This is a blog you definitely want to pin

Do you also immediately think of Pinterest when you hear or see the word 'pin'? This is normal. Pinterest is one of the most popular social networks. As of the second quarter of 2021, Pinterest has 454 million monthly active users worldwide. In Belgium, over 1 million unique monthly visitors get inspiration or ideas for daily decisions, seasonal holidays or life moments. So why hesitate to advertise on Pinterest when it is so popular? Still not convinced by our numbers? We will give you a number of key learnings we have learnt as a company for your own successful Pinterest campaign. Indeed, no more doubts!

How to start

Content

Being present on social media is a must. Via Pinterest, brands mainly want to inspire and inform people. That is why it is important to post organic content and then boost it. Did you know that organic content can come back regularly? It will not only appear when you put a pin on your Pinterest board but after a while a user can see it again.

 

Schedule Pins

With a business account, you can easily schedule pins. No, you don't have to post every pin at a specific time. You can schedule anything up to a month in advance, all you have to do is provide content, choose a day and a time. Note that you can only have a maximum of 100 scheduled pins.

Format

There are various formats you can use on Pinterest. Like a static image in different dimensions, a video or even a carousel. For a carousel you can have a different headline, copy and URL per card, just like on Facebook. Before you say: "So much work", stop because you could be wrong! If you have 5 cards with the same copy and headline but only a different link. Well, then you can arrange everything with one checkbox. Put the checkbox on if all headlines and copy are the same. Then uncheck the checkbox and apply a different URL to each card. Hey presto, it can go that fast.

One of our clients on Pinterest

How to advertise

The goal of advertising on Pinterest is to inspire and inform people but not to bother them. 50% of people don't realise they are seeing ads.

Start from your organic pin to set up a campaign, always. At the ad level within a campaign, you can choose an existing post. If you indicate your chosen pin, do not forget to add a UTM. Why do you need to set up UTMs? To get to know the quality of your traffic. Therefore, always add a UTM at the end of your link. Additionally, you can either add it manually - but why would you do that ? We know how busy you are and how quickly a mistake is made. Therefore, use a dynamic UTM like this one:

 

URL?utm_source=pinterest&utm_medium=social_paid&utm_campaign={campaign_name}&utm_content={ad_group_name}_{creative_name}.

 

Basically, adding UTMs saves you time and the chance of making mistakes is smaller.

Please note: it is not possible to boost a scheduled pin that has not yet appeared on the feed.

 

Vertical pins perform best on Pinterest; they generate more traffic. Some people say that square pins get less engagement, others say that their likes, impressions and clicks have improved with square pins. It’s important to test what works best for your business. This can be different for products and services.

The key learning here is that there are many formats that can be used. Infographic pins are vertical Pinterest images that are visual and encourage users to click through your content. What we have found is that infographics are a great format for advertising. It is noticeable that an infographic has a higher CTR and better engagement in many cases. This format allows a better visualisation of data and is more appealing.

Campaigns perform best with 2-4 Pins per ad group. Having too few Pins can spread your budget too thin and can lead to faster ad fatigue. With 2-4 Pins per ad group, they each get more impressions and we can garner learnings more quickly.

How to evaluate

For a conversion campaign, the system will need 2 weeks to optimise. For the optimisations: after your first 2 weeks, you will not have collected enough data to optimize and it is therefore logical that you don’t have too many conversions yet. The minimum time to carry out a conversion campaign is 3 weeks to 1 month. Only then will you be able to see any figures.

How to end

After the campaign ends, it is also important to evaluate the results. Don’t forget to take the attribution window into account; this a time frame within which a marketing attribution provider looks for install or conversion triggers like ad clicks or views. After your campaign has ended, you cannot report immediately! You will have to wait another 30 days (after the conversion window) to measure the final conversions.

Key learnings

  • Inspire and inform people via Pinterest
  • Easily schedule pins, up to a month in advance
  • Create a carousel in no time
  • Add a UTM, what are good results if you don't know the quality of your traffic
  • Infographics are a great format for advertising
  • Campaigns perform best with 2-4 Pins per ad group
  • Give the system 2 weeks to optimize for a conversion campaign
  • Take the attribution window into account

Like our learnings, and inspired to learn more of what we know about Pinterest? 

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