• Pinterest is the 14th largest social media network in the world
• The platform has 459 million active users
• In 2020 their user base grew by 46% 

Pinterest is a ‘visual discovery engine’ for many topics like planning a home, redecorating a room or backyard amongst other things. The aim is to spark inspiration and to store ideas that you love. Pinterest isn’t just inspirational, it's considered aspirational. It’s not just a place for practical ideas but also dream purchases. 

This search engine sells lifestyle as well as lovely decorating and planning ideas. Much like Instagram, it’s an extremely visual platform and this aspect must be kept in mind when advertising on its platform. 

Source: Pinterest

How does Pinterest work? 

This search engine works by having people sign up for its app and then selecting their interests by category. Once you have selected the things you want to see you can scroll through your feed. The items on your feed are called ‘pins’. 

Any item on Pinterest can be pinned to a virtual clipboard. You can have as many clipboards as you like. I have one for recipes and another for fashion for example. And when I was planning my wedding I had one specifically for my wedding planning. 

Your feed isn’t organised by subject and it's a visual explosion of all your favourite things in the one feed for you to scroll through and select the best ones. It can become quite addictive!

How can I advertise my product or services on Pinterest?

I will confess, I was surprised that you can advertise on Pinterest. The reason for the surprise is that any sponsored posts fit right in with the organic posts on the feed, to the point where I didn’t realise it was sponsored!

There are several different types of ads on Pinterest

• Promoted Pins: appear in feed as normal except they are marked as sponsored and are boosted for more views. 
• One tap Pins: all the user has to do is tap on your pin once to be taken to the website or page of your choosing
• Promoted Carousels: these pins have 2-5 images on the one pin to flip through
• Promoted Video Pins: works like a regular pin except it has video instead of a static image
• Promoted App Pins: these pins allow your app to be downloaded straight from the pin itself!
• Buyable Pins: these pins are also known as ‘shop the look’. The pins are tagged with the information on where to buy the whole outfit, not just one aspect. 
• Story Pins: still in testing mode, this is available for select business accounts. These pins can feature up to 20 pages of images, texts and links. These can be saved to a clipboard just like any other. 

Source: Pinterest

How can I set up a business account on Pinterest?

1. If you have a personal Pinterest account you can convert it to a business account or you can create a separate business account. 

2. After this you need to download and install the Pinterest Tag which is an analytics software so you can track your campaigns. 

3. In the ads platform select your objective from the 6 options available:

• Build awareness
• Brand awareness
• Video views
• Drive consideration
• Traffic
• App install

 4. Choose your budget. Like Facebook and Instagram, you don’t need a huge amount of money to start. You can expect to pay $2.00 -$5.00 per thousand impressions or CPM according to MuteSix.

 5. If you are wanting build clicks or app installs you can expect to pay $0.10 -$1.50 per engagement with your post. 

6. Create an ad group. If you want to do some A/B testing here is where you would set it up. Hootsuite recommends between 2-4 pins per campaign group. 

7. Choose your target audiences. You will need a good idea of your target demographic for this part. You can pick specific ages and genders. Little tip: make sure you select all the devices available. That way you ensure you have the largest audience possible. 

8. Select your ad placement. You can search and browse the ad placements available or you can just select all. It’s up to you. 

9. Add the interests you want to target and keywords. Many people will have selected their interests when they join up so you know that you will get interested parties viewing your products. 

10. Set the budget and the date and time schedule for your promotion to run. 

11. Set your optimization and delivery. This means you are setting the number of times you want your audience to see your ad and how much you are willing to pay per 1000 views or CPM. It must be higher than $2. 

12. Set your pacing. This is a great addition if you want to ensure that your campaign is nice and steady and doesn’t bolt out the gate. However, if you want to have a hard and fast campaign to target people in a short amount of time you can select the accelerated pacing option. 

13. Watch your campaign analytics!

Now that you know how to advertise on Pinterest let's look at the advantages of advertising on this discovery search engine. 

Source: Pinterest

What are the advantages of advertising on Pinterest?

1. It’s visual so your beautiful product or services can be showcased. 
2. Pinterest isn’t brand name-based, rather it’s interest-based. So whether you are an up and coming brand or an established one, the playing field is slightly more equal. 
3. Can create effective brand recall and your customers will have your product on their clipboard for as long as they want. 
4. It's a great medium to encourage app installs and website traffic. 
5. You can also find out about related items that your target market is pinning to know what to target. 
6. Integrates well with other social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
7. It’s very cost-effective which is great for new brands wanting to break out. As previously mentioned you will pay $2.00 -$5.00 per thousand impressions or CPM. 
8.  If you are wanting build clicks or app installs you can expect to pay $0.10 -$1.50 per engagement with your post. 

Now that we've covered some advantages let's look at the disadvantages of advertising on Pinterest. 

What are the disadvantages to advertising on Pinterest?

1. It unfairly has a reputation as a primarily female audience. While the audience does tip slightly towards females, many creatives use it for design ideas and there are subjects that interest both genders. 
2. It is a slightly more specific audience than say, Facebook. If you have a very general product that doesn’t fit into any of the interest groups in Pinterest, it would be wise to think twice about advertising on it. 
3. Your images need to be of very high, professional quality. This can be expensive but once you have great images you can use them on all platforms, not just Pinterest. 
4. You have limited control about where your pins go. Although this is true of all social media, you have less control over Pinterest. If your content is slightly sensitive or you want more control, this platform is not for you. 
5. It’s labour intensive. It is estimated that you need to push out at least 5 pins per day organically and probably slightly less in a paid campaign but you still need to make sure you are releasing new content very often. 
6. More pins don’t always equal more sales. Just like more clicks does not equal sales, the same goes for your pins. You need to make sure you don’t just interest the consumer but compel them to click on the CTA and go to your site to buy. 

Is Pinterest a good platform to advertise on?

Pinterest is a fun visually based discovery platform that can increase web traffic, app installs and sales. You need a visually dominant strategy and a good idea of your demographics before you start to advertise. 

It is more female than male-dominated it’s true, but don’t let that put you off. According to Sprout Social, the audience is 60% women. So it’s actually not as female-dominated as you think.

Create a free account and get to know the platform if you are unsure of whether you will be a success in this platform. 

It’s a unique platform that can allow for the discovery of your products or services and increase your sales and image. You can also build brand loyalty and a community around your product which is an amazing advantage and will be for years to come. 

If you want to dive into the fun world of Pinterest advertising here's what you need to do. 

1. Organise a photographer or graphic designer to create some high-quality graphics for your campaign. 
2. Create a business account on Pinterest or employ a service provider such as a social media marketing agency to do this for you
3. Decide your budget and what format you would like your sponsored pins to be. 
4. Run your campaign or have a social media agency do this for you. 
5. Get ready for more traffic, link clicks and sales!

If you'd like to learn more, join other business owners discussing social media marketing here.