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Advertising on Pinterest: a good idea?
Advertising on social media? When thinking about social media advertising, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter might come to mind. Since April 2019, it’s also possible to advertise on Pinterest in Belgium. But is it a good idea? Hybrid explores the possibilities.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest, launched in 2010, is a social media platform that acts as a digital pinboard for images. Users can “pin” images and save them to one or more boards. It’s primarily used for finding and sharing ideas related to DIY, interior design, decoration, architecture, fashion, or travel. In short, it’s an inspiration platform for visually appealing content.
According to a recent study (Hootsuite), over 23% of active internet users are on Pinterest. The platform is growing in popularity, and along with individual users, more businesses, organizations, and public institutions are joining.
How to advertise on Pinterest?
If you’re considering advertising on Pinterest, you first need to answer three key questions:
1. What is the goal of your campaign?
This is a fairly standard marketing question but crucial for Pinterest. When setting up your Pinterest ad, you need to specify your objective. Are you aiming for brand awareness? Driving more traffic to your website or app? You can also select “conversion” as a goal if you want people to sign up for a newsletter or increase sales.
2. What type of pin will you use?
Depending on the content you want to promote, you can choose from four types of pins:
- Sponsored pins: Paid pins that appear on your target audience’s timeline.
- App pins: Specific ads designed to promote iOS and Android apps, allowing users to download them directly via Pinterest.
- Video pins: Standard pins featuring video content, enabling users to discover your brand through sight and sound.
- Sponsored carousel: A pin with multiple images, allowing users to zoom in on each individual image.
3. What targeting will you apply?
Finally, you need to determine who you want to reach. You can target your pins based on factors like age, existing customer lists, keywords, or interests. Pinterest also allows for remarketing, with three options available:
- Customer lists
- Visitors to your website
- People who have interacted with your pins
Advertising on Pinterest can be a powerful tool if used strategically. Its visually driven nature makes it especially effective for brands with strong visual content.
Pinterest: extra targeting through keywords
On Facebook and Instagram, you can target based on interests or demographic data (language, age, and gender). Pinterest offers an additional option: targeting based on keywords that users enter.
Think of Pinterest as a visual search engine rather than a social media platform. The way users search for content on Pinterest closely resembles Google’s search processes. Pinterest also helps you find the right keywords. When you type a keyword into the search bar, you’ll automatically see suggestions with variations and combinations. If you want to target even more specific keywords, you can choose from the keywords displayed under the recommended suggestions.
After determining the keywords, you need to select a pin to promote. Pinterest also provides the option to promote a pin that received the most clicks in the last 30 days or the pin that was repinned the most. If your goal is engagement, choose the most repinned pin. If you want to generate traffic, go for the pin with the highest number of clicks.
Pinners: a rewarding audience
Pinterest is essentially a database or encyclopedia of images. Pinners, as Pinterest users are called, seek inspiration for decorating, recipes, travel, and more. Research shows that nearly two-thirds of active Pinners and 84% of daily Pinners are inspired to try something new. Almost 73% of active Pinners and 89% of daily Pinners have purchased something new based on what they discovered on Pinterest.
That sounds like music to an advertiser’s ears! Additionally, Pinterest allows advertisers to be present very early in the search process (customer journey), provided that your objectives and targeting are well set.
Finally, content on Pinterest also has a longer lifespan. A pin remains active for about 3.5 months, compared to a tweet on Twitter that lasts approximately 2.8 hours and a Facebook post that has an average lifespan of 3.2 hours.
Conclusion: advertise on Pinterest or not?
Absolutely! Advertising on Pinterest in Belgium is still relatively new, but the numbers are already promising. Pinterest can also generate organic traffic to your website. If you have visually strong content (e.g., food, fashion, travel), we believe advertising on Pinterest is definitely worth it. We also recommend advertising on other social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. More information can be found in our other blog about Advertising on Facebook.
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