Do you even have a Pinterest business account? To be frank, I don’t blame you. Pinterest isn’t the first platform eCommerce brands go to when they need to make some profits. While not every brand is born for Pinterest, some can make a lot of money from Pinterest ads. It’s for them that I made this list of Pinterest ads tips.
Pinterest is all about inspiration. In other words, your product needs to look good visually. This is the reason why fashion, beauty or interior design tends to do super well. It’s not to say that anything else won’t make work. The strategy will be to get your creative juices flowing to stand out.
Let’s dive into 21 effective Pinterest ads strategies to make your first or hundredth campaign a pure success. With over $800K in Pinterest ad spend, we’ve learned quite a lot about what works and what doesn’t:
1. Audience Segmentation
One of the first thing discussed with client is the audience. Who will we target? We usually recommend to take a bit of time finding the right audience for your brand. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep it a bit larger than you’re comfortable with. For instance, you might believe you target marketing is 18-34 women but let’s make it 18-54 women instead. Being ultra-precise is not the best way to approach Pinterest ads.
In terms of segmentation, you can select:
- Interests
- Keywords
- Demographics such as age and gender
- Behaviors such as online shoppers
- Geographical targets
- Personalized audiences such as actalikes and custom audiences
The real question is what should you care about in your Pinterest ads targeting? Always have a geography and demographic audience with either interests, keywords, behaviors or personalized audiences.
With that in mind, what did we see work the best for audience optimization? Personalized audiences like custom and actalikes are always first. Actalikes take a custom audience such as your past buyers and finds similar people. If you’re just getting started and don’t have any data yet, we highly recommend you go keyword-based. From there, it’s interest-based and behavior-based to scale up but not our first choice of audience segmentation. As part of our Pinterest ads tips, targeting is very important.
2. Visual Storytelling
You’ve probably heard this one a lot, marketing is about story telling. We often think of stories as an elaborate plot with mystery and suspense but not here. On Pinterest ads, a story is simply about sharing the story you want your customers to tell themselves.
For example, a men sneakers brand could have a still image showcasing a guy walking casually in New York City. Again, it’s the story you want your customers to tell themselves. We’re in marketing not in Hollywood.
As you can see, this part changes for every brand on Pinterest and depends on consumer psychology. Make sure you have high resolution images and try at least 3-5 different pins when getting started. Anything lower than that will most likely not work. If you’re heard about A/B testing, now’s the time to put it into action.
3. Video Pins
Have you ever seen a video on Pinterest? I know I did and to be frank it’s the only thing that captures my attention. Most of Pinterest is static with sleek images of recipes, sneakers or whatever else you’re into. When you see a video Pinterest ads, it really stands out.
The downside (yes there’s one) is that people have much higher expectations of videos on Pinterest. Why? The images are so smooth that your video needs to compete with them. Plus, we all know that making a nice image is much easier than making a nice video.
The cool thing about Pinterest video ads is you can show how to use your product while making people feel emotions. For example, try an unboxing video, a tutorial or even just a lifestyle shot. A good tip is to imagine what your ideal customer looks like.
To make a Pinterest ad that performs, you must convince people of one thing, only one. For instance, you could make people see that your your product does clean windows really well. People average out your benefits so might as well only show your best one to make them buy from you.
4. Keyword Optimization
Conducting thorough keyword research is a key strategy to get better Pinterest ads results. It also helps optimize your Pin descriptions and titles for enhanced searchability and discoverability. I recommend starting by identifying and utilizing relevant keywords that resonate with your target audience. From there, you can align the keywords with the content of your Pins.
Effective keyword research begins with understanding interests, preferences, and intentions of your target market. After, you can uncover trending terms, related phrases, and long-tail keywords used frequently.
You have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes – they usually search for specific objects like beige sweater inspiration. By having specific keywords, you increase your chances of showing up when someone is looking exactly for your product. Let me just say this, it has to be coherent – don’t add random keywords. This is a very important part of our Pinterest ads tips.
