The versatility of Pinterest sets it a class above other social media platforms when it comes to advertising. It’s a popular social media platform with 482 million monthly active users. This strong user base makes Pinterest advertising an effective option, especially considering that most of these users are on the platform to satisfy specific needs.
To that end, Pinterest acts as a resourceful visual search engine that millions of people use to find unique and creative ideas in their areas of interest. This inclination makes Pinterest a rich hub for organic growth if you can meet the informational needs of both passive and active users.
While these surface-level concepts already make a strong case for Pinterest advertising, there’s much more to the platform. Read on and discover more in-depth reasons to embrace Pinterest marketing.
Why Should You Advertise on Pinterest?
If Pinterest marketing isn’t part of your social media advertising strategy, the following benefits should prompt you to reconsider.
Use Pinterest as a Discovery Tool for Brand Awareness
Research shows that two out of three Pinterest users search for products or ideas on the platform. This means millions of new users and regular pinners use Pinterest like they do Google and other search engines. And this is the advantage you should capitalize on to drive brand awareness.
The first thing you want is for your brand to appear prominently in the Pinterest search results. You can achieve this organically or through paid Pinterest ads. The beauty of running ads on Pinterest is that they don’t interrupt the discovery experience that most users treasure. While your Pinterest ads contain the sponsored/promoted tag, it’s more subtle as the ads’ visuals and text are more visible and overshadow the tag.
Additionally, Pinterest displays your ad to users who are browsing products in the same category. For regular pinners, Pinterest evaluates their user history on the platform, like the video and product pins they’ve saved, and shows them your ad if it’s relevant.
Whether your Pinterest ads appear in the search results or users’ feeds, they help users discover your brand and product offerings. Combining organic efforts, such as optimizing your brand’s profile and doing keyword research, with your paid ads will generate substantial brand awareness.
Increase Traffic to Your Website
You can add your website to your Pinterest business account and embed your web link on every post to redirect traffic to your site. Including a link in video pins, text, or product pins allows users to click through to your website without leaving Pinterest.
The trick is to make your website or landing page user-friendly so visitors quickly get the information they need. This way, they won’t bounce off your website and return to their Pinterest feed or search results to find another pin.
At the same time, you should optimize your promotional pins to make them searchable and click-worthy. You can achieve this by:
- Performing keyword research and creating a list of target search words and phrases for your ad content
- Optimizing your visual content and integrating relevant keywords into the descriptions, alt text, and board names
- Optimizing your profile description and staying active by commenting and repinning relevant posts from other sources
Optimized Pinterest ads gain more impressions, boosting the chances of users clicking through to land on your website. And if users find your website to be informative and entertaining, they’ll be more likely to convert and purchase your products or services.
Mine Users With a High Purchase Intent
Pinterest users spend more than 25% of their time shopping on the platform. This shows that they have a high purchase intent compared to users on social media platforms like Facebook, where most users satisfy social needs such as messaging loved ones. Therefore, when you run ads on Pinterest, you target users who are already in a buying mindset. These users will appreciate your ad if it satisfies their immediate needs, boosting your conversion rate.
Be the First to Identify Emerging Trends
Pinterest users leverage the platform to find ideas and products that can improve their lives. These ideas include long-term projects such as home remodeling and wedding themes and short-term ideas such as beauty and fashion trends. Using the data collected from users’ search queries and pinned posts, Pinterest can make data-based predictions for emerging trends.
Thankfully, Pinterest shares this data with users through its Pinterest Predicts Report. This report helps you identify emerging trends in each category so you can pivot your marketing strategy accordingly. Identifying emerging trends beforehand also keeps you ahead of your competitors. It’s one of Pinterest’s unique benefits that rank it among the leading platforms for social commerce.
Gain Valuable Audience Insights With Pinterest Analytics
Pinterest Analytics is a valuable tool that helps you review your presence and performance on the platform and provides actionable audience insights. Some invaluable metrics you can enjoy with your Pinterest business account include:
- Engagement rate
- Outbound click rate
- Video views
- Pin click rate
- Impressions
- Save rate
By leveraging these analytics, you get a data-based outlook of your Pinterest ad campaigns performance in real time. These insights help you correct your course or ditch an underperforming ad strategy and inform any new strategy you embrace. Doing so ensures you get a good return on investment from your Pinterest advertising efforts and advance your campaign goals.
