With 200 million users, Pinterest is a smaller social network than giants like Facebook and Instagram. But it’s uniquely important for marketers as a place users visit to gather information about potential purchases. In fact, Pinterest beats out Instagram as a primary social media platform influencing purchasing decisions for U.S. social media users.
Sixty-one percent of Pinners have discovered new brands or products from Promoted Pins, and half of Pinners have already made a purchase after seeing a Promoted Pin.
Still not sure Pinterest ads offer value for your business? Consider this: 75 percent of saved Pins come from businesses. And Pinners can well afford the products brands are showcasing on the platform: 40 percent of them have household incomes of more than $100,000 per year.
Pinterest is also more popular than Instagram among U.S. Baby Boomers and moms, so Pinterest advertising is especially worth your attention if you’re targeting either of those lucrative demographics.
There’s just one catch: For now, Pinterest ads are only available to businesses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, but more markets should be available soon.
Types of Pinterest ads
Promoted Pins
The original Pinterest advertising format, a Promoted Pin is simply a Pin that you pay to promote so that more people will see it. Other than the paid-for expanded audience and the addition of the word “Promoted” at the bottom of the Pin, it’s exactly the same as a regular Pin.
You’ll notice that the Pinterest ad examples embedded in this post don’t show the Promoted label. That actually highlights a great benefit of Promoted Pins: When someone saves your Pinterest ads to their own Pinterest board or embeds them on the Web, those repins are considered organic. The Promoted label is not included, and the extra traffic doesn’t cost a dime.
For example, take a look at this Promoted Pin from Style Bistro:
Here’s what that same Pin looks like once saved to a Pinner’s board or embedded on the Web:
Not sure what to promote in your Pinterest ads? Tesco Ireland identified popular content from other social channels and reworked it for Pinterest by focusing on the visuals.
Their Promoted Pin campaign matched other social platforms at a 36 percent lower cost per click.
Promoted Video Pins
This Pinterest advertising format is exactly what it sounds like—a Promoted Pin that contains a video. Promoted Video Pins appear in the news feed, search results, and the “More like this” section, and they are set to play automatically.
Cheetos used Pinterest videos to promote their cheesy snacks using unexpected keywords based on the unusual shapes people sometimes spot in their Cheetos bags. This “Italy or Boot” Promoted Video Pin targeted people searching for “knee high boots.”
The campaign resulted in an 18 percent lift in brand favorability, with Pinners in the 18- to 44-year-old demographic saying they were 51 percent more likely to buy Cheetos after seeing the Promoted Video Pins.
One-tap Pins
This Pinterest advertising format takes Pinners straight to the source. Normally, when someone taps on a Pin, they’re taken to a close-up with more details. But with One-tap Pinterest ads, one tap takes users straight to your website, where they can learn more or even purchase directly.
Shortly after launching One-tap Pins, Pinterest said in a blog post that “almost twice as many Pinners are finding items to buy through these new Pins.”
But if you choose to incorporate One-tap Pins in your Pinterest advertising mix, keep a close eye on your cost per conversion. Since people may still expect to see a close-up of the Pin when they tap on it, they could be surprised when they’re taken straight to your website. That means you may end up paying for click-throughs from people who didn’t actually intend to visit your site (and who don’t stick around very long).
Promoted App Pins
Promoted App Pins include an app icon and install button within the ad, so Pinners can install your app without ever leaving Pinterest, rather than being directed to an app store to download.
With their Promoted App Pins, the healthy living app 8fit saw five percent higher signup rates than on other platforms, with 60 to 90 percent lower CPM.
Cinematic Pins
Like Promoted Video Pins, Cinematic Pins involve motion. But unlike videos, Cinematic Pins move only when the user scrolls. When the user stops scrolling, the Pin stops moving.
Users can click to see the entire video.
How to advertise on Pinterest
Now that you know what kinds of Pinterest advertising formats are available, let’s look at how to go about setting your business up to use Pinterest ads.
Step 1. Get a business account
You can convert an existing Pinterest account to a business account, or create a new account to use for your business. If you haven’t already set up your business account and confirmed your website with Pinterest, check out our guide to using Pinterest for business to get everything in order before you start paying to place your Pinterest ads.
Step 2. Choose your goal
To create a campaign, click on the + button from your profile and select Create ad, or go straight to ads.pinterest.com. This is where you select what type of campaign you want to create based on your business goals.
There are five different campaign types.
1. Traffic campaign: Traffic campaigns send people from your Pinterest ads directly to your website, and you pay per click.
2. Awareness campaign: Awareness campaigns aim to get your business in front of new eyeballs—people who have not heard of your business before, do not really know what you do, or are not already interested in your brand. You pay per 1,000 impressions.
3. Engagement campaign: Engagement campaigns are designed to encourage Pinners to interact with your content within the Pinterest platform by saving or clicking your Promoted Pins. You pay per engagement action: a closeup, save, or click.
4. App install campaign: Run this type of campaign to get more installs for your app. You can choose to pay by install or by click. When you pay for installs, the Pinterest algorithm adjusts your bid daily using your target cost and the predicted likelihood of install. When you pay for clicks, the ad is optimized for click traffic, like a normal CPC campaign.
5. Video awareness campaign: Like a regular awareness campaign, but using Promoted Video Pins. You pay per 1,000 impressions.
Step 3. Choose your campaign budget and ad placements
Once you’ve chosen your goal, choose a name for your campaign. Then, you can set select optional daily and campaign budgets, and choose your ad placement.
You’ll get into more specific ad pricing later, so the budgets you set here are simply the maximum amount you’re willing to spend over the entire campaign, or in a given day. These are caps to make sure you don’t go over your spending limit.
Pinterest automatically sets your ad to appear in all placements (browse and search), but you can click Edit to customize where your Pinterest ads will appear. If you select Browse, your ads will show in the home feed and related Pins. If you select Search, your ads will also appear in search results.
Choose carefully, because you can’t modify your choice once the campaign is underway.
If you’re creating an app installs campaign, this is also where you’ll choose whether to pay by click or by download.
Step 4. Create an ad group
Now you’ll set up an ad group—a group of Promoted Pins under your campaign. Name your group, then choose whether to run your ad continuously starting right away, or…