5. Rich Pins
Implementing Rich Pins with additional information such as product details, prices, and availability is a powerful strategy for Pinterest ads. Rich Pins provide a dynamic way to present essential information directly within the Pin. They offer users a seamless experience without the need to navigate away from the platform.
For e-commerce brands, these enhanced Pins can be extremely powerful because they automatically updating product information and pricing. It makes your life easier in terms of management while showcasing a lot of products you have in inventory. Now, they don’t always work but it’s a good place to start for your Pinterest ads.
6. Shopping Ads
Utilizing Shopping Ads, you can display product information and prices directly on the Pin. By integrating key product details and pricing within the Pin itself, you will get higher quality clicks because users know what they are getting into. The other big advantage it eliminates the need for users to navigate through multiple clicks to access critical details.
The visual nature of Pinterest aligns perfectly with this strategy. Users will instantly visualize how the product fits into their lifestyle or aspirations. Furthermore, shopping Ads with embedded information enhance the Pins’ appeal and relevance, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions. In my experience, the simpler the flow to purchase, the more likely your Pinterest ads will perform. The only downside is the lack of creative control on your Pinterest ads.
7. Promoted Pins
You can simply boost the visibility by promoting your most valuable Pins to a larger audience. You can leverage your most popular Pins and nail your target audience with your end goal in mind. The only downside to this approach is that popular pins might not always bring conversions. They could bring more engagement and clicks but conversions on Pinterest ads seem to be in another world.
What you do control in this type of Pinterest ads campaign is your targeting. I highly recommend taking the time to check your options such as interests, behaviors, demographics, custom audiences or even actalike audiences. Remember, this is often a good strategy to boost engagement but a poor one for conversions.
8. Retargeting
You can rekindle connections with users who have engaged with your brand in the past. While retargeting campaigns have lost in popularity, they are still important. Retargeting leverages the principle of familiarity, where users are more likely to engage with content from brands they recognize.
Through tailored ad placements, you can remind these users of their initial interest, enticing them to revisit your brand’s offerings. This not only reinforces brand visibility but also nurtures a sense of personalized engagement. The end result is a stronger bond between the user and your brand.
Moreover, Pinterest ads provide a potent strategy for driving conversions by capitalizing on users’ prior interactions with products. The platform’s visual nature aligns well with showcasing products, making it an ideal space to remind users of items they had previously expressed interest in. By displaying these products within the ads, you can trigger a sense of urgency or desire. In turn, it prompts users to take the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a service, or exploring more.
9. Seasonal Campaigns
Creating timely and relevant campaigns within the scope of Pinterest ads can significantly enhance your brand’s visibility and engagement. By aligning your campaigns with holidays, seasons, and emerging trends, you can tap into the innate consumer interest that surrounds these occasions. Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, Back-to-School season, or a trending health and wellness concept, tailoring your ads to these themes enables you to directly address users’ current interests and needs.
This relevance not only captures their attention but also boosts the likelihood of users engaging with and sharing your content organically. An adaptable and dynamic approach to Pinterest ads ensures that you remain connected with your audience’s evolving preferences, nurturing a sense of brand awareness that resonates beyond individual campaigns.
By infusing your ads with holiday-related imagery, colors, and messaging that evoke feelings of nostalgia, excitement, and community, you can leverage this emotional resonance. You can establish a deeper bond with your audience and position your products or services as integral components of their celebrations. Pinterest’s visually rich platform provides a canvas for you to showcase your creative prowess. They enable brands to craft ads that capture the festive spirit and leave a lasting impact on users. This translates into higher engagement, conversion rates, and increased brand loyalty.
10. Collaborations and Influencers
Harnessing the influence of content creators and influencers can revolutionize your strategy within the realm of Pinterest ads. Collaborating with these individuals enables you to tap into well-established audiences that hold trust and resonance with the influencer’s content. This partnership not only magnifies the reach of your Pinterest campaigns but also bolsters your brand’s credibility through association.
