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If one picture is worth a thousand words, then how much would a Pinterest advertising campaign say about your brand? Pinterest is a highly impactful social media marketing platform, especially for visual brands that seek to inspire their users.

You might even say that Pinterest is the only social media platform that’s purpose-built for “advertising.” Think about it: Pinterest users come to the app to get inspired, discover new products and brands, and learn more about the brands they love. Searches are intentional, and users typically have a high purchase intent. Every Pin, paid or otherwise, is an ad of sorts and gives you countless opportunities to impress your audience.

Here’s how you can leverage Pinterest to its potential and how an agency like Code3 can help.

Why Pinterest Is a Strong Advertising Platform for Brands

In addition to what we’ve already mentioned, Pinterest boasts a laundry list of features to help brands boost their exposure, clicks, and sales. Several examples are listed below.

Comprehensive pixel tracking to help you learn more about your audience, support retargeting campaigns, and improve your marketing.
Tools to measure conversions and brand lift.
Performance measurements by CPA and ROI.

What’s more, pins tend to have long shelf lives, especially compared to the ephemeral content that expires after 24-hours like stories on Snapchat or Instagram. And in terms of cost, a low cost per view and cost per thousand impressions can help you keep your marketing budget in control with plenty of results to show for it.

Code3 Team Lead, Bridget Inglima, had this to share about the platform:

“Pinterest is the ultimate platform for discovery, and now more than ever, consumers are looking for inspiration. With 97% (Pinterest’s Media Agency Guide) of the top searches on Pinterest being non-branded, marketers have the opportunity to reach high-intent, open-minded consumers and drive full-funnel impact. Whether it be CPG brands aiming for strong reach or retail brands seeking efficient conversions, Code3 clients have leveraged Pinterest's suite of ad products and unique targeting capabilities to drive impact.”

Creating a Pinterest Advertising Strategy

When establishing your Pinterest advertising campaigns, we recommend looking at results through the lens of long-term, short-term, and medium-term objectives as you refine and optimize.

Long-Term Objectives

Improved branding and increased awareness should become natural byproducts of a long-term Pinterest strategy. To support these goals, invest in awareness media, such as Max Width Video, to highlight your company’s value propositions and create increased brand value to convert potential customers months in the future. An always-on strategy is especially effective on Pinterest because of the way Pinners use the platform. Most come to Pinterest to plan for life events well ahead of time. Brands can take advantage of this by supporting flighted and tentpole activations throughout the year.

Medium-Term Objectives

Similar to middle-of-the-funnel activities, prospecting and consideration occur over time. Drive potential customers to interact with offerings to increase their interest in eventually purchasing. This can be achieved by targeting search placements and act-alikes.

Short-Term Objectives

To gauge the value of your Pinterest advertising, look at your direct response and conversion rates. Push people who are most likely to convert by utilizing retargeting and conversion bidding.

Tips and Best Practices for Sustainable Pinterest Success

Starting any new type of social media marketing comes with challenges, questions, and uncertainty. You can give your campaigns a strong, healthy start by following these best practices:

1. Pick an Eye-Catching Image

Use high-quality, vertical images that will stand out in people’s feeds. We recommend using a 2:3 aspect ratio (e.g., 1000 x 1500 pixels). Other ratios cause your Pins to truncate, which can negatively impact performance. A complete list of creative specifications for Pinterest, and other platforms, can be found within our 2021 Platform Planning Guide.

2. Clearly Showcase Your Product and Branding

The product and your brand should be prominently featured in each Pin. Campaigns that feature clear product placement are 20% more likely to drive sales.

3. Show Your Products in Action

Pull the audience into the product. Show them how to wear or use it. Pins that show someone using a product or service are 67% more likely to drive offline sales lift.

4. Include Your Logo

Strong branding is a big piece of long-term Pinterest success. Put a logo on every Pin, but keep it subtle. Avoid the lower right corner since that spot gets covered by product icons.

5. Use Text Overlays & Detailed Descriptions

Text overlays and detailed descriptions can convey specific details about the featured products. These tools also help improve searchability on the platform to help you get found. Your copy contains hints about your content, which is what search algorithms will use to return the most relevant results. Clear titles, descriptions, and hashtags help videos get discovered in search. Spend time optimizing your copy before you publish the video.

6. Think About the Hook

Your goal should be to hook users instantly. Make the first few seconds of your video story compelling so that people will want to see more. People watch Promoted Videos 32% longer when there is a storyline vs. GIFs or stitched-together images.

7. Select a Powerful Cover Image

Your cover image shows up in people’s feeds and should give them a sense of what they’re about to watch. Cover images also help Pinterest show your video to the right audience.

8. Keep it Short

Shorter videos statistically perform best on Pinterest. The ideal video length is 6-15 seconds. Also, keep in mind that videos on Pinterest autoplay with the sound off. Some users turn the sound on—but don’t rely on dialogue or audio to tell (or sell) the story.

Beyond Pinterest Advertising Best Practices

There’s more to advertising on Pinterest than setting up a great campaign and following these best practices. Driving the return you want to see and maximizing ad spend requires ongoing attention and the ability to analyze and pivot when needed.

At Code3, we leverage Pinterest’s Ad Manager in conjunction with Code3 Insights Reporting, allowing our clients to view their advertising by campaign types as well as aggregated results. Our clients also benefit from the relationships we have with our platform partners at Pinterest (and 10+ other platforms). We’re consistently communicating with Pinterest to review short- and long-term plans, goals, and progress to ensure our clients have the most insight to inform their strategies.

We invite you to reach out and connect with someone at Code3 to discuss how we can support your brand’s efforts on Pinterest and other platforms.