Pinterest marketing is a content marketers dream. If you’re looking for a channel that can drive a lot of traffic, has users who are open to discovering new brands, and are searching for keywords related to your products then Pinterest should be considered in your channel mix. Due to this, Pinterest is a super effective way to find and the discover segment of your funnel.
A little known fact is that Pinterest is that it is both a display and search advertising channel. You can create campaigns that target interest cohorts (like Facebook Ads works), or you can do campaigns to specific keyword searches (like Google Ads works). In this way, it is a super flexible channel for marketers since both discovery campaigns and campaigns with search intent can be implemented. For search campaigns, the traffic is often extremely cheaper than Google and Bing.
Pinterest Marketing Tips
Here are some quick hitting Pinterest marketing and advertising tips. These are based off the success I’ve had for me clients with this channel.
- Do search only campaigns
- Do traffic campaigns, they are more effective than conversion campaigns
- Create ads that have a call to action in them
- Put the keywords you’re targeting in the ad description, this will help rank the pin to get more organic traffic (more below on this)
- Name your boards with you target keywords. Pinterest boards rank extremely effectively on Google
- Maximize the height of the pin to take up as much screen real estate
Successful Pinterest Marketing Campaigns
To create an effective Pinterest marketing campaign you need to start with your goal. Define whether you’re trying to get more blog readership, ebook downloads, or product sales. Based on the goal of your Pinterest campaign, start researching keywords and interests on Pinterest that are related to your campaign goal.
For example, I drive traffic to this blog through Pinterest search campaigns. For this blog, my goal is to educate people on data driven growth marketing, get email signs up, and get new client leads. On Pinterest I target all of the keywords related to “digital marketing”.
To do this I search digital marketing on Pinterest, and then I scrape the keywords out of Pinterest and put them into a CSV. These keywords are then used in the search campaign.
Pinterest Marketing Strategy
Pinterest fits into your digital marketing mix by being a traffic source and a way to introduce products to people. I’ve found that Pinterest traffic is less likely to buy than Facebook traffic, but Pinterest traffic is more likely to read a long form article, spend more time on page, and download a free digital asset like a gift card or ebook. Due to this, think of Pinterest as the vehicle to cast a wider marketing net.
Pinterest is also a powerful SEO tool since it builds an insane amount of social backlinks (also called no-follow backlinks) whenever someone saves a pin. Below is a screenshot of codyschneider.com’s Pinterest backlinks.
Pinterest B2B Marketing
Pinterest is a powerful B2B marketing tool for home and garden, home improvement, and architecture. Pinterest users spend a lot of time planning future renovations on the platform. Since these people are spending time here, it is a great way to introduce your brand to people who are in need of your services.
The strategy I use for Pinterest B2B marketing is to create written content, with free digital assets that have call to actions to download. When the user downloads, I’ll put them into an email nurture campaign that sends emails every week related the the services we offer. I’ve found this to be a super effective way to use Pinterest as a B2B marketing channel.
Pinterest for Small Business Marketing
If you’re marketing your small business on Pinterest, you can focus on people in your region who have an interest in your products. Pinterest allows advertisers to target people living in specific cities, area codes or regions. When running a campaign for Pinterest, focus on sending people to a page where they can learn more about your company and provide an offer to them. Combining Pinterest ads with Facebook remarketing is an even more effective way to grow as well.
How to Market on Pinterest
Marketing on Pinterest should be focused on brand discovery. Pinterest is a future planning engine, meaning people use the platform to find ideas, catalog them, and then make purchasing decisions based on these pins later on. Knowing this allows for us to understand the type of content we should be promoting. Content that educates people, that will be saved to boards for future decisions are a great strategy to implement for your Pinterest marketing.
Organic Marketing on Pinterest
Organic marketing on Pinterest is contingent on how well you name pins, the content in the pins, and how often the pin gets saved. When Pinterest users search a keyword on Pinterest and save your pin, Pinterest starts to understands that your pin is a good answer to the query. In this way, pins can rank for keywords over time.
As pins get saved, they show up in other peoples feeds. And as those pins show up in other peoples feeds, the process propagates. In this way Pinterest is an exponential social media where the content on the platform gains more value for us over time.
This process is slow but can be powerful in driving free traffic to your website. The more reach you get, the more traffic you’ll acquire.
Paid Advertising on Pinterest
To speed up the process above, paid advertising on Pinterest can be used. Pinterest ads are cost effective, allow for users to target interests and keywords, and Pinterest provides a robust ads structure that allows for traffic campaigns, awareness, and conversions.
What’s also powerful about paid ads is that they can increase your organic efforts. For example, if a user saves a pin and then one of their followers clicks the pin from their feed, the advertiser doesn’t pay for that secondary click. When the pin is saved, it also helps that pin rank better for keywords. In this way paid Pinterest campaigns can help get initial momentum for pins.
Is Pinterest a good marketing tool?
Pinterest is a good marketing tool for people looking for a lot of traffic of people who are in the discovery phase of their purchasing journey. With my clients, I have found that the traffic from the platform isn’t typically buyer ready. With that said, the products I’ve seen sell best with Pinterest ads are ones with price points that are impulse buys.
Instagram vs Pinterest Marketing
Instagram and Pinterest are extremely different marketing channels. Instagram is about consistency in the feed, Pinterest is about the volume of pins. Media on Instagram is a bell shaped interest curve, where posts peak interest is about 12 hours after posting. In contrast, Pinterest pins are an exponential curve where the impressions increase over time. Pinterest also is a search engine where Instagram is an interest based platform.
While both channels can have a place in your marketing mix, Pinterest is a more effective traffic driver than Instagram.
