The visual search engine, as Pinterest is often called, has been around for 10 years now. Nevertheless, the marketing channel Pinterest is rarely mentioned in connection with the big players like Facebook and Twitter.
With over 300 million users worldwide – and the trend is rising – the platform is also becoming increasingly popular with us. And it’s not always just about DIY and design.
The platform also offers great potential for companies that not only have contact with these topics.
But how exactly can Pinterest be used as a marketing channel?
Inspiration and creativity are essential
As an extension to social media marketing with, for example, Facebook and Instagram, the possibilities on Pinterest are very attractive. The platform offers the perfect environment to present your own brand and products.
In contrast to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, Pinterest is less about the individual users behind the profiles or to contact people from your own circle of friends.
Instead, users at Pinterest look for new creative impulses, pursue their own interests or seek advice.
This is exactly where Pinterest’s marketing approach should lie – the content must tell an interesting story and inspire the user.
A classic product photo will not be very popular with Pinterest users. Storytelling around the product or brand should be the focus of a Pinterest campaign.
But hashtags and keywords are also relevant on the platform. Therefore it is advisable to provide the pins with matching hashtags and the pinboard and profile description with the correct keywords.
For which industry is Pinterest suitable?
Because of its focus on visual messages, Pinterest is basically suitable for all companies that can visually enhance their products or services.
The majority of the pins revolve around the theme of lifestyle, including various areas of design, home & living, tourism, fashion and beauty as well as cooking and recipes.
Depending on the design of the pins, furniture and fashion can be marketed via Pinterest, but also food, cars or services.
The motto is: Get creative with your own product or brand – no matter which industry.
What are the requirements for placing ads on Pinterest?
To start with Pinterest, a company profile must first be created on the platform as a new marketing channel. This is similar to other social networks: Name, username, profile picture, website and imprint must be specified.
After that Pin boards need to be created. These can, for example, be equated with the various product categories of your own shop, or they can be thematically organized.
The subsequent creation of the actual pins – consisting of an image or video, a title, a description and a linked URL – should be carefully considered.
Comparable to the planning of posts in other social networks, considerations regarding posting – time and content are recommended. An analysis that shows when most users of the respective target group are active on Pinterest or when the competition posts as few articles as possible, can help to find the ideal time.
The post – frequency also plays a decisive role in the extent to which the marketing activities at Pinterest are successful.
In concrete terms this means: It is advisable to post as often as possible and not to limit yourself to one post per week. Helpful in this context can be different tools with which the pins can be posted automatically at fixed times.
What advertising formats are available on Pinterest?
Just as with other social platforms, the pins created on Pinterest can be placed as paid ads.
These ads are always based on already published pins. So this is a big difference to advertising on Facebook or Instagram. First the pin must be created, which can then be used as an ad afterwards.
In the Pinterest Advertising Manager you can choose between Promoted Pins, Promoted Video Pins, Promoted Carousel Pins and Promoted App Pins.
The promoted pins are the “standard ads” which convert normal pins into a paid ad. With the note “Ad from” the pin is not only displayed on the company’s own pinboard. The paid reach extends to users who have not yet subscribed to the Pinterest account.
Source: Promoted Video Pin
The same applies to the Promoted Video Pins, except that the pins contain a video instead of an image and are advertised accordingly. The video ads are played automatically when they appear in the user’s feed.
Promoted Carousel Pins are very similar to the carousel ads we know from the Facebook Business Manager. The pins contain several images through which the user can wipe.
Promoted App Pins represent an ad format which primarily aims to promote app downloads. So instead of directing the user to your own website, the app can be downloaded and installed directly via a button integrated in the pin.
How much does Pinterest advertising cost?
In principle it is possible to publish organic advertising on Pinterest that does not incur any ad costs.
If you want to push these pins also as ads, the costs depend strongly on the chosen campaign setup.
Pinterest offers three different campaign types with individual goals: Awareness, engagement or traffic:
Traffic Campaign: Cost per Click (CPC) – costs are incurred for each click on the link that leads to the target website.
Engagement Campaign: Cost per Action (CPA) – costs are incurred for each action performed by the individual user with the sponsored pin (such as a click on the pin itself or on the pin’s Like or Repin symbol).
Awareness campaign: Cost per Mille (CPM) – costs are incurred for every thousandth page impression
A maximum bid must be specified for each campaign type, and based on an auction system, the advertising is then published. Whether the ads actually reach the target groups and are displayed, therefore also depends on the bids of competitors.
Also, there is a minimum bid on Pinterest, which may not be undercut. It can also be seen from these bids that the CPCs are relatively low compared to other marketing channels: Depending on the industry, CPCs of less than EUR 0.10 are not uncommon.
Pinterest target groups and opportunities
Pinterest offers many options to promote your brand and/or products. Individual target groups can be created – e.g. based on your website or interactions with the profile. The principles of the “own” target groups are identical with the possibilities of custom and lookalike audiences from the Facebook Business Manager.
A target group can also be defined on the basis of interests.
However, it should not be forgotten that Pinterest is primarily focussed on aesthetics and inspiring images. The immediate intention to sell should not be too much of a priority.
Pinterest Marketing is therefore not the right choice when it comes to achieving a large amount of sales quickly. Besides the right format, a coherent design is crucial for this special form of online marketing.
Pinterest and Shopify cooperation in our GANDT Fireside Chat #014
In our daily Fireside Chats we discuss trends in online marketing and digital retail.
During our Fireside Chat #014 we talked about the new cooperation between Shopify and Pinterest.
If you are interested in the topic, just have a look!
It is not necessary to watch the whole video – unless you want to. The discussion about the new cooperation starts after 25:10 minutes. The video is in German, we are working on English captions. If you are fine with Google’s auto-translation, or speak German of course, you’re all set.
Leave a message if you like it or if you have feedback for us.
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