Influencers infuse authenticity and a personalized touch into the content, making it highly relatable to their followers. By aligning your brand’s values and messaging with those of the influencer, you can create a seamless fusion that exudes authenticity rather than overt promotion. This not only introduces your brand to new audiences but also nurtures a sense of community and engagement around your offerings.
Through collaborative content creation that harmonizes with the influencer’s voice and your brand’s objectives, you can cultivate a profound connection with the audience. This connection transcends traditional advertising, resonating as a recommendation from a trusted source. As influencers and creators share their perspectives and experiences with their followers, the authenticity of the content can drive heightened engagement, conversion rates, and enduring loyalty. Users tend to heed the recommendations of figures they trust, establishing a stronger foundation for long-term relationships.
11. User-Generated Content
Customizing your Pinterest ad campaigns to specific geographic regions and languages is a strategic way to connect with diverse audiences. Recognizing variations in consumer preferences, cultural nuances, and languages among different regions, this tactic enables you to align your messaging with local sensibilities.
Tailoring campaigns to different locations allows you to spotlight products, services, and content that resonate with your target audience, showcasing an understanding of the local market. This boosts your chances of capturing user attention and driving engagement. Adapting campaigns to various languages enhances accessibility, ensuring clear communication and eliminating language barriers, facilitating meaningful connections with users worldwide.
Different cultures hold distinct values, traditions, and interests. By incorporating content that resonates with these aspects—be it culturally significant visuals, references to local events, or using native language—you foster relatability and inclusivity. This strategy can lead to heightened brand loyalty, stronger customer relationships, and overall improved performance of your Pinterest ad campaigns across diverse markets as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
12. Localized Targeting
Customizing your Pinterest ad campaigns to specific geographic regions and languages is a savvy strategy to resonate with your diverse audience. Recognizing the variations in consumer preferences, cultural nuances, and languages across different regions, this approach allows you to align your messaging with local sensibilities. By tailoring campaigns based on location, you can showcase products, services, and content that are particularly relevant to your target audience.
This not only demonstrates your understanding of the local market but also increases the likelihood of capturing user attention and driving engagement. Adapting campaigns to different languages enhances accessibility, ensuring clear and effective communication, eliminating language barriers, and facilitating meaningful connections with users from around the world.
Furthermore, using localized content and messaging within your Pinterest ads strengthens the connection between you and your diverse audience. Different cultures have unique values, traditions, and interests. By incorporating content that resonates with these aspects—whether it’s culturally significant visuals, references to local events, or using language that feels native—you foster a sense of relatability and inclusivity.
This personalized touch not only increases the chances of users engaging with your ad but also communicates your dedication to building relationships and understanding the diverse backgrounds of your customers. This approach can lead to heightened brand loyalty, stronger customer relationships, and an overall improved performance of your Pinterest ad campaigns across a range of markets as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
13. Mobile Optimization
In Pinterest ads, your Pins must not only look good but also be optimized for mobile devices. As most users access Pinterest via mobile, create Pins that offer a seamless experience on smaller screens. Use impactful visuals, readable fonts, and clear messaging for easy viewing. This ensures smooth exploration and interaction, boosting engagement and conversions.
Since the majority of Pinterest users use mobile, tailor your ad strategies accordingly. With mobile usage on the rise, adapt your content. Design Pins keeping mobile users in mind—use vertical orientation, tappable buttons, and swipe-friendly formats. By catering to mobile preferences, your Pinterest ads become effective, memorable, and enhance your brand’s presence in the mobile Pinterest landscape.
14. Interactive Pins
Experimenting with interactive Pins, such as polls, quizzes, and shoppable Pins, opens up a world of creative possibilities to enhance engagement and elevate the dynamic nature of your Pinterest ads. These interactive formats not only capture users’ attention but also encourage them to actively participate and explore your content.
