Pinterest Ads: A Step-By-Step Guide For Your Business

Pinterest is one of the unique social platforms where 77% of users are more likely to discover new brands and products compared to other social media platforms.

The platform offers paid and organic tools; it has the lowest CPC (Cost-per-click) in social advertising. You can mix both organic and paid effort and gain maximum ROI (Return on investment). Sounds interesting, right?

With 478 million monthly users, this social platform has massive potential to expand your brand reach. Assessing the platform's capability, 28% of marketers leverage Pinterest to market their product. It is primarily how Pinterest users respond to the content and their engagement with the pins.

However, if you plan to start an ad campaign on Pinterest, we have encased an advertising guide to help you in this process. Scroll through these step-by-step guides to get the idea about Pinterest ad types, cost, best practices, and plan an impactful ad campaign.

• What Is Pinterest Ads?
• Pinterest Ad Types
• Pinterest Ad Objectives
• Pinterest Ads Cost
• What Should Be The Pinterest Ad Sizes?
• Pinterest Ads Best Practices
• Statusbrew Pinterest Integration
• Wrapping Up

You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.

What Is Pinterest Ads?

Pinterest is the social media platform that is designed to aid users discover, save, and share new ideas. Pinterest ads which are also termed as promoted pins are the offering of the platform to promote brand and business. As per the algorithm of the platform, pins are displayed to the users depending on their actions, interest and activities.

Since Pinterest is both a search engine and a social media, it makes the platform a solid marketing tool. Based on your business types, advertising on Pinterest can offer many benefits to grow your business. It can help you to find a profitable target audience to maximize your profits.

Image Source: TechCrunch

Benefits Of Pinterest Ads

Unlike other social platforms, people hang out on Pinterest to discover new ideas and get inspired. This is itself a benefit for brands.

• Pinterest users are interested in discovering new ideas, products, projects, brands, etc. Pinterest ads get naturally blended into that as they don't interrupt with user intentions. They add to their purpose of discovery.

• Users in Pinterest are there to shop. Ads are more welcomed on Pinterest as compared to other social platforms. If we go by data, Pinterest ads return two times the amount spent on ads.

• Pinterest users are growing every year and are more likely to buy. Pinterest's advertising reach is growing at a rate of 6.2% quarterly as compared to Facebook's 2.2%. Moreover, Pinterest users are more likely to give new brands an opportunity and stay loyal to them.

Pinterest Ad Types

Pinterest is different from other social media platforms because most of its users are there to discover something new, find new ideas and brands. Pinterest users also respond to ads very well.

Moreover, the CPC in Pinterest is one of the lowest among social media advertising. Let's look at the various types of ads offered by Pinterest:

1. Idea Pins

Like Instagram stories, Idea pins are short video content or an array of up to 20 pictures. Idea pins are mostly used to post educational content with short how-to demonstrations or videos. This ad type was recently introduced by Pinterest. Idea pins provided more opportunity to convert leads as compared to regular graphic or video pins, like:

• Interactive stickers
• Hashtags
• User tagging
• Graphic and text overlays
• Option to add detail pages

Idea pins are highly engaging and receive more engagements than standard pins. People on Pinterest are constantly looking to learn new skills and discover different brands. Idea pins are the perfect way to communicate with your audience by posting a step-by-step guide or your brand story.

As of now, Idea pins are available in the organic-only format. However, its sponsored version is being tested by Pinterest.

Image Source: Pinterest

2. Try On Product Pins

Try on product pins is a very powerful ad type recently introduced by Pinterest. It helps you to create a virtual green room where your customers or audience can try your products virtually to see how they will look on them using their phone's camera. This ad type is extremely useful for beauty and accessories companies.

Try on product pins are not available in all the countries where Pinterest is available yet. To use this ad type, you will need a Pinterest business account. Along with that, you will have to upload a product catalog. Moreover, Try on product pin can only be accessed by using the Pinterest account manager.

However, if you are an eCommerce business, then you should be considering this ad type. Hopefully, this ad type will be made available publicly in the later part of 2022.

Image Source: Pinterest

3. Pinterest Collection Ads

This ad type can be viewed by mobile users only. A Pinterest Collection Ad has one featured image or video and three supporting graphics. The featured image or video is larger in dimensions as compared to the supporting images. If a user taps on the ad, he or she can see up to 24 images on the detail page.

Although any type of business can use this type of ad for advertising their products, it perfectly suits businesses related to e-commerce, fashion, home decor, beauty, and accessories.

Collection Ads highly convert when a featured video is combined with product or lifestyle images. An interesting fact about collection ads is that Pinterest can create them for you automatically.

4. Pinterest Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are similar to organic pins. The only difference is that it contains a group of images that users can swipe through on their devices. You can identify a carousel ad by the small dots present at the bottom of the images.

