How much potential is there in Pinterest ads for companies?

More than 300 million people worldwide use Pinterest – around 7 million in ^Germany1. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, users actively search for inspiration on the visual search engine Pinterest. In Germany alone, four million pieces of content are saved by users every day^.2
Since the beginning of 2019, it has been possible to place paid advertising on Pinterest using “Promoted Pins”. The new marketing channel offers companies the opportunity to increase their brand awareness and reach new customers through ideas and inspiration.

What actually is Pinterest?

On Pinterest, ideas and content can be saved in image and video form on virtual pinboards. Users can upload their own image and video material or collect and share content from other users and companies on their personal online pinboards. The videos or images are referred to as “pins” and are linked to a website, blog or online store.

Promoted Pins: familiar with new potential

As with the advertising options on other social media platforms, various campaign goals such as reach, conversions or traffic to the company page can be set on Pinterest. Possible ad formats are image, video, app or carousel ads. There are both familiar and completely new functions for targeting:

 

• Demographic targeting: reach users by place of residence, age or gender

 

• Interest targeting: Addressing users who have specific interests

 

• Target group targeting: Reach website visitors and users with the same interests and behaviors (“ActAlike” target groups)

 

• What‘s new: Keyword targeting: As Pinterest is a visual search engine, there is also the option of setting keywords for the Promoted Pins. This allows you to define the search query for which the ad is displayed.

Pinterest marketing: Interesting for companies?

Pinterest is a pull medium, which means that users are specifically looking for inspiration or tips and actively pull them from the platform. As a result, users are more focused and perceive the content more intensively, which is reflected in the number of clicks or saved pins.

Pinterest serves as a planning aid for many people. They search for suitable products on Pinterest three months before making a purchase^.3 During this decision-making phase, companies have a good chance of reaching new customers. A study shows that 97% of the most popular searches are general and broad search queries with no brand reference. Interesting: 77% of active users state that they have discovered new products or brands through these general searches^.4

Our test and conclusion

To test the Pinterest ads first-hand, we set up a comparable traffic campaign on Facebook and Instagram as well as on Pinterest. We design image and video material with several motifs for the advertisements. For each platform, we compile the desired target group and, in the case of Pinterest, also the keywords for the Promoted Pins. Our results: The campaign on Pinterest achieved three times the reach and twice as much traffic as on Facebook and Instagram – with the same budget.

We are convinced that there is a lot of potential in Pinterest ads – especially for companies that offer products in the food, fashion or travel sectors. Due to the comparatively low level of competition, the costs for Promoted Pins are lower than for ads on Facebook and Instagram. Even with a small budget, brand awareness can be increased, traffic to the company website boosted and new customers won.