In other words, you will create an interactive dialogue with your audience, inviting them to express their opinions or test their knowledge. This two-way communication fosters a sense of connection and involvement, making users more likely to spend time with your content and remember your brand.
Additionally, shoppable Pins enable users to seamlessly transition from inspiration to action by allowing them to directly purchase products featured in your Pin. This frictionless experience transforms the visual inspiration into tangible results, driving conversions and making the path to purchase more intuitive as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
15. A/B Testing
Continuously testing different ad elements, including visuals, copy, and calls to action (CTAs), is the foundation of Pinterest ads and enhancing your results. By running A/B tests , you can gain valuable insights into what resonates most with your target audience (and it will surprise you).
Visuals play a pivotal role in capturing attention, so testing different imagery or video styles can help identify which visuals generate higher engagement and click-through rates. Additionally, experimenting with copy variations and CTAs allows you to refine your messaging to better connect with users’ preferences and motivations. This iterative testing process empowers you to make data-driven decisions, because we’re often wrong about what our customers want.
To make this strategy work, you must have a solid Pinterest ads A/B test analysis process. I recommend creating a monthly routine of analyzing and sharing the insights of A/B testing results with anyone involved with the Pinterest ads. This will create what I call a collective brain to continuously improve your results overtime and truly drive the Pinterest ads performance you deserve as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
16. Pinterest Trends
Staying updated on Pinterest trends and integrating them into your ad strategy is a key strategy to maintaining relevance and maximizing the impact of your advertising efforts. Pinterest is a platform known for its ever-evolving user interests and preferences, so keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging trends allows you to align your content with what’s currently popular. By closely monitoring trending topics, design styles, and user behaviors, you can ensure that your ad campaigns reflect the latest interests and capture users’ attention. In other words, stay proactive and don’t show the content of last year to have high performing Pinterest ads campaign.
You can also incorporate keywords related to trending topics within your ad campaigns increases the likelihood of your content appearing in search results and category feeds. This allows you to tap into conversations and interests that are top-of-mind for users, enabling your brand to be part of current discussions. By integrating these keywords strategically into your ad copy and descriptions, you demonstrate your brand’s relevance and understanding of user preferences as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
17. Conversion Tracking
First, establishing accurate conversion tracking mechanisms is a foundational step in gauging the effectiveness of your campaigns on Pinterest. By implementing robust tracking tools, you gain valuable insights into the actions users take after interacting with your ads. This includes tracking website visits, sign-ups, purchases, and other meaningful conversions.
Proper conversion tracking allows you to attribute specific outcomes to your ad campaigns, enabling you to quantify the return on your investment accurately. This data-driven approach empowers you to make informed decisions about which strategies are generating the best results, and allocate resources effectively to optimize your future campaigns.
Second, analyzing the collected data is a crucial phase in the campaign management process, as it empowers you to fine-tune your targeting and enhance your return on investment (ROI). By delving into performance metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of what’s working and what requires adjustments.
Careful analysis of the data helps you identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement within your campaigns. You can pinpoint which audience segments are responding positively to your content, which keywords are driving the most conversions, and which ad formats are delivering the highest engagement.
Armed with this knowledge, you can optimize your targeting strategy, tailor your messaging, and allocate your budget more effectively. Data-driven refinements enable you to continuously enhance your campaigns, increase your ROI, and ensure that your Pinterest advertising efforts are aligned with your overarching marketing goals as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
18. Custom Audiences
Crafting custom audiences derived from website visitors, email lists, or app users is a very good way to personalize your Pinterest ad campaigns. These custom audiences allow you to segment your potential audience based on their previous interactions with your brand. For instance, you can build a website visitor audience, email subscribers, or app downloaders.
