Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. The site is present, in its own content as a visual bookmarking site. Pinterest is a portmanteau of the words pin and interest. While the focus of the site is visual, Pinterest requires brief descriptions. Paul Sciarra found this service, Evan Sharp, and Ben Silbermann. It launched as a closed beta in March 2010.
Membership was initially invitation-only; it is now open to the general public. Silbermann pitched Pinterest as a “catalog of ideas” rather than a social networking platform. He said the emphasis is on empowering users to “go out and do that thing.” The site has become a popular social media platform.
Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more. With billions of Pins on Pinterest, you’ll always find ideas to spark inspiration. When you discover Pins you love, save them to boards to keep your ideas organized and easy to find.
Pinterest Advertising:
As Pinterest advertising is a way for businesses to promote their products and services on the Pinterest platform. So, Pinterest is a visual discovery and bookmarking platform where users can save and share images and videos, called Pins, on different boards. Businesses can use Pinterest advertising to create and promote their Pins to a targeted audience.
There are several types of Pinterest ads, including Promoted Pins, Promoted Video Pins, Promoted Carousel Pins, and Promoted App Pins. Promoted Pins are similar to regular Pins but used as sponsors and can appear at the top of search results or in users’ home feeds. Hence, Promoted Video Pins are videos that can go up to 60 seconds long and can use to showcase products or tell a brand story.
Promoted Carousel Pins allow businesses to showcase multiple products in a single Pin. Designed Promoted App Pins, encouraging users to download a mobile app. Businesses can set up their Pinterest advertising campaigns through the Pinterest Ads Manager. They can choose their targeting options, such as interests, keywords, demographics, and location, to reach the right audience.
They can also set their budget and bid for ad placements. Pinterest advertising can be a powerful way for businesses to reach new audiences and increase their brand awareness, engagement, and sales on the platform. However, Pinterest ads are a way for brands and businesses to promote their offerings on the platform.
Pinterest Ads are also called Promoted Pins. Pinterest shows Promoted Pins based on their users’ interests, past activity, and actions on websites as part of retargeting ads
Types Of Pinterest Advertising:
1. Idea Pins
Idea Pins (sometimes nicknamed story pins) are short video segments, or a series of up to 20 graphics, designed to draw Pinners in with immersive educational content. They’re typically used for short how-to videos or demonstrations. Right now, this is an organic-only format but Pinterest is currently testing sponsored Idea Pins in the United States and planning to roll out Idea Pin ads to everyone in late 2022 — so start getting ready for it now!
2. Try on product Pins
Try on product Pins to combine your content with augmented reality to create a virtual “fitting room” experience on Pinterest. Especially powerful for beauty and accessories brands, it allows users to see how a product will look on them by using their phone’s camera.
Try on Pins aren’t available in all countries yet, and you’ll need a Pinterest Business account and an uploaded product catalog. Additionally, creating a Try on Pin is currently only possible by working with a Pinterest account manager.
3. Pinterest collection advertising
Collection ads display to mobile users only, which is 82% of all users. A collection ad consists of one large, featured video or image and 3 supporting images. If a user taps your ad, you can then show up to 24 supporting images on the ad detail page.
These types of ads are perfectly suited for e-commerce brands, especially in fashion, home decor, and beauty segments. However, anyone can benefit from the right creative strategy. It’s especially powerful to combine video and product or lifestyle images.
4. Pinterest carousel advertising
Carousel ads look exactly like organic Pins but contain a group of images users can swipe through on mobile or desktop. You can tell it’s a carousel by the small dots underneath the image. Importantly, when a user saves it, the entire carousel saves to their board. You can have 2-5 images per carousel ad.
Pinterest carousel ads are great for showing different angles of the same item, or for showing related accessories or items, or lifestyle shots of the product in use.
5. Promoted Pins
These are the simplest type of ads to run on Pinterest because you’re essentially “boosting” an existing Pin. Promoted Pins are a single image or video that appears in the home feed. The only thing differentiating them from organic Pins is a small “Promoted by” label.
When a user clicks an organic Pin, they see the Pin detail page. With Promoted Pins, they’re taken directly to the URL you specify. Promoted Pins may be simple but they’re also very effective, especially when combined with automatic bidding (covered later in this article!).
6. Shopping Advertising
Shopping ads are similar to collection Pins as they’re pulled from your product catalog. Many platforms, like Shopify, offer a direct connection with Pinterest for this.
Unlike Collection ads, these feature only one image or video. The great thing about these ads is how easy they are. Anyone can set them up in minutes. Pinterest uses the data in your product information, as well as your industry, to automatically target Shopping ads to the most interested audience.
You can also set up your own targeting and advanced audience retargeting options, but this is one of the most “set it and forget it”-friendly ad types out there.
7. Product Rich Pins
Rich Pins allow you to include much more detailed information than standard Pins. Anyone can use Rich Pins, but you’ll need to add some code to your website first.
There are three types: Product, Recipe, and Article, but I’m going to focus on Product Rich Pins. Here’s what a Product Rich Pin looks like. It shows price and stock availability as well as the title and description from your website. And, it even updates that information — including price if your website content changes.
