You’re likely familiar with Pinterest and how it offers advertisers the ability to run ads. However, what you might not be aware of is how powerful this platform can be in terms of generating cost-effective traffic and conversions when properly managed by a Pinterest Ad Agency.
Boasting nearly half a billion monthly active users worldwide, this visual-forward search engine is often overlooked as a way for businesses to target new audiences and boost online traffic.
A powerful tool especially for ecommerce brands, 93% of users utilize this platform to make or plan a purchase. Even better, most of these searches are non-branded, which gives advertisers the perfect opportunity to meaningfully connect with audiences who are open to exploring new brands.
Bottom line: Pinterest is the perfect channel to support brands looking for new advertising opportunities and diversify outside of Facebook, Google and TikTok.
How Pinterest Can Support Your Business
Pinterest is a unique social media channel that’s highly effective for ecommerce brands looking to scale. With its one-of-a-kind search capabilities, it’s quickly transformed into a platform where people can search for ideas, recipes and workout plans, among a variety of other curated content. This enables us to connect with users who are interested in a specific goal and where we can be very timely in our advertising.
When it comes to demographics, Pinterest boasts a major female audience. In fact, 7 out of every 10 Pinterest users are women. This is ideal for brands who skew towards a heavy female audience such as fashion, home decor, beauty, skin care and other relevant sectors.
Step 1. Targeting
Unsure how to get your products in front of the right audience? Not to worry. With Pinterest, you can actually use custom targeting capabilities to get your products in front of the people who matter most.
Even though Pinterest is considered a social channel (and it is), you can target specific search keywords on Pinterest like you can on Google. For example, if a user is searching “Midi Dress” and you operate a candle company, you can set up ads to appear in search results and related pins – instantly reaching an audience that’s expressed intent. There is even a way to narrow down targeting to reach people searching for the exact products you’re selling. This alone makes targeting a crucial setup in your ad campaign.
Step 2. Cost of Traffic
One of the best parts about advertising on Pinterest is how inexpensive it can be to drive traffic. For brands who may be struggling to drive cost-effective traffic from Facebook, Pinterest should be your next move.
With less competition, and more retail space, unlock new ways to drive traffic at a fraction of the cost of other channels. With the proper strategic approach, we can help brands reach a CPC as low as $0.045. That’s unheard-of. Check out the results below representing just one day of performance:
Step 3. Setting up Your Business & Advertising Account
Ready to get started? The first step to launching your Pinterest campaign is setting up your Business & Advertising Account. To help you begin, we’ve outlined a few simple steps below:
Business Account
Step 1: Head to https://www.pinterest.com/
Step 2: Click the ‘Sign Up’ button located at the top-right of your screen
Step 3: Click “Create a free business account” at the bottom
Step 4: Fill out all necessary information
Ad Account
Step 5: From the Pinterest homepage, click Ads in the top left corner then select Overview to open the Ads Manager
Step 6: Click the arrow next to your name
Step 7: Click “Create new ad account”
Step 8: Fill out all necessary information & add billing info
Step 4. Creating Your First Advertising Campaign
Follow these simple steps to get started on creating your first advertising campaign on Pinterest.
Step 1: Login to your Pinterest account
Step 2: Press “Ads”
Step 3: Go to “Create Ad”
Follow these best practices to optimize your advertising campaigns:
- Optimize for Conversions (checkouts)
- Test different interests / categories / keywords (!)
- Run different style ads – try different headlines, different content
Step 5. What Type of Ad is Successful on Pinterest
Similar to other channels, your creatives are going to be a key part of your campaign’s success. Ads should inspire curiosity—if using an image, highlight the product in an elevated setting using high-quality photography with good lighting. You can also run video ads, but keep in mind, however, that video doesn’t convert as well or as clean as static image ads.
Step 6. Tracking
Pinterst offers some great tracking capabilities to help measure campaign performance Afterall, the more precise your tracking, the better you can optimize your ads. With access to measurement reports and advanced analytics, get the insights you need to executive high-performing campaigns.
Make sure your store is connected to Pinterest. If using Shopify you can do this in just a few clicks. Simply head to Shopify Apps -> Type Pinterest -> Download the App -> Connect to Business Manager and Ad Account -> Double check if pixel working correctly (you can download Pinterest chrome extension to check it in real time on the website).
Step 7. Optimization
If you want to succeed on this platform – you have to move quickly and optimize, optimize, optimize. This involves turning off poor performing elements every 3 days and injecting new ad sets or ad combinations as often as possible. Most importantly, stay on top of it to ensure you keep your entire system fresh and up to date.
To determine strong performers – begin by checking the most desired events: purchases. This is where you’ll be able to track ROAS – an important metric to evaluate campaign success.
If your campaign has not delivered you “purchases” yet, try optimizing campaigns to “add to cart” and monitor add to cart cost. Keep optimizing by turning off the weakest performing elements and focusing on the ones that are strong.
Always pay attention to CPC, CTR and CPM
A good benchmark is a CPC under $0.20 —this indicates you’re doing something right by generating insanely cheap traffic. In some cases, this can be up to 10x less expensive compared to running ads on Facebook.
The main purpose of Pinterest is to drive new traffic to your website. As a top of the funnel channel, you want to keep focusing on generating the cheapest traffic possible while optimizing for the most efficient elements in terms of conversions.
Step 8. Set Up Your Columns Properly
This is important. It’s vital that you read the data properly. If you’re unable to do so – there’s no chance you’ll succeed in media buying. Reading and understanding the data is one of the most important elements for success.
Follow the below order when setting your columns:
- Impressions
- Add to Carts
- Cost per Add to Cart
- Outbound Clicks
- Initiate Checkouts
- Cost per Initiate Checkout
- CPM
- Reach
- Total Spent
- CTR
- CPC
- Frequency
This is the correct order for properly analyzing performance.
Step 9. Retargeting
Don’t forget to focus on warm and hot audiences. If set up properly, this has the ability to generate a high return of ad spend. In particular, 30 Days Website Visitors tend to perform really well.. Dynamic retargeting, in particular (shopping ads / catalog) is very interesting as Pinterest has a feature which allows us effectively retarget existing users.
Evestar – A Pinterest Ad Agency
Pinterest has had an enormous impact on ecommerce brands looking to reach audiences on alternative channels. By utilizing Pinterest’s advertising capabilities, you can take your brands to new heights and unlock marketing opportunities that inspire new connections with your target audience.
Ready to get started? Chat with us today to get your Pinterest strategy up and running.
