Pinterest Ads: The top 10 best practice tips
If Google ads and Facebook ads had a baby, they’d produce Pinterest ads.
With their highly visual content, search engine user behaviour and mix of interest and keyword targeting, Pinterest ads – or promoted pins as they’re also known – combine the best of both worlds.
But, it can be unclear for advertisers whether the tactics that work on Facebook and Google also work on Pinterest.
That’s why, in this blog, I wanted to share my insider knowledge and help you to get the most out of your promoted pins.
Drawing on my expertise as a Pinterest ad specialist, I’ve pulled together my top tips and everything to need to consider when running ads on the platform.
So, if you’re ready to dip your toe into Pinterest ads – and add another revenue stream to your marketing strategy – here’s what you need to know…
1. Your audiences need to be large
I manage ads for UK-based businesses and was advised by Pinterest to aim for audience sizes of eight to ten million in top-of-funnel awareness campaigns.
This is because the Pinterest algorithm needs to gather as many data points as possible to learn who is responding to your ads.
2. Expect a longer buying cycle
People on Pinterest are often at the beginning of their buying journey. They’re planning, researching and pinning to their boards to review later.
This gives you an exciting opportunity to become part of whatever big adventure or life event they’re planning next.
But it doesn’t mean they’re not buying! In April 2021, research by Dynata found people on Pinterest were three times more likely to say they’re always shopping, have 30% bigger basket sizes and spend 40% more than those on other platforms!
It is also worth noting that pinners may not be active on Pinterest every day. User activity is highest at the weekend and during holidays when people have more time to scroll.
For this reason, it can take longer for the data to be collected.
3. You can create audiences to retarget with Facebook and Google ads
Pinterest is very much a discovery platform and is great to raise the profile of your brand.
It’s especially good for driving cheap traffic to your website which means you can then retarget visitors further down the sales funnel on Facebook and Google.
This makes Pinterest a compelling addition for brands looking to diversify their marketing strategy and increase their revenue streams.
4. Video ads are given preference over static pin ads
When I’m working on ads for my Pinterest clients I always create separate campaigns using video and static images.
This is because Pinterest rates video content over static content and prioritises it.
If you mix video and static content together, video will be given preferential treatment. This might lead you to think your static ads aren’t working, but that’s not really the case.
What’s actually happening is that they’re being outranked by the video.
5. Actalike audiences are the equivalent to Facebook’s ‘lookalike’ audiences (But, there’s a big difference.)
Unlike Facebook – where you can start targetting lookalike audiences as soon as you have enough data – on Pinterest, you need to wait at least three months.
This is to give the platform enough time to collate the data it needs to build your audiences.
6. Invest in creatives specific to your promoted pins
Organic pins are a good way to test which content and creatives give you the best engagement and website visits.
But, when you’re creating promoted pins in Pinterest Ads manager you should always include the following:
- High-quality images or video
- Your company logo
- A strong call to action.
7. Product tags are a game-changer
This is what sets Pinterest ads apart from the competition and is now being adopted by Instagram too.
Pinners are able to click tagged products in your ad and be taken directly to the correct product pages on your website.
You’re able to tag up to 24 products per ad and it’s recommended the tags match what’s being shown in the ad creative for the best user experience.
8. Your promoted pins are evergreen
This is unheard of on other ad platforms!
Once your promoted pin is created – even after the ad budget has been switched off – it can continue converting. How?
Well, if the ad has been ‘pinned’ to a board by a platform user, it remains there even if you’re no longer paying for it.
This means that when people search for certain keywords, your pinned ad could still drive traffic and sales to your website.
Amazing, right?
9. Always use keywords
As well as being a search engine, the other thing Pinterest has in common with Google is that its ads use keywords to target audiences.
As with organic pinning, using keywords when building your campaign is critical, it’s just where you put them that’s different.
With organic pins, keywords are contained within the title and copy of the pin. But, when it comes to advertising, your keywords go in Pinterest ads manager.
Pinterest recommends using between 25-75 keywords (you can start with 50 and then optimise) in order to make sure you’re capturing all the relevant searches to your product or service.
In addition to the keywords, you can also add interests. These are kept broad and are limited to 3-5 interests per campaign.
I’ve found that being active on Pinterest organically helps too as Pinterest will have already captured this data from your organic traffic.
10. You can connect clicks to conversions for longer
When new privacy measures were introduced for Apple users in April 2021 some platforms restricted how many days back you could track sales to ads.
For example now, on Facebook, you can only track sales for 7 days.
This means if someone clicks on your ad but buys something eight days later, Facebook wouldn’t be able to track this sale.
The good news for advertisers on Pinterest is that it tracks data back for 30 days after the initial click.
Given the longer consideration period a pinner may have, this can give advertisers a more accurate view of how successful their ads have been.
As you can see, Pinterest offers lots of profit-boosting opportunities for ecomm businesses.
And, whilst I wouldn’t recommend diverting all of your ad budget purely to Pinterest, there’s huge value in raising awareness of your brand and finding new customers who you can either convert on the platform or retarget at a later date.
Tempted to give Pinterest ads a try? Contact me today and let’s arrange a time to talk.
