Using Pinterest Ads the Right Way: The Way to More Sales

Jonas Patrikalos
Performance marketing agency

partners for high visibility on search engines,
Paid Social and Growth

Status: January 18, 2023
15 min reading time
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What you absolutely need to know
Pinterest ads as a growth strategy: Pinterest ads offer companies an effective way to increase brand awareness and reach new audiences looking for ideas and products.
Ad formats and targeting: Pinterest ads include various formats, including standard ads, shopping ads, and promoted pins. Through detailed targeting and creative design, companies can make the most of users' buying intent.
Performance measurement and optimization: With clear objectives and regular performance measurement, Pinterest ads can be efficiently optimized to achieve sustainable sales figures and strong brand loyalty.

Why Pinterest as an advertising platform?

Pinterest is no longer just a platform for DIY ideas and inspiration — it has become effective advertising platform , which offers enormous potential, especially for e-commerce companies and brands with visual content. Pinterest users are usually active on the platform looking for new products, projects and ideas, making them a valuable Target group with a high purchase intent.

Key benefits of Pinterest as an advertising platform

  • Targeted target group communication: Pinterest provides detailed Targeting optionsso that companies have their Pinterest ads be able to target users with specific interests, demographics and behaviours.
  • Visual format: Pinterest lives from strong images and text overlays, which companies can use to clearly communicate their message and attract users' attention.
  • Strong purchase intent: Pinterest is used by many users as a “visual search engine,” which means that Pinterest users are often already looking for specific ideas and products search and therefore a higher Conversion probability have.

Benefit descriptionTarget group addressPrecise targeting according to user interests and behavior.Visual formatImage and video-based content with eye-catching designs and text overlays.High buying intent Users are actively looking for ideas and products — ideal for sales-oriented campaigns.

Pinterest therefore offers brands a unique possibility, directly in the Decision-making process the user to intervene. When undertakings Place ads on Pinterest, they meet users in an active phase of inspiration, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rate leads.

Pinterest Ads Basics: Everything You Need to Know

Pinterest ads give you a variety of options to create creative and tailored campaigns. Different from others Social media platforms Pinterest focuses on visual content that specifically inspires and influences users' buying decisions. However, before you start a campaign, you should review the various ad formats and features in Pinterest Ads Manager Get to know exactly.

Overview of ad formats on Pinterest

Pinterest offers a range of different ad formats that can be used for various campaign goals:

  • Standard ads: This classic form of ad appears directly in users' feeds and looks like a normal PIN, but it is sponsored.
  • shopping ads: Particularly interesting for e-commerce companies. Here, specific products can be advertised, which can be added directly to the shopping cart with one click.
  • Promoted Pins: These ads appear as Sponsored Pins and are a good way to increase brand awareness.
  • Promoted Video: A moving format that attracts attention particularly well and is suitable for visually strong brands.

Ad formatPurpose standard ads for general reach and brand perception.Shopping adsIdeal for direct product marketing and conversion.Promoted pins for higher visibility and awareness.Promoted videoMoving content for more engagement and attention.

The Pinterest Ads Manager

The Pinterest Ads Manager is the central tool for planning and managing campaigns and analyzing performance. With an intuitive user interface, the entire Advertisement process steer:

  1. Select campaign goals: From expanding brand awareness to increasing conversion, goals can be set in a targeted manner.
  2. Define budget and schedule: The budget distribution and time span of your campaign can be flexibly adjusted.
  3. Select target groups: With detailed targeting for interests, demographic data and user behavior You can reach your target customers in a targeted manner.
  4. creative design: Upload your pins, images, or videos and create a design that impresses the user.

With these tools, Pinterest offers companies an excellent opportunity to visually and interactively address their target groups and achieve the desired results.

Step-by-step guide to creating Pinterest ads

To successfully advertise on Pinterest, you need a strategic approach. The following step-by-step guide shows you how to create a Pinterest campaign created from scratch, making optimal use of all relevant options.

1. Setting up a business account

Start by creating a Pinterest Business Accountsif you don't have one yet. A business account gives you additional features, such as detailed analysis tools and access to Pinterest Ads Manager. You can individually adapt your business profile to your brand identity and use it to create professional bulletin boards and pins.

2. Select objective and campaign type

First, define the goal of your campaign. Pinterest gives you three main objectives:

  • Increasing awareness: For greater visibility and reach.
  • Generate traffic: Drive visitors to your website.
  • Conversion: Optimized for sales or leads.