When you’re working with a digital advertising partner like AUDIENCEX, these results can be even more valuable. By integrating this data into your omnichannel performance reporting, analyzing it to gather actionable insights, and leveraging it effectively it can help to drive significantly improved performance in your campaigns, both on Pinterest and beyond.
What Are the Ad Types Available on This Social Platform?
Fortunately, Pinterest allows users with business accounts to run different ad types. You only need to follow Pinterest’s ad specs, such as the recommended aspect ratio, so your ads aren’t truncated on users’ screens. Here are the ad types available on Pinterest.
Standard Ads to Show Products in a Simple Image Format
Standards ads are the most basic ad type on Pinterest. They come in a single and static JPEG or PNG image. You can use standard ads in paid campaigns or organically and have them appear in search feeds, related pins, and users’ home feeds. The simplicity of standard ads makes them a convenient option, especially if you’re just getting started or have limited time.
The recommended ad specs for standard ads are:
- Aspect ratio: 2:3 or 1,000 x 1,500 pixels
- File size: 32 MB for in-app ads and 20 MB for desktop ads
- Title: 100 characters max
- Description: 500 characters max
You can also add your logo, your website link, and catchy text to capture users’ attention. Pinterest’s algorithm indexes the title and description of your standard ads, so you should optimize them for readability to boost your reach and targeting accuracy.
Video Ads to Capture Attention and Tell a Story
Video pin ads feature a single engaging video that markets your products or services. You can run two types of video ads on Pinterest: standard-width video ads and maximum-width video ads. Each type requires different specs, as detailed below.
Standard-width video ads are similar in size to regular pins. They’re available on desktops and mobile devices and require the following specs:
- File size: 2 GB max
- Ideal aspect ratio: vertical (2:3, 4:5, or 9:16) or square (1:1)
- File type: MOV, M4V, or MP4
- Ideal video length: 6 to 15 seconds
- Title: 100 characters max
- Description: 500 characters max
Maximum-width video ads take up more space on a user’s mobile feed as they extend across the regular two-column feed in the app. You can use them to target mobile users when running paid campaigns. They come with the following specs:
- File size: 2 GB max
- Max aspect ratio height: 1:1
- File type: MOV, M4V, or MP4
- Ideal video length: 6 to 15 seconds
- Title: 100 characters max
- Description: 500 characters max
You should give video ads more attention as they’re becoming mainstream even beyond Pinterest. Globally, video ads accounted for about 30% of the total display ad spend in 2022, proving that marketers are putting their money where their mouth is. And because Pinterest is big on visual content, running video ads on the platform could generate a better ROI in the long run and help you achieve your campaign goals sooner.
Story or Idea Pins for Educational Content
You can use idea pins to creatively tell your brand’s story in an informative style that triggers customers to act. Idea pins are great for sharing educational content regarding your brand, your products, your services, and other topics that are relevant to your target audience. You can design your idea pins using the pin creation tool in the form of a list, an image, a regular pin with customized text, or different video types.
Other than creating and promoting idea pins using your business account, you can also promote an idea pin made by an independent creator. This option is called a paid partnership, and it’s a great way of generating brand awareness, especially if you partner with creators with massive followings.
Here are the specs for idea pins:
- Max file size: 2 GB on iOS and Android and 100 MB for web
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- File type: MOV, M4V, or MP4 for videos and TIFF, WEBP, JPEG, PNG, or BMP for images
- Max video length: 5 minutes
- Title: 100 characters max
When you promote idea pins with music from creators, ensure the music is sourced from the Pinterest music library to avoid copyright and licensing issues.
Carousel Ads to Share Multiple Images in the Same Ad
Carousel ads are organic pins with multiple images, which users can swipe through using their desktop or mobile devices. You can embed two to five images in a carousel ad. They’re ideal for showing different product angles, action shots, product variations, or extra product information.
You can use carousel ads to market accessories that complement one another. For instance, if you run a gift shop, you may create a carousel ad to show different items that would go into a birthday gift hamper. With creativity, you can design multiple carousel ads showing different gift arrangements for hampers.
Here are the carousel ad specs:
- Max file size: 20 MB per image
- Ideal aspect ratio: 1:1 or 2:3
- File type: JPEG or PNG
- Title: 100 characters max
- Description: 500 characters max
Collection Ads to Promote Product Catalogs
Collection ads appear in a hierarchical format with one pillar image or video (hero creative) at the top and three smaller supporting images or videos below (secondary creative). When a user clicks on the ad, it expands and displays up to 24 images on a user’s mobile device.
