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Did you know that, on average, smartphone users touch their phones 2,617 times each day?

According to the survey conducted by dscout in the spring of 2016, smartphone users also spend an average of 145 daily minutes on their mobile phones.

In other words, we’re leaning on our mobile devices more than ever before. In fact, data from HubSpot Research revealed that a whopping 33% of respondents use their smartphone as their primary device for internet use.

Unsurprisingly, Google has responded to the growth of mobile search by launching The AMP Project, or Accelerated Mobile Pages. In short: AMP was designed so publishers could build web pages that load more quickly on mobile devices.

What do marketers need to know about this new project? We’re glad you asked. Let’s walk through some of the most common questions and answers below.

What is AMP?

AMP enables content to load near-instantaneously by removing JavaScript from the page. It prioritizes text-based content, then loads additional content after the remainder of the page has rendered.

Google’s decision to launch this open-source initiative was rooted in the importance of improving the user experience (UX) for the millions of mobile searchers worldwide. (And, in part, to compete with Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles.)

Google has partnered with several different publishers and platforms to start using AMP on its content — Twitter, Vox, BuzzFeed, and the Washington Post, to name a few. It’s also created a carousel of “Top Stories” in Google Search that highlights web pages and articles built with AMP.

Here’s an example of what an AMP-formatted story on the Top Stories carousel looks like once you click:

Source: Search Engine Land

You can test what AMP looks like on your own mobile phone now. Open up your Google app and type in the newsworthy topic of your choosing (I chose Mars):

Pretty fast loading speed, right? As you also probably noticed, articles with the lightning bolt AMP designation can appear in a carousel of results at the top of the search engine results page.

AMP-formatted websites also appear in the main Google search engine results page, as shown below:

Source: Search Engine Land

If this seems like a big shift, you’re right. Let’s explore why AMP will be so impactful on mobile search and search engine optimization (SEO).

Why Does AMP Matter?

The biggest benefit of AMP is improved user experience: When mobile searchers find the information they’re looking for faster, they’re less likely to navigate away from a website. The AMP Project Product Manager, Rudy Galfi, said that the median time for an AMP-formatted page to load is 0.7 seconds — in comparison, the median load time for other web pages is 22 seconds.

More than half of site visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on a website before navigating away, so AMP has a huge impact on publishers’ ability to attract and keep potential customers on their blog and landing pages. Google found that 29% of smartphone users will immediately navigate away from a site if it loads too slowly or if they can’t find the information they’re looking for.

Users are spending more time searching on their mobile devices than on computers all over the world. If you’ve optimized your website and email for mobile devices, AMP is a way to optimize your content for mobile search, too.

Another benefit of AMP is content visibility. AMP-formatted content is published in the AMP carousel at the top of a Google search results page, and the lightning bolt icon denotes AMP-formatted pages in search results. These layout and design changes help AMP content stand out in the crowd to users searching for information, which could drive more clicks and traffic.

How Does AMP Impact SEO?

According to Advanced Web Ranking, the first position in Google search results achieves an average clickthrough rate of 31% internationally. The second position? Only a 19.5% clickthrough rate. So, search rankings are very important to marketers.

The ultimate goal of inbound marketing is to get your website discovered by potential customers, and discovery in search engine results is key to making that happen. Blog posts and news articles formatted with AMP HTML code is one of many tools, such as keywords, headings, and alt-text, that marketers can use to optimize their content for search results.

But AMP is not a direct search engine ranking factor, and sites that format their pages with AMP will not see an immediate leap in search rankings. Instead, Google Senior Director of News and Social Products, Richard Gingras, told AdAge that AMP is one of the 200 signals Google looks at when determining rankings.

“If we had two articles that from a signaling perspective scored the same in all other characteristics but for speed, then yes we will give an emphasis to the one with speed because that is what users find compelling,” explained Gingras.

