It’s no secret – we adore Pinterest. It’s the ideal combination of discovery, aspiration and eye candy, and it’s certainly come a long way since we first fell in love with it back in 2010. If you’ve ever kept a scrapbook, if you’ve ever lost yourself in photography, if you’ve ever been inspired by an image or felt a compulsion to collect, you’ll understand. There’s truth behind the adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, just stop and think about how many pictures there are on Pinterest.com. That’s a lot of words.
When Pinterest was the new kid on the block, it was lauded for its impressive growth rates. And then, it dropped off the radar. Some may have dismissed Pinterest as a passing fancy, little more than a digital scrapbook, a site obsessed with interior decorating, recipes and fashion. Of course, anyone who has stuck around on Pinterest, and who has spent a decent amount of time on the site will tell you, it’s so much more than that. People aren’t just pinning their shopping wish lists. They’re pinning who they are and who they want to be in the future. They are creating boards of motivation and aspiration. They’re discovering new ideas about themselves and the world around them. They are making connections. They’re also buying stuff.
Pinterest has proven that it has staying power, and if your business has any kind of visual component to it, or if your brand has a story that could be told visually, then you need to keep reading. And of course, if you need an expert to craft that story for you, we’d love to hear from you.
Why should my business explore Pinterest Advertising?
Users of Pinterest see three different types of pins in their feed: pins from the people they follow, suggested pins from people they don’t yet follow and promoted pins, which are paid campaigns that charge their owners each time they are clicked.
While most brands have at least dipped their toes in the water with advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google Adwords, many are yet to tap into the potential of Pinterest’s audience.
Promoted pins essentially look the same as normal pins, except you pay for them to be more visible to others. Paid pins also allow you to target keywords and specific locations, languages, devices, demographics, search terms and interests. You can use promoted pins to build brand awareness, and also drive engagement and traffic to your website.
At the moment, Pinterest advertising is only open to business accounts based in the USA, UK or Canada.
So, what do I need to know about Pinterest Advertising before I begin?
- First, to get up to speed, you should request a copy of our free e-book: How to Promote and Grow Your Pinterest Business Account.
- Once they’re up and running, keep tweaking your campaigns! Pinterest is all about the visual and it’s not always easy to predict which images are going to be popular with audiences. Try a range of images, some with and without text, new keywords, higher or lower bids and new audiences.
- Make sure there’s a call to action in the pin’s description! But remember that Pinterest is a soft sell. Don’t go all guns blazing, or you’ll turn people off. Just a simple “download this” or “sign up here” will suffice. And don’t put your CTA in the photo itself, that’s definitely crossing a line. You can have inspiring text in an image, but not the hard sell.
- Pinterest lets you have up to 150 keywords for each pin that you promote. Of course, you don’t need to use that many. 30 keywords is a good ball park to aim for. However, don’t target keywords that are irrelevant just to hit that number – that’s going to result in lower engagement and wasted budget. Having trouble finding the right keywords? Words are our speciality!
- Don’t have your pins click through to a landing page that asks for users’ details. Pinterest’s guidelines affirm the site’s ethos that users should be able to find the information they’re looking for without needing to hand over their personal information. Try linking pins to a blog post instead, which can then click through to a landing page if need be.
- Forget hashtags. They might be welcome in organic pins, but promoted pins with hashtags just feel like overkill, and you want someone to click through to your site, not through to a hashtag, right?
- Redirect links are a big no-no. Pinterest won’t approve your pin if you use them.
Pinterest, your business and the bottom line
Once you start investing time and money into Pinterest, you’re going to need to start measuring ROI and traffic generated. Pinterest has its own analytics which become much more useful once you’ve verified your website.
Like any social media channel, if you want to do it well, it takes time. You may find that it’s worth paying someone who can set up your profile like a pro. Someone who knows all about rich pins and how they can be fully utilised to really show off all the wonderful things you do. Someone who understands Pinterest’s visual nature, someone who knows what works and what doesn’t. A little spend up front can save you a lot more time down the track. Speak to us about getting your brand set up on Pinterest. Our Pinterest-related talents were even featured in the London Evening Standard last year! Not bad if we do say so ourselves.
Want to make Pinterest work for your business? We’d love to help. We are one of the UK’s leading Pinterest Management Services. Contact us for a free Skype consultation. Click here to download our free e-book ‘How To Promote And Grow Your Pinterest Business Account’.