Collection ads are best suited for marketing product catalogs in a graphic-rich style. They’re an effective way of summarizing technical details in a memorable, reader-friendly format. Ideally, your hero creative should showcase your product or service’s most prominent feature. The secondary creative and the subsequent gallery should then showcase the entire product range.
Collection ad specs are as follows:
- Max file size: 10 MB for images and 2 GB for videos
- Ideal aspect ratio: square (1:1) or vertical (2:3) for images and vertical (2:3 or 9:16) or square (1:1) for videos
- File type: JPEG or PNG for images and MP4, MOV, or M4V for videos
- Title: 100 characters max for videos
- Description: 500 characters max for videos
Shopping Ads to Connect With Ready-to-Purchase Users
Shopping ads are standard ads with a direct link that users can click to purchase your product or service. This link can be a buy button that users click to purchase products within the Pinterest platform. It can also redirect users to your website.
Shopping ads are easy to set up as Pinterest uses your product information and industry data to automatically show them to an audience with high purchase intent. Shopping ad specs are identical to standard ad specs.
Showcase Ads to Drive Traffic to Your Site
Showcase ads are interactive ads made of multiple swipeable cards, each showcasing features embedded with outbound links. Showcase ads are designed to promote product exploration and sharing among your users. They have three main elements:
- A title image or video that serves as the first card in the showcase ad — this title pin should be catchy to draw your audience’s attention
- Four more swipeable cards with static images
- Up to three features on each card — each feature contains an outbound link that users can click through to explore your product in detail
Ideally, the outbound links on each card should link back to your e-commerce site. This helps boost your site’s traffic and your overall conversion rate if the users purchase through the site.
How Much Do These Ads Cost, and How Does the Bidding Work?
Pinterest ad costs vary based on factors such as bid floors in your target country, campaign objective, ad type, and schedule. Because there’s no fixed rate for ads, Pinterest allows you to set and edit bids based on your budget and campaign objectives.
You can choose automatic bidding and let Pinterest’s ad manager or bulk editor manage the bids for you. Alternatively, you can choose custom bidding, through which you manage your own bids.
With custom bids, you place your maximum bid and can edit it throughout the day at your discretion as long as you meet the minimum bid floor in your target country. With automatic bids, Pinterest’s algorithm adjusts according to different outcomes, such as fluctuations in auction competition. Working with a digital advertising partner such as AUDIENCEX will provide access to channel experts that can navigate this entire process for you, from creative development to strategy, including determining the right bidding approach to ensure that you always get the most out of your budget.
Can You Use Programmatic Ads on This Social Media Platform?
Programmatic advertising refers to the use of technology to automate the buying and selling of ad space across various media channels. At its inception, programmatic advertising was broadly used to purchase ad space from streaming apps, TV channels, and online publishers such as websites and magazines.
However, with the rapid rise of social media advertising, programmatic ads have evolved to cater to social marketing. Today, you can use programmatic ads on Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and TikTok. While it can be challenging to identify the most suitable programmatic ads for your Pinterest marketing strategy, you shouldn’t lose sleep over it, as you can always leverage the knowledge of programmatic ad experts.
What Are Some Noteworthy Pinterest Ad Campaign Examples?
Some of the companies that have aced Pinterest advertising with outstanding campaigns include:
- “For All Things Worth [Blank]” ad campaign by Dropbox
- Bacardi’s Halloween pins marking the launch of its limited-edition Halloween bottles
- Ikea’s promoted pins for its chatbot quiz campaign
- Nike’s ad campaign celebrating Air Max’s 30th anniversary
Unlock the Full Potential of Social Media Advertising
Whether you’re running Pinterest ads or advertising on any other social platform, working with a full-service partner can always improve your performance. At AUDIENCEX, our expert teams help develop custom strategies that account for all the moving parts involved with social media advertising, while also considering it holistically as a part of your holistic strategy.
With access to award-winning, tech-enabled creative development, in-depth research and insights capabilities, and strategic and channel experts across social, search and programmatic, our entire team works closely as an extension of your own to ensure you get the most out of every campaign. Leveraging seamless omnichannel media and our AI-powered data science and performance advertising solutions, we effectively drive results within individual channels, throughout the digital landscape, and on every touchpoint in your customer journey.
If you’d like to learn more about advertising on Pinterest, other social channels, programmatic, search, or anywhere throughout the ecosystem – reach out to AUDIENCEX today. We’d love to discuss your needs, our constantly changing landscape, and how our dedicated experts and integrated solutions can help you navigate it more effectively to drive real results.