You can add 2 – 5 images to a carousel ad. When a user saves a carousel, all the images in the carousel get saved on their board.

A Pinterest carousel can be used to show a product from different angles or related products or accessories or lifestyle images of the product when used.

Image Source: Simple Pin Media

5. Promoted Pins

Promoted Pins are the simplest type of ads that you can run on Pinterest. To run this ad, you just have to boost an existing pin. Promoted Pins are a single video or image that appears on your audience's feed. You can differentiate a Promoted Pin from an organic pin by the "Promoted by" label.

When a user taps or clicks on an organic pin, they are taken to the Pin detail page; however, when a user clicks on sponsored pins, they are redirected to the URL you specified when you created the sponsored ad.

Promoted Pins might be very simple, but they are very powerful and effective when combined with automatic bidding.

6. Shopping Ads

Shopping ads are like collection pins as the content of shopping ads is pulled from the product catalog. However, the difference is that it only allows one image or video to be used.

Several platforms provide a direct connection with Pinterest for shopping ads. Shopping ads are very easy to set up. Pinterest automatically targets the Shopping ads to the interested audience by using the data from product information and your industry. You can set up your own targeting audience also.

Shopping ads can be used by any brand from any industry effectively. When targeted appropriately, shopping ads can yield more results as compared to other ad types.

Image Source: Pinterest

Pinterest Ad Objectives

The Ad Manager in Pinterest provides five ad objectives to choose from:

1. Brand Awareness

This objective is to let people know about your brand, your company, or a product you are going to launch. This is one of the primary goals you would want to achieve with advertisement. You want to get discovered by everyone everywhere on the internet for the days to come. With Promoted Pins and shopping ads, you can achieve this objective effectively.

2. Views On Videos

With this objective, you want to achieve as many views as possible on your content. This objective works for any type of video pin, including product promotions or any other general video.

3. Consideration

This objective is to get clicks or traffic on your pins. You will accomplish this objective when people who are already aware of your brand click on your pins and move down the funnel. This objective is better achieved with collection ads and carousel ads.

Image Source: Pinterest

4. Conversions

This objective is accomplished when you get specific results from a campaign such as a sales, event sign-ups, subscription,s or any other actions. It uses a tracking code on your brand's website to improvise the campaign based on past results.

However, Pinterest recommends providing your campaign at least 3 – 5 days before making any changes so that it can gather sufficient data to make adjustments on its own.

5. Catalog Sales

This objective is specific to brands involved in e-commerce. It is about converting leads to sales. You can achieve this objective with Shopping ads and Collection ads only.

Pinterest Ads Cost

Based on your ad campaign and format, Pinterest ad cost varies; however, the average ad cost of Pinterest Ad in the previous year was $1.50 per click. Ads on the platform are less expensive compared to Instagram. However, you can set a daily budget for the ad budget for campaigns. There are two options available for bidding:

1. Custom Bids

Customs bids allow you to set a maximum bid amount for each action in each campaign. The minimum bid amount differs based on the ad format. Also, it depends on the competition, but you’re altering the maximum bid.

Image Source: Heyjessica.com

2. Automatic Bidding

Automating bidding in Pinterest was launched in 2020. It lessens your ad spend and, at the same time, boosts results. Here, Pinterest automatically adjusts the bids the whole day, and the process continues every day. Automating biding acts as your ad manager as you need to adjust your bid 24/7 manually

What Should Be The Pinterest Ad Sizes?

Are you wondering what the Pinterest ad size is? Let’s check out what Pinterest ad specs should be:

Idea Pins Ad Specs

The maximum size of the idea pin is 1080×1920. And the aspect ratio is 9:16. It supports both video and images. Keep your image size maximum of 20MB per image and for video, keep it 100MB. Per video clip video length should be 3-60 seconds per video clip. You can add a maximum of 20 per Idea Pin.

For a copy, the text limit for the title is a maximum of 100 characters, and per slide in a text box, you can add 250 characters.

Promoted Pin Ad Specs

In promoted pin ads, the recommended aspect ratio is 2:3, and size is 1000 x 1500 pixels. It supports one image in PNG or JPG format, you can add up to 100 characters for the title, and 500 characters are allowed in the description.

Note that promoted pins are required to be uploaded to a public board you own. It should not contain any copyrighted, third-party content. Also, you need to have a URL specified and ensure that there is no shortened URL added in the description field.

Collection Ad Specs

Collection ad supports .jpg or .png featured images. And the size is 10MB or less. Keep your aspect ratio of either 1:1 or 2:3. For collection and videos maximum size, you can use 2GB maximum. The video should be at least 4 seconds long, and the maximum length should not exceed 15 minutes. The recommended aspect ratio is 1:1 or 2:3.