The end goal is to deliver tailored content that speaks directly to their preferences. As you’ve guessed it, the goal is to nurture the already existing relationship. While this strategy can be highly profitable for Pinterest ads, I would recommend you treat it as a way to deepen your bond with customers and not milk as much money as possible from their wallet. You will benefit in the long term much more from this approach than a transactional focused approach as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
19. Story Pins
Leveraging Story Pins will help you craft an immersive and engaging narratives to enhance your Pinterest ad results. They also offer a dynamic format allowing you to go beyond traditional static content, creating visually captivating sequences. This format is particularly effective for showcasing step-by-step tutorials, how-to guides, and brand stories.
Through a series of images, videos, and text, you can guide users through various stages of a process, providing them with valuable information and inspiration in a visually appealing manner. Users can swipe through each slide, making them more likely to spend time engaging with your content and developing a deeper connection to your brand.
You can even incorporate behind-the-scenes glimpses, testimonials, and anecdotes. This authenticity resonates with users and can foster a sense of connection and trust. We haven’t generated massive sales from this type of campaign but these ads work really well for retargeting. The main reason is they allow your audience to be entertained in a new way as part of our Pinterest ads tips.
20. Landing Page Optimization
Ensuring consistency between your Pin and landing page is a critical strategy for delivering a seamless user experience and driving higher conversion rates. When users click on your Pin, they expect to be seamlessly transitioned to a landing page that aligns with the content and promises made in the Pin itself (it’s common sense but often forgotten).
A disjointed experience, where the landing page fails to deliver on the expectations set by the Pin, can lead to user frustration and abandonment. By maintaining a coherent visual and messaging alignment between your Pin and landing page, you provide a consistent and reassuring experience that keeps users engaged and encourages them to take your desired action.
On top of that, optimizing landing pages for faster loading times and mobile responsiveness is crucial to maximizing conversions. Users on Pinterest often engage with Pins on various devices, including smartphones and tablets. If your landing page doesn’t load quickly or isn’t properly responsive to different screen sizes, users might bounce off. A seamless transition from Pin to landing page ensures that users can smoothly continue their journey, allowing your Pinterest ad campaigns to deliver their intended results effectively.
21. Ad Budget Management
Establishing realistic budgets and bid strategies aligned with your campaign goals is a fundamental aspect of Pinterest ads. Before launching a campaign, you have to know your goal, whether it’s about brand awareness, website visits, or conversions. With a clear goal, you can focus your budget on what your intended outcome is and ensure you’re investing your money to reach your goal. I recommend setting achievable budgets and bid strategies to get exactly what you’re looking for.
It doesn’t end there, you must continuously monitor ad spend and adjust strategies based on performance data. This part is dynamic and making sure your campaigns remain effective and efficient is key. As your ads run, gather insights from key performance metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend.
This data provides valuable feedback on the effectiveness of your Pinterest ads campaign and allows you to identify areas for improvement. For instance, if you’re over performing, you might consider adding even more budget. On the other hand, if certain campaigns are underperforming, adjustments can be made to optimize their outcomes. I highly recommend you stay on top of ad spend.
Want more Pinterest ads tips?
Three significant trends are sure to shape the landscape of Pinterest advertising in the coming years. Firstly, visual content in the form of video Pins will make a huge dent. Businesses that invest in compelling video & story Pins can capture the attention of Pinterest’s visually-oriented user base.
Secondly, Pinterest’s commitment to e-commerce integration is expected to continue expanding. Enhanced shopping experiences, augmented reality try-ons, and simplified checkout processes are anticipated to become integral parts of Pinterest ads. Thirdly, artificial intelligence (AI) to refine content recommendations will extend to advertising. The end goal is to improve data-backed decisions, audience targeting and creative optimization.
The future is full of bright colors for Pinterest and hopefully you’ll be part of the boat. I think brands are often afraid of change but this one can be very beneficial. Just think about it – improved optimization, better eCommerce experience and compelling videos.