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the power of pinterest ads: how to attract, engage and convert your audience

Research by Kantar showed that UK customers are inundated with ads. 73 percent of people report seeing the same ads “over and over again”, with just 11 percent saying they enjoy the advertising they are exposed to. With countless products, services and marketing channels at our fingertips, customer loyalty has become hard to obtain and even harder to maintain. One way for brands to cut through the noise and build a competitive advantage is to reach their audience earlier in the shopping journey.

60 percent of Pinners use Pinterest before search engines, social media platforms or recommendations when beginning their buying journey. Through the combination of personalised recommendations, relevant content and inspiring images, users are targeted during their open-minded discovery phase. With approximately 300 million monthly users and 77 percent of these users claiming to have found new brands and new products on the platform, could this be the answer to taking your advertising efforts to the next level? Take a read to find out how Pinterest Ads can help you attract, engage and convert your audience.

Pinterest’s 5 new shopping features

Pinterest Ads contain an image, caption and link which are displayed natively among a user’s feed. Through a Pinterest business account, you can access analytical features such as audience targeting based on demographics and search interests. Campaign results can also be readily tracked to inform optimisation changes, and different ad types can be used to target each stage of the sales funnel. Pinterest has released five new features that make their platform even more shoppable, closing the gap between inspiration and purchase by connecting brands and shoppers.

shop a brand

This new section is dedicated to specific brands that appear beneath branded Product Pins. Users can easily view related products offered by your brand or they can view your entire catalogue with just the click of a button, empowering businesses to engage Pinners with their whole offering.

personalised shopping recommendations

Pinterest has now added personalised ‘in-stock’ shopping recommendations alongside style, home, beauty and DIY boards. By simply clicking ‘more ideas’ and the shopping tags under a pin, users can begin shopping their personalised product recommendations. By clicking the plus sign, this product can be added to your board or the pin can be clicked to link straight through to the merchant’s checkout. Recommended products are based on what the user has previously pinned, ensuring they match their interests and preferences.

brand catalogues

Brands using a Pinterest Business account can now upload their entire product catalogue to the platform. With this feature also comes a new dashboard that can be used to organise and update your catalogue. Uploaded catalogue products can be turned into dynamic Product Pins, making it easier for users to shop. This feature helps attract attention to related products that users may not have searched for yet.

shopping ads

The platform is making their shopping ads available to all brands and advertisers through their Ads Manager. Shopping Ads include clickable dots over specific products within an image, essentially allowing users to “Shop the Look”. This feature has been around for some time, but it was only available to a limited number of big brands, now, all brands have access.

shopping search

When you search for an item on Pinterest, ‘in-stock’ Product Pins will appear at the top of the search bar. Not only does this help brands gain exposure with individuals looking for a specific product, it also helps the user by returning relevant options based on their intent. If the user is only looking for inspiration, they can continue their search with regular, non-branded results. If they’re looking to buy, they can click “See More” to see further in-stock products.

how can your brand sell on Pinterest?

These updates and new features help brands get in front of users who are looking for related products that match their unique search intent. So, how can you use these features to sell on Pinterest? There are a few important factors to consider if you want to do this effectively.

get to know your audience

No matter what channel you choose to advertise through, it pays to know your audience. Pinterest made targeting your audience simple with the release of their Taste Graph in 2017. Understanding evolving preferences and interests, this graph connects millions of people across Pinterest to fresh and relevant ideas. Offering 5,000 categories within the Pinterest Ads Manager, the Taste Graph allows you to target consumers based on valuable insight, helping you reach refined groups of Pinners and drive your campaigns more effectively.

make your images count

Pinterest is all about the imagery. A visually captivating platform, it’s important to have high-quality, inspiring imagery to support your ads and capture your target audience’s attention. Follow these top tips to make the best of your images on Pinterest:

  • focus on the product: Use people to show off your products where relevant but always ensure ads are kept product focused. Simple and clean with a clear style is best for Pinterest.

  • infographics: Mix words with imagery for the best of both worlds. When people see information, they generally only remember 10 percent of it three days later, however, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, that shoots up to people retaining 65 percent of the information. Adding visuals to content increases the likeliness of someone remembering your brand and Pinterest is a perfect platform to display infographics.

  • use vibrant imagery: Keep colour in mind when creating your Pins. A creative and visual platform makes Pinterest the ideal place to display products on a vibrant backdrop to capture the attention of users. Always ensure you keep your colours in line with your brand guidelines to help with brand recall and make your pins instantly recognisable.

  • high-quality photography: Pinterest isn’t the place for poorly edited and pixelated images. Ensure your images are inspiring, unique and high-quality.

optimise for mobile

Did you know that 80 percent of Pinners use the mobile app? Ensure your Pinterest Ads are optimised for mobile by tailoring font size to phone rendering and designing for a vertical aspect ratio. As a visual platform, if images, designs and text aren’t legible, the effect is instantly lost. Pinterest recommends an aspect ratio of 2:3, around 600 pixels wide by 900 pixels tall.

understand which pin format supports your objectives

Get to know the different types of Pins available and understand which one will best support your objectives:

  • promoted Pins are ideal for increasing brand awareness, boosting traffic and growing sales

  • promoted Videos should be used to capture attention while users scroll, boosting brand awareness and the intent to purchase

  • promoted Carousels are effective at promoting multiple products to boost traffic through one ad

  • promoted App Pins increase brand awareness and app download conversions

add the Pinterest ‘save’ button to your website

The save button allows people to save content from your website directly to Pinterest. Once the button has been installed, a clickable Pinterest logo appears on your website’s images. Users can click this logo to save content straight to their Pinterest boards. Every time someone uses the Save button, they are adding more of your content to Pinterest meaning other people are more likely to see it and boost your impressions further. Once the save button has been added, Pinterest Analytics can be used to see which of your website content is most popular.

delight and engage your audience

Like any social media platform, Pinterest shouldn’t just be about selling. Your efforts should also be put into engaging your audience through compelling, engaging content. This can be done by pinning other products besides your own to improve your brand’s Pinterest reputation, it also opens the door to further business opportunities and potential partnerships.

Also ensure you have joined the “Gift” tab, a special drop-down menu that allows users to search for gifts at specific prices. An effective feature for the festive season, by adding a price-tag to the description of your product pin, you’ll automatically be added to this tab.

Pinterest’s addition of new features and shoppable ads are a great way of connecting users to the products they want whilst gaining brand exposure. When you dive into your customers’ mindset, it becomes easier to develop a strategy that resonates with them. Combining the power of visual discovery, influenceable users and the unsaturated advertising opportunity of Pinterest, it becomes an inviting channel to introduce into your marketing mix. Could your brand benefit from Pinterest Ads? Contact us to chat more.