Keep the size of 10MB or less. You can add minimum of 3 images and a maximum of 24. Recommended aspect ratio is 1:1. You can add up to 100 characters for the title and 500 characters for the description. Note that the description is only shown in organic collection pins, not the ads.

Carousel Ad Specs

The carousel ad image size should not exceed 32 MB per image, and format is JPG or PNG with an aspect ratio: 1:1 or 2:3. You can add 2-5 images per carousel ad. In the description, you can add 500 characters, and in the title, you can add up to 100.

Video Pin Ad Specs

For standard video ads, the recommended aspect ratio is 1:1, 2:3, or 9:16. The video format should be MP4, MOV or .M4V, H.264 or H.265 encoding, and the maximum size should not exceed 2GB.

Image Source: Clideo

Pinterest Ads Best Practices

Following are a few of the best practices for Pinterest ads to make sure every dollar you spend on is not going in vain:

Audience Demographics

The success of your ad campaign depends on how you are reaching out to the set of your target audience. To reach out to the correct audience, you must assess your audience demographic.

Pinterest allows you to narrow down your audience based on gender, age, location, language, and device. The platform also allows you to choose interest depending on the type of pins your target audience images with. You can also select interests based on the kinds of pins your target audience engages with.

Image Source: Advertisemint

Focus On Your Keywords

Using the right keywords for your ad is crucial for the success of your ad campaign. Pinterest recommends users use a minimum of 25 keywords so that the platform can efficiently serve your ad to the people searching for that keywords.

The more in-depth of an idea you have of your ideal customers, the more precisely you can choose your keywords, and you will know what your prospects are looking for. Accordingly, you can match their searches. Use diverse keywords, right from niche to board, so that you can cast the net to target people interested in your content.

Image Source: Elainetimms

Actalike Audiences

Create actalike audience to target a group of people in a particular niche or demographic. Pinterest crafts this set of audience based on your source audience. Then it groups people that are more likely to engage with your pin depending on their previous behaviors.

Optimize Pins

For better performance, optimize your pins. For optimization, make your pins aesthetic to easily attract your prospects' attention. Note that your pins are your ad, so focus on making your pins engaging.

You can give the users a reason to click on themes. Lastly, ensure that your pins are related to your target audience. Use rich pins such as products or add apps with any helpful information. Add CTA to your pins; keep it concise. Ensure to add clear CTA.

Image Source: Jagandwolf

Know more about How To Get Followers On Pinterest In 2023

Statusbrew Pinterest Integration

With the help of Statusbrew, you can create and schedule pins in advance, and maintain the consistency of posting. You can schedule your pins assessing the best time to post when your target audience is most active. And in that way, the chances of reaching your target audience increase. But how do you do it?

• You can create pins from Statusbrew Dashboard itself. All you need is to add your Pinterest account; you can create, schedule, or publish the same kind of pin for more than one profile. Write your Pin title, description select and create board & enter the destination link. Statusbrew Compose will let you have a preview of your pins, and you can visualize how your pins will be displayed when they get published.

• With Statusbrew team collaboration, Pinterest marketing can be a cakewalk for you. You can easily spot and fix errors, as before pins get published, they will go through a review workflow. Permissions based access makes it easier to make your Pinterest marketing errors free and free from posting any unwanted pins.

• Leveraging Statusbrew Asset Manager, you can store your pins so that assets are easily accessible within the team. Asset manager ensures that all your media is in one place; you can save a pool of images, videos, and infographics so that the team workflow is maintained. The Asset Manager lets you keep all your digital assests, ensuring that your graphics are archived, searched, and shared quickly within your team.

• You can store high-quality, engaging brand's digital content in text, image, link, or video format, or you can quickly choose the stored content and schedule it just with a click of a button. It aids you in maintaining your brand's visual identity in all the content posted online.

• Measure your Pinterest Growth with Statusbrew Report Lab. You can simply check the Pinterest analytics from the Statusbrew app. You can get new tailored templates or can create, export & share reports using highly customizable widgets. All Reports Lab widgets can be resized, reordered & repositioned by dragging & dropping. Also, you can share live reports to non-Statusbrew users as well.

Wrapping Up

Congratulations, you are now all set to start your Pinterest advertising campaign! The platform offers opportunities, and you have to plan strategies to extract them in your favor. Each day more and more businesses are inclining towards Pinterest advertising. The best way to get more in-depth knowledge about it is to use the platform to experiment.

You can start with setting a low-budget ad and track your analytics to figure out how you should proceed.

For Pinterest Marketing, Statusbrew can be a reliable companion. To know more about Staubrew Pinterest integration, start your free trial today!

Start A Free Trial

Statusbrew is a unified Social Media Management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, Google Business Profile and Pinterest!