Do you use Pinterest to plan your ideal vacation or to find delectable-looking baked goods to try or do you use Pinterest Marketing for business? If you aren’t doing the latter yet, it might be time to consider getting your brand on this visual platform.
Pinterest offers businesses of all sizes a unique way to market themselves. As a visual search engine, Pinterest is great for exposing new potential customers to your brand and increasing your business by following Pinterest marketing guidelines.
First, it lets me know what Pinterest and Pinterest marketing is and why Pinterest is one of the best marketing tools for eCommerce. Some of the new features Pinterest is introducing are for marketing.
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more, with great potential for e-commerce marketing. From increasing sales to ramping up web traffic, Pinterest has several benefits—if you use it correctly.
Pin your favorite ideas to boards to keep them organized and accessible. With billions of pins on Pinterest, you’ll always find ideas to spark inspiration. You can also create pins to share your opinions with other people on Pinterest.
Why Pinterest is One of The Best Marketing Tools for E-commerce
85% of Pinterest users have bought something after seeing a brand’s pin. That means having a presence on Pinterest and marketing your brand to increase your reach will almost guarantee more sales.
But Pinterest marketing has even more to offer. It has several social commerce features that make it even more helpful for eCommerce brands.
E-commerce companies can easily make a catalogue of their products, share “shoppable” pins, and run ads to get more people to see their new products.
People who regularly use Pinterest are seven times more likely to say Pinterest is the most influential social media platform in their shopping journey. Pinners use this platform to find new ideas, plan purchases, and shop.
Your eCommerce business needs to be in the right place at the right time. Why the Pinterest marketing strategies we’re about to cover will be essential to your next steps
If you’ve signed up for a business account, you may see an ad about Pinterest advertising or other services for creators and businesses on other platforms, such as Google. Pinterest’s audience is mighty.
A survey by Cowen and Company found that 47% of social media users thought Pinterest was the best place to find and buy products. Pinterest marketing was more than three times higher than the number of people who said Facebook or Instagram.
People who use Pinterest also tend to have more money to spend than people who use most other social media platforms.
Over 70% of Pinterest’s 367 million+ monthly active users are female, and as the global income of women reaches trillions of dollars, women are expected to control almost 75% of discretionary spending by 2028.
Why sell on Pinterest?
If you’re yet to invest in your Pinterest e-commerce strategy, there’s never been a better time to get started.
From 2019 to 2022, the number of monthly active users on Pinterest grew by more than 56%. International markets grew by a considerable amount.
In addition to this fast growth, Pinterest has added several new features in the last year that promote online shopping.
Pinterest is the ideal choice for retailers, and Pinterest should consider its sales potential.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use Pinterest Marketing Today
1. It’s Growing Fast
The app is fast approaching half a billion users, and this stellar growth inspires more business owners to jump on board. According to our survey, Pinterest’s marketing effectiveness increased by 140% between 2021 and 2022, and many marketers and brands plan to invest much more time and money in Pinterest in 2023.
2. Its Shopping-Friendly
Pinterest is a perfect hybrid of social media and window shopping. Whether casually scrolling or actively planning a major purchase, an estimated 50% of users view Pinterest as a platform for buying products. Considering how many people use the service, that’s a significant number of potential shoppers. Pinterest marketing will make a user shopping experience very easy and mobile-friendly.
3. It’s Self-Contained
Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest allows you to make sales directly on the platform—you don’t have to send potential customers anywhere else. With Pinterest’s shopping features, you can create a unique, easy-to-use shopping experience that makes it less likely that customers will leave before checking out.
Note that on-platform checkout is only available to iOS and Android users in the US. Brands from other countries can set up Pinterest storefronts and direct users to their eCommerce stores for checkout.
4. It’s Cutting-Edge Technology
Because Pinterest is becoming more popular again, more people are using the app than ever before, and the company keeps adding new features to keep up.
In 2022 alone, Pinterest launched the “Try it on for Home Decor” feature, allowing Pinners to test home goods using augmented reality (AR).
