeting” and “observation” modes, and different bidding strategies (e.g., CPA versus CPC).

Monitor and compare performance from any changes, and once you find a winning combination that works, go all in.

Conclusion — Sell Better with In-Market Audiences

Why consumers decide to buy a product has been a code online advertisers have been trying to crack since the beginning of time or at least the Internet.

With in-market audiences, we’re closer than ever.

There are a lot of buyers out there hungry for what you’re selling. All you have to do is be there at the right place and time. That’s why we recommend giving in-market audiences a try to boost your sales and give the people what they want.

You might just find you get what you want as well.

Want to rank higher in Google search results? With some well-written code, a skosh of schema, and a little Google magic, you can make all your SEO dreams come true by turning your regular old boring snippets into exciting rich snippets. Because who doesn’t want to get a little more rich?

For those already familiar with Rich Snippets and want to see how to add them to your site, skip ahead to:

1. The Easiest Ways to Add Rich Snippets to Your Site
2. How to Add Rich Snippets Manually
3. How to Test and Preview Your Rich Snippets

For everyone else who’s new to rich snippets, or would like to learn more about their SEO benefits, read on.

What are Rich Snippets?

A rich snippet is a type of structured data markup that provides additional information within search results.

A traditional snippet in Google contains a title (in blue), URL (in green), and description (in grey). You’ve probably seen one or two of them before. They look like this:

Boooring. Where’s all the richness?

Now get a load of this…

Now that’s rich!

Take a moment to catch your breath.

Rich Snippet Examples

There are many types of rich snippets, some of which are industry-specific. Here are a few of the most popular:

• Reviews
• Ratings
• Product Info
• FAQ
• Event Info
• App Info
• Course Info
• Bread Crumbs
• How-Tos

Normally search engines have a hard time understanding the price of a product or number of stars from a review. Using structured data, you can tell them all about this useful rich information and pave the way for Google to show it in search results.

But how much does that really help your site and its ability to rank? Let’s find out.

Do Rich Snippets Help SEO?

Rich snippets do not improve SEO, directly. Having structured data markup on a page will alone not increase its chances of ranking higher in search results. At least, that’s what Google says about structured data. However, rich snippets can indirectly help your SEO.

And that can be just as beneficial.

Let’s recap: Using schema markup is not a ranking factor. However, it can affect your SEO results. Confused? Who wouldn’t be? The key is Google loves when search results help people find what they want. And that’s exactly what rich snippets do.

On-page behavioral data like CTR, bounce rate, and time on site all have an impact on rankings. A Rich Snippet not only entices more people to click through to your page, but it also helps pre-qualify visitors to ensure they will find value while on your page.

So while rich snippets themselves may not be an official ranking signal, they have a huge potential for skyrocketing your SEO.

As a bonus, using the right method of implementation provides a direct benefit in improving SEO. To better understand what that means, let’s look at what’s going on behind-the-scenes of rich snippets, starting with structured data.

What is Structured Data?

As a general term, “structured data” refers to any data that is organized (i.e., structured) in a way that makes it easier to understand.

Structured data is used in a lot of ways. Facebook uses it for its Open Graph markup. Data analysts use it with SQL to build databases. When it comes to web development, structured data lets you talk to search engines in a way they understand using code.

For instance, we can use structured data to tell Google detailed information about our web pages, which they then share in amazing looking and engaging search results.

Rich snippets are a way for search engines to display structured data they find encoded on a web page. But it’s not the only way. You can browse Google’s Search Gallery to see all the nifty things you can do with structured data. (If you’re a SERP nerd like us, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.)

What is Schema.org?

To make search and web development more consistent across the Internet, the big search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Yandex) co-developed a structured data project. This collaboration resulted in Schema.org.

At face value, Schema.org is a website that documents the schemas (i.e., concepts for implementing structured data) via a collection of code. It provides a place where developers and digital marketers can find all the structured data markup needed to “talk” with search engines.

At its heart, Schema.org is a collaborative community to “create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, in email messages, and beyond.”

Explore Schema.org for all the possibilities in displaying your page’s info on SERPs. Find the code you want. Copy it, and adapt it to your needs, preferably using JSON-LD.

What is JSON-LD?

JSON-LD stands for JavacScript Object Notation for Linked Data. It is a way to write code that utilizes multi-dimensional arrays to encode structured data using JSON (i.e., a means for storing and transporting data). Google recommends using JSON-LD, because it is great for your SEO.

There are several syntaxes (or implementation methods) that can communicate structured data to search engines. These syntaxes include:

• JSON-LD
• Microdata
• Microformats
• RDFa

These syntaxes are different languages that servers and web applications use to talk to another, with Schema.org providing the vocabulary. The necessary vocabulary for Microdata, RDFa, or JSON-LD is found on Schema.org. (Microformats use a site called Microformats.org.) But of all these syntaxes, JSON-LD is the simplest to implement, and most effective when it comes to SEO, which is why Google loves it.

Why is JSON-LD Great for Improving SEO?

JSON-LD provides easily indexable content to search crawlers, which creates a better web page in the eyes of both Google and humans. This occurs because you can add markup as is to a page’s HTML using JSON-LD (which you cannot do using the other syntaxes).