Choosing your campaign goal determines which ad formats and targeting options you can use.

3. Select the appropriate ad format

Each goal can be combined with a suitable ad format to effectively convey your message. Standard ads are ideal for awareness campaigns while shopping ads are perfect for selling products directly.

4. Create a creative design

The design of your Pinterest ads is critical to performance. Use high-quality images, clear text overlays, and an appealing layout. Make sure to use keywords that appeal to your target audience and make the ad inviting and clear.

5. Set a budget and schedule

Set your budget and campaign duration. Pinterest gives you flexible budget options, so you can set either a daily budget or an overall budget for the campaign.

With this guide, you can create a well-thought-out Pinterest campaign Set up that makes your brand visible and helps you achieve your goals.

To create Pinterest ads, follow these five steps: First, set up a business account. You then choose the objective and type of campaign. In the third step, you decide on the appropriate ad format. You'll then create a creative design for your ad. Finally, set your budget and schedule to start the campaign.

Audience targeting and ad optimization

Pinterest ads offer a variety of ways to target target groups and effectively optimize ads. Targeting on Pinterest is different from other platforms because it is based not only on demographic data, but primarily on the interests and behavior of users. This allows companies to reach people who are actively looking for inspiration and products and target them with relevant ads.

One of the most important targeting options is interest-based targeting. Users are categorized based on their interests, such as DIY ideas, fashion, travel, or e-commerce, so brands can target their ads to topics that are relevant to their target audience. In addition, enables demographic targeting narrowing down by age, gender, location and language to make the ad even more specific.

A particular strength of Pinterest lies in behavior-based targeting and keyword targeting. The platform analyses what users are looking for or which Pins they save, giving companies the opportunity to target ads to people who have already consumed similar products or content. With the help of Custom Audiences and Retargeting Companies can also target users who have already interacted with the brand or visited the website.

Optimizing ads is essential for Pinterest Ads to be successful. Visually appealing designs with clear messages, high-quality images, and text overlays attract user attention and promote interactions.

Regular A/B testing help you compare various elements such as designs or call-to-actions and find out what works best for the target group. By continuously monitoring and adjusting the performance of their ad groups and keywords, companies can improve not only the reach but also the results of their campaigns.

Budgeting and cost management

Pinterest Ads give you flexible budgeting options that allow you to efficiently plan and manage your ad spending. The platform uses an auction system, where you decide for yourself how much you're willing to pay for clicks, impressions or Conversions to pay. To get the most out of your advertising budget, it's important to understand the various cost factors and develop a clear strategy.

Pinterest Ads cost structure

  • Cost per click (CPC): You only pay when a user clicks on your ad and is redirected to your site.
  • Cost per thousand (CPM): Here you calculate the costs per 1,000 impressions — ideal if you want to increase brand awareness.
  • Cost per action (CPA): With this model, you pay for specific actions, such as saving a pin or making a purchase.

Choosing the right model depends on your campaign goals. CPC is particularly suitable for traffic campaigns while CPA models can be used primarily for conversions, for example in e-commerce campaigns.

The cost structure of Pinterest Ads is based on three models: With cost-per-click (CPC), you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and is redirected to your website. The cost-per-mile model (CPM) calculates the costs per 1,000 impressions and is particularly suitable if you want to increase brand awareness. With the cost-per-action (CPA) model, you pay for specific actions, such as saving a pin or making a purchase, which is ideal for performance-based campaigns.

Tips for effective cost management

  • Start with a test budget: Start with small budgets to test your campaign's performance before investing larger amounts.
  • Monitor your spending regularly: Analyze the costs per conversion or click to identify and adapt inefficient campaigns at an early stage.
  • Use bidding strategies: In Ads Manager, you can manage bids either manually or automatically. Automatic bids save time, while manual control gives you more flexibility.
  • Focus on high-performance ads: Identify the ads with the best results and allocate more budget to those ad groups to get the most out of your campaign.

Comparison with other platforms

Platform specificationsCosts (average CPC) Pinterest cost efficient for niche markets, lower competitionLow FacebookHigh reach, ideal for wide target groupsInstagramStrong visual platform, young target groupHigh

Pinterest ads in the marketing mix: How they support your sales strategy

Pinterest is not just a creative social media platform, but a more powerful duct for companies that want to implement their marketing strategies visually and in a targeted manner. Unlike purely text-based platforms, companies can directly combine inspiration and buying incentives through Pinterest campaigns. This mix of creative content and measurable results makes Pinterest a valuable addition to marketing mix.