5. It’s Free
Like other social media platforms, nowadays Pinterest is also promoting brands and businesses free of charge, and if you want to be paid to promote that is also possible. As it will provide you with “organic traffic” in comparison to Facebook.
Pinterest has Introduced New Shopping Features for Ecommerce Marketing
Pinterest has been shopping-friendly for many years. In 2013, they introduced Rich Pins, which pulled data from brands’ websites into their Pinterest content. In 2015, they added “buyable pins,” rebranded as “product pins” in 2018.
Still, the app went above and beyond for brands during the COVID-19 lockdown. In 2020, they launched the “Shop” tab, which made it even easier for users to shop while searching the app or browsing the web.
There are currently some features that Pinterest marketing users can use in the app:
- Shop from Boards: When a Pinterest user visits a home decor or fashion board, the Shop tab will show products from the Pins they’ve saved. If those exact products aren’t available, it will serve up products inspired by the pins.
- Shop from Pins: While browsing regularly on Pinterest, users can tap Shop Similar to see related products for looks and rooms.
- Shop from Search: The Shop tab is now readily available from search results, so if Pinterest users search “summer outfits,” “apartment ideas,” or “home office,” they can easily tap the tab and be fed shopping options.
- Shop from Style Guides: Pinterest curates its style guides for popular home decor terms like “living room ideas,” “mid-century,” “contemporary,” and more. The goal is to help Pinners find products even if they need to know what they’re looking for.
- Shop from Brand Pages: Stores that sign up for Pinterest’s free Verified Merchant Program can have a shop tab right on their profile (like in the example below), meaning Pinners are just a tap away from a shopping spree.
How To Sell On Pinterest
There are many different ways to get started as a retailer on Pinterest. Whether you’re using it to send out #inspo vibes and build awareness or make sales on the platform, you should have a solid strategy.
Here’s a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for how to sell on Pinterest.
- Find the Right Niche
Pinterest is vital to any brand philosophy, but it’s essential on Pinterest. After all, this app is about curation; it’s key to ensuring you’re starting from the right place. Before you set up shop, consider your target audience and content strategy.
Please spend some time on Pinterest to understand the distinct communities and where your brand might fit in, whether they are cottage-style fashionistas or mid-century modern houseware addicts.
- Set Up a Business Account
You need to have a business account to do business from your Pinterest account. No-brainer, right? Well, a business account differs from a personal account; it gives you access to analytics, ads, and a large business toolbox.
There are two main ways to get a business account. You can convert your profile into a business account by following the instructions or signing up for a new one from scratch.
Creating an account means you accept Pinterest’s business terms of service and privacy policy.
- Open the Pinterest app and log into your personal Pinterest account.
- Tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
- Tap at the top-right corner.
- Tap Settings.
- Select “Add to account.”
- Under Create a free business account, tap Create.
- Tap the linked business account.
- Select “Create Account.”
- Follow the prompts to create your business account, then tap Done.
Convert your account into a business account.
You can convert your account to a business account. Your pins and followers will remain the same.
- Open the Pinterest app and log into your personal Pinterest account.
- Tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
- Tap at the top-right corner
- Tap Settings
- Choose account management.
- Under Account Changes, tap Convert to a business account.
- Choose Account Conversion.
- Enter your profile name, then tap Next.
- Enter your website URL and tap Next, or tap Skip this step.
- Select from the list to describe your business, then tap Next.
- Choose whether or not to run ads, then tap Done.
- Solidify Your Brand.
Before you get to the fun stuff, making sure your Pinterest profile is aligned with your brand as a whole is essential. That means taking time and care to ensure everything is in order, from your username and profile photo to your bio and contact information. Pinterest users who come across your brand on the platform should be able to quickly identify it if they’ve seen it before.
As previously mentioned, you can also sign up for the Verified Merchant Program, which is free and will add a blue checkmark (not unlike Twitter and Instagram’s verification mark) to your page. Pinterest marketing will make your brand come across as more credible on the platform.
