pinterest advertising

A Guide to Pinterest Advertising

Pinterest is a social media channel that is often overlooked when it comes to advertising. But who doesn’t have at least one Pinterest board with saved recipes that look delicious? Or of future dream vacation destinations?

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest describes itself as a “visual discovery engine” for users to find ideas and inspiration. Posts (images, videos, infographics, etc.) are called Pins, and people can create boards, then save and organize the Pins they enjoy.

By clicking on a Pin, users can visit the website to learn more about it and even make a purchase directly!

Users will have a profile and can create subfolders within boards, such as categorized sections like “Living Room ideas” and “Dining Room ideas” under the mainboard, “Home Decor.”

Common industries that have a presence on the platform include food, financial services, beauty, fashion, retail, telecommunications, entertainment, home, automobile, travel, and tourism. But if you go to Pinterest and type in any keyword, even long-tailed keyword, you will find content and others that share the same interest.

Common industries that have a presence on the platform include food, financial services, beauty, fashion, retail, telecommunications, entertainment, home, automobile, travel, and tourism. But if you go to Pinterest and type in any keyword, even long-tailed keyword, you will find content and others that share the same interest.

Pinterest User Demographics

How Does Pinterest Advertising Work?

Pinterest is a social platform that gauges consumer intent by capturing people in a “future-oriented mindset.” Pinterest says,

Every time that someone searches on Pinterest, they’re thinking about what they want to try next. Because Pinterest is grounded in the future, we get an earlier indication of where consumers are headed and can help brands and agencies predict what is to come for their category.

Users on the platform are “window shopping” for their next hair color, tattoo, vacation spot, baking recipe to try…the future is endless. And that’s where brands come in.

Advertising on Pinterest is for businesses to tell their stories through visuals. They are effective for these marketing objectives:

  • Boosting brand awareness
  • Driving website traffic
  • Driving conversions
  • Increasing video views
  • Increasing sales

Pro Tip: Using Wepik, you can design the images for your pins before publishing them on Pinterest. This will help ensure that your ads stand out and drive more engagement with customers.
(We’ll discuss the various types of Pinterest ads options available in the next section.)

Audience Targeting

With a Pinterest Business account, advertisers can promote their most popular pins or create brand new images or videos. You will then set up ads through Pinterest Ads Manager, and users will be able to see your ads in their home feed and specific search results.

Ad Creation & Management

Advertisers can target users’ demographics like age, location, and interests and serve various ads, which blend into the colorful platform.

Pinterest typically decides the type of ads to display to the user based on their historical activity. So let’s say I’ve been looking up inspiration for a new haircut or self-care tips, then it’s more likely that ads for beauty and wellness products would show up for me!

Advertising Model

​​Like Google and Microsoft Bing, or Facebook, Pinterest also uses a bidding model for ad placements. You will be bidding against your competitors on keywords and placements relevant to your niche.

Campaign Planning & Seasonality

Pinterest says that they usually see an increase in user search activity two to three months before the seasonal moment. The search activity surrounding a seasonal occasion (such as Thanksgiving or Christmas) begins even earlier than Google.

space background

This means that brands should be planning out their Pinterest Ads a few months in advance!

Here is Pinterest’s 2020 report on how to prepare for the Holidays early. It has excellent stats and consumer insights, as well as visual examples of effective creatives.

Types of Pinterest Advertising

Pinterest Ads are all visual-oriented, and different formats can help achieve your advertising goals. Pinterest’s current ad offerings include:

  • Standard Pin
  • Video
  • Shopping
  • Carousel
  • Collection

For all ads, they will appear in the format of a pin, which is a vertical or square format.

Advertisers can get creative and showcase great, branded visuals to capture people’s attention and tell a strong story.

Standard

space background
Standard pins are simple, static ads in a vertical format. They blend into a Home feed and search results. The only distinguishing factor is the caption saying “Promoted by ____.” Much like Facebook Ads that have a little “Sponsered” label in the news feed!

Video

space background

Video pin ads are the same as Standard Pins but just animated! It is reported that there is a 53% increase in a user’s likelihood of purchasing a product after seeing a video.

Shopping

Brand advertisers can create a “Shop” tab on their accounts. Then, they upload their product catalogs and turn them into individual Pins. People can then see a variety of the products offerings when they’re browsing. Shopping pin ads are often used to promote the latest collection and other eCommerce products.

These pins are helpful because it can incorporate your product details, so users can tap on them to learn more, click through to your website, and even complete a purchase!

Carousel

Carousel ads are essentially Standard Pins, but users can swipe through multiple “cards” (images or videos) in one Pin. You are allowed 2 to 5 cards per Pin.

Each card can have its own title, description, and link. So you could have users go to 5 different links from one single Carousel ad.

Collection

Collection Pins and ads show one main image above 3 smaller pictures. Pinterest designed this streamlined format to help retailers drive eCommerce sales.

It works like this: a user sees a primary video or image in their feed. Then when they click on it, they are taken to the collection: a little shop front where brands can showcase up to 25 products. It creates an enjoyable shopping experience for Pinterest users!

Static vs. Video Ads on Pinterest

Creatopy conducted a test, comparing how Static ads and Video ads perform on Pinterest. Take a look at their findings:

space background

Pinterest Advertising Best Practice

Pinterest says that great Pins are:

  • Visually compelling
  • Tell a good story
  • Make people want to learn more

Here is a list of best practices for your Pinterest ads:

1. Vertical images will stand out. Keep a 2:3 aspect ratio (for example, 1000 x1500 pixels) to stand out.


2. Optimize copy for your pins. Show up for relevant searches with clear descriptions and titles.

3. Text Overlays go on your ad creative. Be sure to keep it short so it’s legible on mobile.

4. Your landing page should match whichever ad users click on. Ensuring relevancy is what creates a good user experience.

5. Video ads should hook audiences immediately in the first 2 seconds. Use a strong cover image so people can have one glance at your ad and know what it would be about.

6. For your video creative, show, don’t tell. Many users have audio turned off, so utilize visuals, overlayed text, or captions instead of audio and dialogue.

7. If your ads target different countries, you should create separate ads for each country and translate the text overlay and copy to the local language.

8. Use Pinterest analytics to track your ad performance (metrics such as impressions, saves, clicks). Be proactive: if any ads are underperforming–make optimizations!

9. You can find Pinterest’s most up-to-date, complete list of advertising specs here.

Pinterest Advertising Costs

Drive Results with Strategic & Effective Pinterest Ads

Contact Us