Since starting my Giphy channel back in September, I’ve received many questions about making, upload, and tag stickers for Giphy. I’ve also had many questions about how to get GIFs and stickers into Giphy’s search engine for everyone to find. I will share some best practices to create, uploading and tag GIFs and stickers for Giphy. This article will be speaking specifically about stickers, but the same process applies to both stickers and GIFs.

What’s a GIF?

A GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a short, animated picture without sound that consistently loops.

What’s the difference between a GIF vs. a sticker?

This is probably the most asked question, other than how to pronounce the word GIF. The easiest way to describe it is, a sticker has a transparent background, and GIF does not. Stickers can be used in various ways, including dressing up your Instagram and or Snapchat story.

Something to note is that Giphy sorts stickers separately from GIFs, and they have their own API as well.

Creating your stickers

This is the fun part! Think of a sticker you’d like to create. I’ve been focusing on creating simple but powerful stickers for everyday use. But the story is yours to write. You can create your stickers in a variety of different ways. I love to use Procreate to make my stickers, but adobe illustrator and fresco are great alternatives.

To create your sticker, start with the first frame. For this example, I used the official Giphy logo. I drew each color block on a separate layer in Procreate and then grouped them. I would recommend using layers/groups as frequently as possible. It will make animating so much easier.

Now that you’ve completed the first frame, it’s time to start thinking about what you’d like your animation should do. For this demo animation, I wanted to make the Giphy logo breakaway and then reassemble. Since I have all the individual pieces on their separate layers, I can easily break them away without drawing each frame separately.

I continue to seperate each color block frame by frame until I have something that I’m happy with. Doing your animations on separate layers also makes it easier to go back and make changes later.

Once you’ve completed all of the frames, you can export your layers and groups into a GIF.

And heres the final product! I used Procreate to make this sticker, and their animation assist feature. To learn more about animation assist, check out this awesome tutorial.

This is considered a sticker, because at least 20% of pixels are transparent in the first frame. So no matter what color background you use this sticker on, it will still look great.

Upload your sticker to Giphy

Now that you have your awesome sticker, it’s time to upload it to Giphy! Keep in mind anyone can upload to Giphy. But if you’d like your stickers and GIFs to appear in Giphy search, you’ll need to apply for an official brand or artist channel. Once you’re an approved Giphy artist or brand channel, your stickers and GIFs will be available in places such as TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and more.

I would highly recommend checking out these tips for submitting an application from Giphy.

Tag your stickers with Relevant Keywords

This part is an essential part and will determine how people find your stickers and or GIFs. For this example, I would tag this sticker with tags like #giphy, #giphylogo, #logo, #animatedgiphylogo, and #giphycolors. The shorter the tag, the better. I would also refrain from using tags that that are not relevant to your sticker. Currently, the maximum number of tags you can use is 20. Giphy recommends using ten of the best tags for each of the GIFs and Stickers you upload.

This article highlights some do’s and don’ts when tagging your stickers and GIFs on Giphy.

Understanding your Analytics

Once you’re an approved Giphy artist/brand, you’ll gain access to the Giphy dashboard tool. Although the dashboard is very light with analytics, it provides real-time feedback to see which of your stickers and or GIFs are performing the best.

Note: it can take up to 24 hours for your newly uploaded stickers and GIFs to appear in Giphy search and your dashboard.

As of right now, you can only view your top 20 GIFs/stickers while using the dashboard. The dashboard will also display which search terms your stickers are performing the best. For example, the Giphy dashboard shows me that my 2021 sticker was engaged most when users searched for 2021. If you go to Instagram and search “2021” under stickers, you’ll see mine appear! For more information on Giphy views and what they mean, click here.

The most important thing to remember is to have fun. That’s what Giphy is all about. If you have any questions about anything discussed in this article, I recommend checking out Giphy’s support documentation. I’d also love to be a resource for you during your Giphy journey. Feel free to contact me via Twitter, and I’d be happy to lend a hand!