- Define Your Aesthetic
Though it’s truly a unique beast, Pinterest is a visual search engine at its core. Of course, you should keep SEO-friendly titles in mind for your posts, but you also must create a solid visual identity.
- Create a Catalog
Before you get to pinning, there’s one more crucial step in setting up your Pinterest shop: creating a catalog. This process requires a spreadsheet with some critical information that is then used to generate product pins and make a record on Pinterest.
The product spreadsheet needs seven things:
- A unique ID.
- A title.
- A description.
- A product URL.
- An image URL.
- A price.
- Information about when the product is available
You also need to host your data somewhere. To submit to Pinterest, you need to provide a link to your CSV that will always be available to them. It can be hosted via an FTP or SFTP server or an HTTP or HTTPS download link, but it can’t be password-protected. Once you submit this link to Pinterest, your products will be available as “product pins.”
Pinterest refreshes your data source once every 24 hours, so you should be able to add products to the spreadsheet and have them automatically show up in your Pinterest shop without much work. The company also says they can process up to 20 million+ products per account, so unless you’re running the most prominent store to ever exist on earth, you should be able to create a comprehensive product list.
- Use Rich Pins
A product spreadsheet is a fantastic way to keep your Pinterest updated, but there’s another way to access many special features on the app. If you have claimed your website as described in Step 3, you can use a lot more of its features.
You must apply for rich pins to obtain them. Find more information on the types of rich pins and the setup process. Then, Pinterest will analyze your site’s metadata to ensure it syncs properly.
Rich Pins will be easy to find when you tap “Create a new pin” after they have been approved.
- Make Marketing Moves
You know your brand and exactly what you want to do with it. Now’s the time to bring your marketing savvy to Pinterest boards.
Was a celebrity photographed wearing your clothing? Or does an influencer use one of your home decor products in their photos? Go on a tagging spree and pin your products. Further, you can get a lot of mileage by tagging your items on Shop the Look posts.
How to Create Ads for New Campaigns on Pinterest Marketing
You can promote a pin in either a new or existing campaign.
Create an Ad in a New Campaign
- Log into your Pinterest business account.
- Click Ads at the top of the screen, then click Create Ad.
- Click “Ads” in the left-side navigation.
- Select the pins you want to promote:
- Click to filter ads by format or to only show existing ads.
- Click “All Pins” to see your pins or “Boards” to select pins from your boards.
- Click in the search bar to search for a specific pin.
- Click All Pins, then click + to open the Pin Builder and create an organic pin. To create multiple pins, click
- the plus icon at the top of the Pin Builder screen, or click the ellipsis icon above a pin to duplicate it. To edit or delete multiple Pins, click the Select all checkbox at the top of the screen or the checkbox next to individual Pins, then click Edit or Delete Selected. Once complete, click Publish to publish your organic Pins.
- Under your chosen pins, click “Review selected pins” to add details to your ads:
- Review and edit the ad name to change how your ad will be labeled in your reporting.
- Review and edit the ad destination URL and add any optional tracking parameters.
- Click Launch.
- Errors will appear in red on the left side of the screen if your campaign is missing any critical information.
- Click the highlighted topics in the left-side navigation to go to that section and fix any existing errors.
Objective and Ad Format Availability
| Campaign objective | Format options |
|---|---|
| Brand awareness | Static (default)CarouselVideoMax video collections |
| Video views | VideoMax video |
| Consideration | Static (default)CarouselVideoCollections |
| Conversions | Static (default)CarouselVideoCollections |
| Catalogue sales | ShoppingCollections |
Pinterest Ad Format for Ecommerce Marketing
Visual Format
- Standard Format
Pinterest marketing ad Standard Format is a portrait-style image “pinned” to a board within the platform and is generally the image size that Pinterest recommends to users. Users like the standard format pin size because it makes the most of what the organic board layout can show.