Advantages Of Pinterest Advertising:
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Striking First Impressions
First impressions aren’t everything, but they’re still pretty important. If you know this much, then it’s easy to understand how crucial Pinterest marketing can be to your overall digital marketing campaign. With aesthetics and imagery at the center of its platform, Pinterest can allow your business to capture a new audience by letting them judge with their eyes first.
This is even more effective if your business deals with clothing, cosmetics, and more. It also helps to incorporate textual information into your advertisements. But for Pinterest, it’s great to use both textual and visual advertising in conjunction with each other.
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Huge Audience Outreach
Pinterest is one of the most-used social media sites in the world. in fact, out of all social networks in the world. This means that they rank higher than sites like Twitter and Reddit, making it a lucrative platform to advertise on. It’s a site used by many to bookmark projects and products that they’re vying for. If you display ads showing that your business can provide exactly what they’re looking for, then they’re most likely going to buy in.
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SEO Ranking
Popular content on Pinterest easily gets hiked up on Google search results in pages. A Pinterest post redirecting to the page that you’re trying to lead your audience to might even get more traffic than the page itself! This gives you two chances to win over a new audience.
This can also ensure that you have two great chances of having people find your website. If people browsing Google don’t make it to your website, they might come across a link to a Pinterest post that links to your website. People on Pinterest also count as a semi-separate audience, which can double your website’s chances of visibility!
After all, whether your audience comes from Google search results in pages or Pinterest, a click is a click.
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Cost-Effective Marketing
Pinterest advertising is convenient for businesses that don’t necessarily have a ton of funds to pay for advertising space. While Pinterest doesn’t have a dedicated advertising service for businesses, you’re free to create a page for your business and start posting. The site is very image-based, which allows you to put attractive images and infographics at the forefront.
Users can even follow your business page if they like the look of your brand enough, giving you at least a loyal viewer of your content. Brands can also advertise by creating Pinterest Promoted Pins. These posts are promoted more frequently to Pinterest’s users, inviting more potential traffic to your page.
You don’t only have to display products through these ads either, but can also expand on your brand story and provide ideas on how to use your products. This costs money, but it costs a fraction of the price you’d pay for advertising on a platform like Google Ads or other online platforms. A method that’s both effective and cost-friendly is perfect for any business, no matter its size.
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Shoppable Pins
On top of increasing your social media presence, Pinterest can let your page function as an indirect shopping platform. Through “Product Pins”, you can advertise individual products through posts and provide a link to the actual product page. This allows you to display your products to Pinterest users looking for products like yours anyway.
Not only that but there are many advantages of this feature beyond outreach and visibility. Pinterest actually allows you to create product categories and check your analytics. These are just a few benefits out of many, but they let you double up on the platform’s utility beyond its social advantage.
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Audience Loyalty
On this site, a loyal viewer could more easily become a loyal customer. Even if viewers don’t initially register your profile as a brand’s profile, following your page means welcoming your advertisements. If they continue to enjoy your content, they’re most likely going to at least peruse your business’s site.
Even after their first purchase, they probably won’t think to unfollow your page right after that. This will encourage loyal consumerism and viewership which will only flatter your business to them! If they’re pleased with their product, they’ll be excited about new releases or updates. Otherwise, it’s easy for customers to forget about the brands they bought their products from.
Even if they thoroughly enjoyed their product, having no reminder of your brand will stunt a second visit from them. But a regular Pinterest visitor will undoubtedly encounter your business regularly, with a positive effect on your profits.
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Easy Clickability
As opposed to other social media platforms, Pinterest is optimized for users to be redirected to product pages. Every post has a link in clear view on the image post. This prevents users from having to fish around for your business’s website. Easy accessibility can only mean good news for your business.
You won’t have to try to clear the way to your links as much since it will be front and center of every post.
Disadvantages Of Pinterest Advertising:
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Limited Targeting Options
Pinterest advertising provides limited targeting options as compared to other social media platforms. Advertisers can only target users based on interests, demographics, and keywords.
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Costly Advertising
Pinterest advertising can be quite expensive, especially if you are targeting a large audience. Advertisers need to pay for every click on their promoted pins, which can add up quickly.
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Limited Ad Format
Pinterest only offers a limited range of ad formats, which can be a disadvantage for advertisers looking for more creative ways to engage with their audience.
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Limited Reach
Despite its popularity, Pinterest still has a smaller user base than other social media platforms, which means advertisers may not be able to reach as many potential customers as they would like.
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Competitive Advertising
Pinterest is becoming increasingly competitive, with more and more advertisers vying for the attention of users. This means that advertisers need to prepare themselves, to spend more money to stay ahead of the competition.
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Low Conversion Rates
Pinterest users are known for being browsers rather than buyers, which means that the platform may not be the best option for businesses looking for high conversion rates.
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Limited Ad Performance Tracking
Pinterest’s ad performance tracking tools are not as advanced as those offered by other platforms, which can make it difficult for advertisers to gauge the success of their campaigns.
Conclusion:
Pinterest ads benefits include many ways to grow brands online and to get actionable traffic and in-depth data from their audiences. The users of Pinterest are a unique opportunity for companies to reach as they are more accepting of new brands, and are looking for new ideas. Being a brand that offers new ideas for its target audience and gives them what they are looking for will grow significantly with Pinterest. Whether growing with paid ads or organically, Pinterest offers a platform for businesses to benefit from in their marketing strategy.