How to integrate Pinterest ads into your marketing strategy

Pinterest offers the opportunity to organic pins and paid advertising Can be combined seamlessly. Companies can share content on their bulletin boards that inspire their target audience and share it with Standard ads or Promoted Pins Highlight specifically. This combination of organic and paid content not only strengthens the brand recognition, but also increases interaction rates.

The platform is ideal for reaching the target group at an early stage of the customer journey. Users who search for ideas on Pinterest are often still open to new products and brands. Through targeted ads on Pinterest, companies can place their message at a crucial point and thus increase their sales.

Benefits of a Pinterest business account

A Pinterest Business Account provides additional added value for companies. With access to tools such as Ads Manager, analytics features, and advanced pin options allow companies to better manage and optimize their Pinterest campaigns. These features are essential for making data-based decisions and maximizing ROI over the long term.

Pinterest should be integrated as a central component of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. By connecting with other social media platforms such as Instagram or Facebook and using data-driven retargeting, companies can cover the entire marketing funnel.

Measuring the success and optimization of Pinterest ads

The success of Pinterest campaigns depends largely on continuous Analysis and optimization off. With the right tools and a clear strategy, companies can ensure that their ads on Pinterest are not only seen, but also clicked on and converted into conversions. A major advantage of a Pinterest business account is the Access to detailed reports, which provide valuable insights into campaign performance.

Key KPIs for measuring success

To evaluate the effectiveness of your Pinterest campaigns, focus on the following metrics:

  • impressions: Show how often your ad was shown to users on the platform.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): Indicates how many users are on your Standard ads or Promoted Pins clicked.
  • Savings: Users who are yours organic pins or sponsored content save, signal an interest in your brand or product.
  • Conversions: The most important metric for sales or other defined actions on your website.

Pinterest ad optimization strategies

Target group analysis and targeting

Targeting the right target group is crucial. Analyze regularly the Demographics and interests your audience to make sure your ads stay relevant. The success of your campaigns depends on how well you understand the needs of users on Pinterest.

Appealing and fresh design

Get creative with your ads and revise them regularly. Vary the design with new image and color concepts, and rely on clear text overlays and convincing call-to-actions to Attract user attention.

Use insights from organic pins

Use organic pins, which achieve a high engagement rate, as a template for sponsored content. They show you which topics and designs are particularly popular with your target audience and help you improve the performance of sponsored ads.

Use retargeting

Target users who have already interacted with your brand Retargeting on. This includes users who saved your Pins or clicked on an ad. Retargeting campaigns Often have a higher conversion probabilitybecause these users have already shown interest in your brand.

Tools to measure success

Pinterest offers you a variety of tools, to analyze the success of your ads. This includes the Ads Manager and analytics features the platform. With these tools, you can identify key figures such as ROI, the conversion rate and the average CPC monitor. Based on this data, you can optimize your campaigns in a targeted manner and ensure that they deliver the desired results.

Frequently asked questions

How much do ads cost on Pinterest?

The cost of Pinterest ads depends on your budget and billing model you choose. Typical models are Cost per click (CPC), Cost per thousand (CPM) or Cost per action (CPA). CPC is often between €0.10 and €1.50, which makes Pinterest very cost-effective compared to other platforms. The actual costs vary depending on the target audience, competition, and ad format.

How do Pinterest ads work?

Pinterest ads work via an auction system. You bid on ad spaces depending on your goal (such as clicks, impressions, or conversions). The ads appear in users' feeds, on search results pages, or as sponsored content between organic pins. With Pinterest Ads Manager, you can plan campaigns, define audiences, and monitor the performance of your ads.

How do I advertise on Pinterest?

To advertise on Pinterest, you need one Pinterest Business Account. In Ads Manager Create a campaign, define a goal (such as awareness, traffic, or conversions), and set your budget. You can then upload creative content, such as images or videos, and optimize it with text overlays and keywords before you start your ad.

How do I get more clicks on Pinterest?

  • Use appealing and high quality images With clear text overlaysthat attract the attention of users.
  • Dial relevant keywordsto make your ads more visible on Pinterest.
  • Combine organic pins with sponsored contentto increase your reach.
  • Test various designs and call-to-actions with A/B testingto find out what works best for your audience
  • Put on Promoted Pins and shopping adsto disseminate targeted messages and direct users directly into the buying process.

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