- Video Format
It is a great way to tell a complete story about your brand, idea, or project. The video format has a cover image that captures your audience’s attention. They play in users’ feeds, so remember that your audience may have their volume off when they see your video. One of the best formats in Pinterest marketing is video format.
- Carousel Format
The carousel format lets you show two or more images and videos in a single ad, each with its headline, description, link, and call to action. To scroll through a carousel, people swipe on their mobile devices or click the arrows on their computer screen.
- Collections Format
The collection is an ad format that lets people move from discovery to purchase in a smooth and immersive way. Each collection ad has an introductory video or image with three smaller images below it, arranged in a grid.
How to Find Your Perfect Targeted Audience Through The Pinterest Marketing Platform
Our precise targeting tools will get your ads in front of the right audience that you care about most.
Automated targeting
Well, pick your audience according to the details of your pin.
Demographics
Narrow in on the right audience using information like age, gender, location, and language.
Topic Interest
Reach people based on their favourite topics, such as recipes or home décor. Your ads will display as people browse their home feeds.
Keywords
Reach people who are ready to act by targeting specific search terms. Your ads will appear in search results and related Pins.
Customer lists
Upload your customer list to reach people who have already engaged with your website, shop, or Pinterest content.
Actalikes
Use actalike audiences to find other people with similar interests and behaviours to your existing customers.
Pinterest marketing ads are a flexible and simple tool. It allows you to create ads from your phone. Also, Ads Manager lets you build and edit your campaigns or set up custom targeting. And Pinterest Business Partners work with our approved partners to scale your ads and measure results.
Types of Ads on a Pinterest Marketing Platform
- Shopping Ads
- Collection Ads
- Carousel Ads
- paid Partnerships
- Video Ads
- Static Pins
- Buyable Pins
- Story Pins
Tools that are Extremely Beneficial for Pinterest Marketing
Tools used for Pinterest marketing include the best time-saving tools for pinning, analyzing, and image building, too. Here are some favorite tools (including ours) for getting this job done.
Find great images to pin from any website and immediately add them to your Pinterest schedule with the Buffer browser extension. Similarly, if you’re browsing Pinterest and come across something that would fit your board, you can pin it again with a single click of a button.
Also, you can come back to your dashboard to see all the stats from your pins—likes, comments, and repins—right alongside your other social media stats, saving you vast amounts of time by having all this in one place.
Is a complete Pinterest marketing management tool with some pretty neat analytics options. In addition to scheduling and the standard stats, you can analyze your competitors and see trending points, top spinners, and your most influential followers.
Canva is one of our favorite tools for editing images, and it has a Pinterest marketing template that you can use right away. This template comes with a lot of different designs to get you started. The image comes out with an optimized 2:3 aspect ratio, perfect for pinning.
With ViralTag, you can browse from a preselected set of images or upload your own and schedule them for Pinterest.
Here’s a fantastic time saver for those who share a lot on Pinterest and Facebook: Pinvolve converts your Facebook photos into Pins and places your Pins on your Facebook page. The Pro version does it all automatically, or you can manually move around in the free version. simple as that.
Receive email notifications whenever someone pins something from your website or a competitor’s website.
This complimentary list of Pinterest tools allows you to thoroughly integrate your Pinterest presence with your website. Here are the five widgets that Pinterest offers:
- The Pin It button will enable people to pin things from your website.
- Follow Button: This will allow people to follow you on Pinterest from your website.
- Pin Widget: This lets you embed one of your pins on your site.
- Profile Widget: This widget displays up to 30 of your latest pins on your site.
- Board Widget: This widget displays up to 30 of your favourite board’s latest pins.
We built a quick-and-simple image creation tool at Buffer to make image building as fast as possible. You can start with some of our preloaded quotes or add your own. One of my favourite features is the ability to add some branding by uploading a secondary image, in this case, a logo.
A tool to help with creating images from quotes, this tool works both as a web app and as a bookmarklet. In the web app, you’ll need to enter the passage and who said it, then choose the Quozio template design that you like best.