Pinterest is one of the most powerful marketing tools of 2022. What makes it so special? It’s a combination of a social media platform and a search engine that understands its audience well, provides you with very detailed insights, and predicts trends before they even happen. This is why you should consider investing money in Pinterest ads and use this platform to grow your brand recognition online.
The benefits of pinterest ads
- Pinterest has one of the lowest CPC (cost-per-click) of all social media ads.
- Easy way to gain brand awareness and boost sales. 80% of users discover a new brand or product on Pinterest every week and 87% of pinners have purchased something they’ve seen on the site.
- Drive traffic to your website.
- Very detailed targeting options. You can make sure that your ad reaches people who are interested in a specific product/topic and/or people who are searching specifically for your offerings.
- In addition to the paid-for reach that you’ll gain with your ad, you will also get organic reach from people who save your Pin to their boards. How cool is that?!
Before you start advertising on Pinterest
There is one very important thing that you have to do before creating any Pinterest ad campaign. You must add a Pinterest tag to your website. A Pinterest tag is a piece of code that you add to your website to track conversions (actions that people take on your website). This tag allows you to track your campaign performance and build audiences. It collects data on people who visited your website which might be very useful if for example, you are thinking of running a retargeting campaign. Follow these instructions to add a tag to your website.
Selecting the right campaign objective
Why is it so important? Choosing the right objective determines if your campaign will be successful. You should choose the one that reflects your goals best. Pinterest Ads Manager lets you choose from 5 different options:
- Brand awareness: helps people discover your brand.
- Video Views: promotes your videos and helps people discover your brand or drive actions.
- Consideration: increases the amount of times your ad is clicked on by Pinners.
- Conversions: encourages visitors to take action on your website, for example adding items to their shopping cart.
- Catalog sales: promotes your product inventory with shopping ads. This objective is only available for businesses that sell products on their website. To be able to access it you have to claim your website and upload products or link your Pinterest and WooCommerce accounts.
Pinterest ads targeting options
- By interest: users can be targeted depending on their individual interests. Pinterest provides you with a long interest list to choose from.
- By keywords: keywords can assist you in identifying users with high purchase intent who can be easily turned into customers by displaying the appropriate advertising at the appropriate times. When users search for anything on Pinterest using a term you’re targeting, your ad may appear as a Promoted Pin. To find the best keywords, you have to do keyword research first. Read our blog post about the best Pinterest keyword research methods. When it comes to the technical side of keyword targeting, you have five different types of keyword matches:
– exact match: this means that people will only see your ad if they search for the term you’re targeting.
– broad match: this allows you to reach out to more users even if their search query does not perfectly match your term. Your ads can be shown to people who have searched for related or similar terms to your target keyword.
– phrase match: your ads will be shown to people who use the same phrase in their query. This covers searches that include your keyword and additional terms.
– negative phrase match: this means that your ads won’t be shown for queries that include the phrase that you have chosen as a negative keyword.
– negative exact match: your ad won’t be shown for any search queries that include that keyword.
Examples of Pinterest keyword matches:
- Custom audiences: Pinterest, just like Facebook Ads Manager, allows you to reconnect with users who already know your brand. Take advantage of this tool to create retargeting campaigns. It is an effective strategy because you will show your ads to users who already know your brand, which makes it easier to convert them to customers. You can target people who:
– visited your website,
– engaged with your account,
– are on your email list (you can upload a customer list to Pinterest),
– behave similarly to your existing customers (this requires creating an Actalike audience).
How to set up your ads inside Pinterest Ads Manager
- Log into your Pinterest business account.
- Click Ads at the top of the screen, then click Create ad.
- Under Choose a campaign objective, select a goal.
- Enter your Campaign details and budget.
- Click Continue.
- Name your Ad group.
- Select your Targeting.
- Choose your optimization & delivery (we recommend using the Automatic option, Pinterest will get you the most Pin clicks for your budget, but if you want to control how much you bid, select Custom and enter the amount).
- Select the Pins that you want to use in this ad set.
- Click Publish and you’re done!
Bonus Tip
- Before creating your ads, go to Pinterest and see what ads your competitors are running. Let’s say you’re planning to advertise logo design services, type the keyword that you’re planning to target in the search bar, see what the first Pins look like, and create something that is going to stand out from the crowd. For example, you see that all their designs are orange, go and create something in blue. (keep in mind that this should still remain within your brand guidelines)
- Your graphics should be 1000 x 1500 pixels or any 2:3 aspect ratio – this is what Pinterest likes the most.
- Movement always catches your eye. Consider posting GIFs and videos frequently.
- Always post high-quality content!
- Include keywords on your designs.
- Overlay text to your designs and get straight to the point. You have around 2 seconds to get the user’s attention. It’s important that your asset communicates your message efficiently.
- Examples of negative matches that you don’t want to show up for: free, DIY, cheap.
As you see, Pinterest ads give you many ways to grow your brand awareness online. However, even though this social media platform is growing fast, it is still underestimated by a lot of business owners and marketers. Don’t make the same mistake! Start advertising your brand on Pinterest today and be a step ahead of your competitors. If after reading this blog you still feel like you need help with Pinterest ads or have some questions, feel free to DM us or use our digital marketing services. We’re here to help!