Streamlining how data is transmitted from your web pages to search results boosts ranking potential. That’s why SEO tools like Yoast SEO also recommend always using JSON-LD. In fact, if you use the Yoast plugin on your WordPress site, it automatically adds some useful structured data via JSON-LD to your site. So there’s a good chance you’re already using structured data and didn’t even know it.

So if you use JSON-LD to create rich snippets, you’re doing your SEO a huge favor.

The Difference Between Rich Snippets, Rich Cards, and Featured Snippets

Understandably, many people get rich snippets confused with rich cards and featured snippets. While they can all be considered “rich results,” each is technically its own separate thing.

As we know, a rich snippet is an enhanced organic search result. It is a modification made to an existing result.

Rich cards are an entirely separate result that appears at the top of all other search results. If you’ve ever searched for the best movies of all-time and saw a carousel of movie posters at the top of the page, you’re looking at movie rich cards. Rich cards can also come in the flavor of recipes, articles, events, or in the example below, actor bios and movie projects.

A Featured Snippet is a box that appears above all other results in the coveted “position zero.” It is a prominent block of content hand-picked by Google’s algorithm as the best answer to a user’s question or search. While rich snippets and rich cards both use schema markup, featured snippets do not. There’s no trick to becoming a featured snippet other than adhering to SEO best practices.

Then there’s the Knowledge Graph, which appears as a large block of content to the right of search results. Much of the content in a Knowledge Graph comes from user-applied structured data, but Google My Business accounts can strongly influence it.

The Easiest Ways to Add Rich Snippets to Your Site

If you’re not a pro developer, don’t be intimidated by the technical aspects of structured data. Adding rich snippet markup to your site can be done by everyone. To make things as easy as possible, Google has a very helpful online Rich Snippets reference doc.

One of the best and easiest ways to add markup is using schema generators that can help you manually generate the code you need for any rich snippet. Our favorites include:

• Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper
• Google Data Highlighter
• Schema Markup Generator

These online tools take much of the guesswork out of using structured data. Data Highlighter, in particular, was made for non-code savvy individuals. It lets you highlight sections of a web page that you want to apply to Rich Snippets. It doesn’t get much easier than that! To help even further, we’ve written a guide on how to set up schema using Google Data Markup Helper and Data Highlighter.

If you’re using WordPress, plugins can practically automate the entire process of adding rich snippet markup for you. Some popular ones include:

• Schema
• WP SEO Schema
• Markup (JSON-LD)
• All-in-One Rich Snippets
• Schema App Structured Data

However, there is a downside to using plugins. Since we’re dealing with scripts, these third-party plugins can conflict with your theme or other plugins, and add extra HTTP requests to your page, which is bad for site speed. (Learn more about the importance of reducing HTTP requests.)

Of course, for the best results, we recommend working with an experienced SEO specialist when implementing structured data. This removes all the stress of dealing with foreign code and ensures it is implemented correctly on your site. Working with an SEO specialist also gives your web page the best chance for appearing as a rich snippet.

How to Add Rich Snippets Manually

There are a few ways to gather the resources needed to create rich snippet markup. Professional developers typically use Schema.org to create JSON-LD code from scratch. But if that sounds too complicated and you want to add structured data manually, here’s an alternate DIY method to do so:

1. Visit the Google Search Gallery
2. Identify and select your desired rich result and hit “Get Started”
3. Scroll down to the “Structured data type definitions” and pick out the properties you want to be displayed. (They must also be found on your web page.)
4. Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper to generate your JSON-LD code
5. Copy and paste the <script> onto your web page

Google recommends adding the JSON-LD script to the <head> section of your page’s HTML, although it is okay to add it within the <body> section.

How to Test and Preview Your Rich Snippets

Once you’ve added Rich Snippet markup to your web page, test your success. Here are two tools released by Google to do just that:

• Structured Data Tester
• Rich Result Tester

To use them, either paste your <script> or paste the URL of your page. If you go with the latter, be sure the page has been published and updated with your markup.

Don’t forget to hit the “preview” button in those Rich Snippet tests. It’s a really cool feature that shows how your rich snippet will appear in search results.

How Long Does it Take for Rich Snippets to Appear?

Generally, it can take anywhere from 2-12 weeks for a Rich Snippet to appear on Google. In some special cases, we have seen it appear within a few days. But there is no guarantee. Google may decide not to display your page as a rich snippet at all. In those cases, more than likely Google didn’t think the structured data would be of value to searchers.

Patience here is key. If you recently added schema markup and didn’t see Rich Snippets right away, refrain from making any modifications to make them appear faster. Google takes its time analyzing what you’ve done. Any tinkering could reset the whole process and it’ll take even longer. As long as you passed the tests above, wait at least two months before making modifications. If nothing happens after that time, then take another look at your schema markup. (Or consult an SEO specialist for help.)

Go Forth and Get SEO Rich With Snippets

Look, we’re all just trying to get ahead. (Or in the case of JSON-LD, get in the <head>. Ba-Dum-CH! We’ll be here all night.) Every site just wants to catch its big break and edge out the competition. That’s why it is so important to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.

Rich snippets are one such opportunity and a big one at that. So embrace structured data and use it to let the world know how great you are.