Pinterest: Marketing Guide

With an estimated 444 million active monthly users Pinterest is one of the world’s largest social media platforms. This large user base offers businesses a potential goldmine of new customers. It also offers an affordable way to create brand loyalty that is highly valued in today’s digital world.

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These benefits make Pinterest a very valuable marketing tool for businesses looking to advertise online. However, most businesses fail to use Pinterest as a marketing tool because they don’t understand how to use Pinterest’s unique visual platform to advertise to potential customers.

Let Us Help You Use Pinterest As a Marketing Tool

Here is a step-by-step guide that can help you understand how to use Pinterest’s unique visual platform to create a winning advertising campaign for your business.

Step 1: Clearly Define Your Ad’s Purpose

It is important to clearly define your ad’s purpose because Pinterest’s focus on visual appeal forces advertisers to create ads that are succinct and easy to scan visually.  Moreover, knowing what you want to convey in your ad makes it easier to design the look and feel of your ad.

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If you are having trouble defining your ad’s purpose, here are some questions to consider as you define your ad’s purpose:
•What am I selling?
•Who am I selling it to? Who is my target audience?
•What is my ad’s  overall message?
•Why should people buy my product or service?
•What mood should I create for my viewers?
•What experience do I want to give my viewers?

Step 2: Choose an Ad Format That Works Best for You

Pinterest offers three basic ad formats:
•Static ad formats (sometimes called promoted pins) that have enough room for just one static picture.
•Carousel ad formats that feature several images curated into one package.
•Video ad formats that allow you to create video advertising campaigns.

Here are some suggestions that can help you choose the right format for your Pinterest ad:
•If you are a total beginner, start with a simpler ad format at first. The static ad format and the simpler video ad formats are ideal for beginners because they are easier to use.
•If you want customers to learn about your products or services, try a short video pin ad that introduces your products to customers directly.
•If you want to increase sales of several products at once, try a carousel to promote up to 5 products at once.
•If you want to target a very specific audience, try a static or video ad that is featured in a user’s feed or in online search results.

Step 3: Choose the Right Layout

Choosing a proper layout for your Pinterest ad is important because it can maximize its visual appeal to viewers. Here are a few tips that can help you design a layout for your Pinterest ad:

•Choose a vertical layout to catch your viewers' attention.
•Place objects on the left side of your ad and text on the right side. (The American Psychological Association reports(3)that people pay more attention to ads when they are formatted this way.)
•Keep your layout simple to avoid clutter. (A study published in the April 2011 edition of the  Journal of Management and Marketing Research  reports this is an easy way to maintain viewers’ interest in your ad.)
•Choose a text font that is easy to read.
•Use shorter sentences to describe your product or service.
•Use eye-catching photos or scenes to demonstrate how your products are typically used by viewers.

Finally, Step 4: Publish Your Ad and Track Its Progress

Publishing an ad on Pinterest is simple because you can quickly upload finished ads directly from your computer or mobile device to your business account. You can later track how well your ads are performing by using the analytics tools that are available on your business account’s dashboard. These tools measure your ads’ performance based on several factors including:
•How much you have spent to create or promote your ads.
•The number of times your ads have appeared on users’ feeds. (These are called impressions.)
•The number of times users have clicked on your ads.
•The marginal cost of each click. (This is called a CTR ratio.)

We can help you use this information to improve your Pinterest ad campaign.  For more information, please contact us for more details.