5 Pinterest Tips
If the old adage “marketers vote with their wallets” is true, then marketers are really voting strong for Pinterest. As we noted in our Q3 2018 Quarterly Trends Report, Pinterest ad spend growth is up 98% year-over-year.
And Pinterest is the second biggest platform in terms of influencing U.S. social media users’ purchasing decisions.
Plus about 72% of Pinners say that Pinterest has introduced them to a new brand or service so they are ready to discover new brands.
As you either continue ramping up your Pinterest advertising efforts are just getting started, it’s time to crank it up with some helpful advice:
5 Pinterest Tips to Nail Your Campaigns in 5 weeks
5 Pinterest Tips #1. Early start gives you an edge
There are 2 main activities Pinners do throughout the holidays: saving and searching which starts as early as July.
Generally, on Pinterest, customers start researching ideas and products 2-3 months sooner than on any other platform so there’s a lot of time to interact with your customers.
The peak starts in November and goes into December so no need to stress if you haven’t started already – there’s definitely an opportunity to reach your active pinners in the active period as well.
Plus, Pinners love holiday content as they pin 393 million holiday-inspired pins throughout the season, and 1 in 2 Pinners make a purchase after seeing a promoted pin so your ROI could make your Christmas very merry.
5 Pinterest Tips #2. What to consider when planning your campaign
Before you jump into creating ads, think about what you want to achieve.
Start from the end goal, this will help you determine your targeting strategy as well – are you trying to acquire new customers? Then you should exclude them from your targeting. Or maybe you are going for retention. Then using retargeting lists is the way to go.
If you are building new audiences, then you have several targeting options:
– Interest
This targeting can help you reach people who might be not actively searching for a product or a service just yet but are interested in your area of business. With nearly 50% of impressions occurring in home feeds, targeting helps you build your brand.
– Keyword
Here, we are going for the searchers. This is your sweet spot if you are looking to increase in-store sales or boost traffic to your site, as over 40% of clicks off Pinterest come from search results and related Pins
– Audience
This targeting is perfect if you have reliable and high-quality CRM data. Creating lookalike audiences can help you create more relevant acquisition campaigns and retargeting allows you to reach your current customers or people who might already have some awareness of your brand. Audience targeting is aimed at boosting your traffic and drive online actions, which typically see a 28% increase in engagement rate.
Now, that we have our goal and targeting nailed down, let’s move to the creative part of your campaign as we continue with 5 Pinterest tips.
5 Pinterest Tips #3. Creative that drives clicks
Based on Pinterest’ research, there are a few things that helped brands drive a higher CTR.
– Say your name
A surprising one might be an inclusion of your brand logo, which worked across all campaign objectives (awareness, conversion etc.). But that doesn’t mean you should plaster it across the whole image. Keep it subtle and avoid the lower right corner, which sometimes gets covered by product icons.
– The product is the star of the show
Your product should be the focal point of the pin so avoid imagery that is too lifestyle-like. Show your product in action so people can see how it can improve their lives. Don’t be afraid to include pricing in the ad either as Pins with pricing info in the description have 28% higher online sales lift.
– Stand tall and be consistent
Vertical pins take up more space on users’ mobile screens. More space = more visibility. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio (e.g. 1,000 x 1,500 pixels).
If you also use the same imagery in both your ads and also landing pages, you can look forward to up to 13% higher online sales lift.
– Yey for Overlay!
Text or overlay can add an edge and context to your image. That doesn’t mean you should write an essay. Keep it concise, and large enough so it could be easily visible even on smaller mobile screens.
Plus, if you include a strong and clear CTA within your overlay, your pins’ online sales lift is likely to be 6% higher. Every little bit counts!
– Be transparent
Describe your product and make sure you give people enough context to understand exactly what you are offering and how customers might benefit from it.
5 Pinterest Tips #4. Don’t think just online
According to Pinterest’s yearly brand relevance study, campaigns with a clear product placement were 20% more likely to drive offline sales.
What’s even more interesting, those pins that had aspirational imagery and showed how the product can improve on customers’ lives had 67% likelihood of convert in-store sales as well.
5 Pinterest Tips #5. Work your bidding muscle
We don’t need to tell you the holidays are a pretty competitive season.
Low bids might not cut through and you might end up with low pacing campaigns that don’t have enough results. Don’t be afraid to increase your bids. It doesn’t always result in more expensive CPCs or conversions. If you have compelling creative and offering, it can actually lower your cost per conversion.
Below is the Pinterest’s recommended 5-week planning and optimization.
Holidays – win the moment
We hope you enjoyed these 5 Pinterest tips and that you can use them to get your campaigns supercharged.