So, what’s the takeaway for marketers? Speed is a signal that impacts search rankings, but that doesn’t mean AMP formatting alone will get your site on the first page of Google.

But, it could contribute to higher rankings in combination with other strong signals. For example, if fewer visitors are immediately navigating away from your content because it loads quickly and is relevant to their search query, that would signal to Google to increase the ranking in search because it’s highly useful for users.

How to Use AMP

In order to implement AMP on your own web pages, you’ll need to build and develop new version of web pages with AMP HTML.

The reason you can’t simply build one web page with AMP for desktop and mobile search? AMP removes third-party JavaScript to speed up the page’s load time for mobile users, so the same web page would be simplified and less exciting for the viewer on their computer.

Remember, AMP is designed to improve user experience, so when you create a separate AMP version, you ensure that desktop and mobile visitors alike enjoy your content. Marketing Land recommends using rel= “canonical” tags so Google doesn’t downgrade your content because it’s been duplicated.

The AMP Project website provides specific instructions and tutorials for how to build a web page with AMP code. Additionally, they offer a portfolio of AMP examples for AMP design inspiration.

Below is a video from The AMP Project that explains the ins and outs of what goes into an AMP-formatted page:

Source: The AMP Project

If you’re a HubSpot customer, AMP is coming to the HubSpot Marketing Platform in early 2017. With this setting, blogging teams won’t have to hire a developer or learn how to code AMP with the resources outlined above. Instead, users will only have to check a box in order to create AMP-formatted blog posts to get discovered in mobile search.

Here’s what it will look like:

See the check box above the “Save changes” button? That’s the entire process for creating pages formatted with AMP in HubSpot Software. Easy, right?

What’s Ahead

Expect to see more results appear in the AMP carousel when you search for content on your mobile device, and keep an eye out for new developments in mobile optimization from Google’s competitors among search engines, software, and social media networks.

For now, head to The AMP Project to learn more about AMP, and look for HubSpot blog content in your AMP carousel soon.

What are your strategies for optimizing your blog for mobile search? Share with us in the comments below.

Data-driven content strategies are a hot marketing industry trend at the moment, but this is a trend that has some legs. After all, why not make all the data you gather from current and potential customers work for you?

You see, data is the real MVP of marketing: It can be used to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, track the overall health of your brand, and (when used properly) it can help to spark new content ideas.

And if you need some inspiration, I put together a roundup of some brands that are using data to fuel really compelling and sharable stories. Check them out below.

7 Examples Of Data-Driven Storytelling By Leading Brands

1) OkCupid

OkCupid has all the demographic and connection information that one would expect from an extremely popular online dating site. But instead of keeping this info totally internal, it uses the trends and statistics to create interesting, data-driven posts that are also extremely popular on social media due to the compelling topics.

And let’s not forget the funny, clever, and insightful quizzes that users can and do answer, and how OkCupid uses that data to craft equally funny, clever, and insightful posts. 

Recommended Content:

One popular post — “Don’t Be Ugly By Accident” — talks about crafting great profile pictures for online dating, but the advice is applicable to virtually anyone who wants to put their best foot forward online, whether it is a dating site, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

2) GrubHub

The folks at GrubHub know what you eat, where you eat it, and when you order it. While this might seem a little mundane, the food delivery app mines this data and turns it into unique content like quizzes, contests, polls, and special offers.

GrubHub also partners with various publishers who use the data to create compelling native advertising that hardly feels like stereotypical sponsored content.

Recommended Content:

Leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, GrubHub created a quiz together with Time Magazine to see whether or not your dietary preferences were Democrat or Republican based on user data overlaid with voting/polling data for the same area.

3) Jawbone

The team behind Jawbone wants people to be healthy and live better lives. Beyond enabling users to track their own personal data through the fitness band, Jawbone uses that data to support its content creation efforts. 

The content produced typically involves making predictions and then providing corresponding advice based on the research it does into its user bases’ behavior.

The key takeaway for other brands here? Look for ways to use your data and the learnings you take away from it to provide actionable tips and advice that make a real difference in your user’s lives.

Recommended Content:

“How University Students Sleep” discusses the sleep trends on some of America’s premier campuses and shows how sleep can affect learning and performance — a topic that’s directly tied to the data Jawbone collects. This information is relevant to almost everyone, but perhaps particularly relevant to younger demographic — one that is likely interested in using the product. 

4) Zillow

Real estate has always been a data-centric profession — from pricing data to demographic data, and much more. And Zillow takes it to the next level by leveraging the vast amounts of data in its real estate platform to create content that is useful and compelling for current buyers, sellers, and real estate agents, as well as others with a general interest in the industry. 

Take a lesson from Zillow and use your data to tell stories that have a broader appeal than your exact target demographic who is ready to convert. Make your content interesting on its own, and position yourself as an authority in your space or community. 

Recommended Content:

Everyone wants to add value to whatever it is they are promoting or selling, so Zillow used content from successful listings to determine what words they all had in common. The result? This article: “15 Words That Could Add Value To Your Listing.” Straight to the point and actionable, this is news that Zillow’s audience can certainly use, and it has the data to back it up.

5) Spotify

The popular music app Spotify does more than provide you with some excellent tunes. Instead it takes things a step further by using to data to create custom playlists based on your listening activity, the time of day, current season, and so on. 

They also compile “year of” playlists showing not only the most popular songs of the year, but also when they were popular — sparking memories and happy reminiscing.

Recommended Content:

An oldie (for the internet at least) but a goodie, this 2013 post outlining how Spotify uses analytics and data to produce playlists and other content is still pretty darn relevant and useful.

6) Uber

Having an online newsroom or company announcement page is pretty standard, but the tremendously popular peer-to-peer ridesharing service Uber features much more than the expected updates or self-promotional posts.

Instead, it uses its vast amount of data to show users the value of its service and make connections where most brands wouldn’t — sparking a conversation that is not only about its drivers and riders, but about society and human behavior in general.

Recommended Content:

“Ten facts you may not know about Uber drivers,” is not only interesting in a slice-of-life type of way (who doesn’t want to know more about the people driving you around) but points to major societal trends as well. Even if you don’t use Uber, the article provides a compelling story about the types of people working as drivers.

For instance, did you know that 24% of Uber drivers are entrepreneurs using the flexibility and steady income from the app to support their own business development? 

7) Mint

As the personal finance gurus of the millennial generation, Mint often uses its vast amounts of data about its audience’s finances and spending habits to create infographics centered around timely topics. 

The lesson? Take a look at Google Trends or use anything you’ve noticed in the news or our collective internet pop culture, see what statistics or behaviors from your users might apply or be connected to it somehow, and make it a story. Bonus points for creative and shareable visuals, and finding ways that your data satisfies the innate curiosity about what our fellow human beings are up to.

Recommended Content:

Mint’s Millennials and Charity Infographic — timed for and posted during the holiday season — might be the perfect mix of data, trends, and a compelling, relevant, and newsworthy topic. 

Ready to tell your data’s story?

Of course, you might not have the budget or access to the sheer volume of user data that some of these relatively big brands do, but nearly all marketers, content creators, and business owners have access to data that can be used to tell a story.

For instance, restaurant owners know what the most popular dishes are, boutique owners know the latest trends amongst their crowd (e.g., microtrends in a given neighborhood or amongst a given style subset), and B2B brand marketers probably have an idea of where the industry is going based on the questions their customers are asking and the keywords that drive users to their websites and landing pages.

Every type or marketer works with data all the time, whether that means using analytics to track user behavior and conversions to analyzing statistical information about the target audience and their interests and demographic make-up. It’s a fundamental aspect of the business, and we all use it to inform our process and measure our efforts — but companies like the aforementioned brands can and do take it to the next level.

What are your favorite examples of data-driven storytelling? Share them in the comments.