Pinterest is sometimes a social media platform that is overlooked by advertisers and we can understand why, as of all social media platforms, its advertising solution has the most nuances. However there are significant benefits to including a paid approach on Pinterest as part of your media strategy moving forward.
Look at the current economic climate. The cost-of-living is a regular feature in the nightly news, people are doing it harder and discretionary spend has dropped. Why does this matter? Research shows that a third of Pinterest users are earning $100,000 USD (that’s approx. $150k AUD) a year. That’s a lot of people who are considered affluent, less impacted by economic downturns and more likely to purchase bigger ticket items.
So What are the Benefits of Pinterest?
There are a number of benefits to Pinterest that make it worthy of including in your paid social strategy, which we’ll dive into now.
It’s Similar to Search
Pinterest also helps with your SEO. Even if you aren’t running paid ads on the platform, we suggest maintaining an organic profile and presence on Pinterest. If you have ever run a Google image search, you might have noticed that a lot of the results are actually images from Pinterest. That’s entirely from organic Pinterest posts that people have posted on the platform.
Like traditional SEO, this is a long-term approach and you won’t see results overnight, but by ensuring that your posts have ranking keywords in the headline and copy, you could see incremental gains from organic Pinterest posts by setting and forgetting.
Pinterest is a social platform, but its functionality as an advertising platform is comparable to Google. Let’s unpack this further.
In the back-end, where we set up campaigns, the recommended approach to targeting on Pinterest is keywords. Yes, those same keywords you already use on Google. If anything, this reduces barriers to entry for advertisers to the platform, as we can use a keyword strategy you are already using on Google, with the additional overlay of demographic targeting if required.
Pinterest Can Help Your SEO
Pinterest also helps with your SEO. Even if you aren’t running paid ads on the platform, we suggest maintaining an organic profile and presence on Pinterest. If you have ever run a Google image search, you might have noticed that a lot of the results are actually images from Pinterest. That’s entirely from organic Pinterest posts that people have posted on the platform.
Like traditional SEO, this is a long-term approach and you won’t see results overnight, but by ensuring that your posts have ranking keywords in the headline and copy, you could see incremental gains from organic Pinterest posts by setting and forgetting.
How to Make the Most of Pinterest SEO
There are a number of simple steps and strategies that you can employ on Pinterest to get the greatest benefit for your SEO. Let’s explore some of them below.
Establish a Pinterest Business Account
Begin by setting up a business account on Pinterest. This not only grants you access to essential tools like Pinterest Analytics but also positions your profile for better visibility and management.
Optimise Your Profile
It’s crucial to ensure that your profile reflects your brand accurately. This includes a clear and professional username, business description, and a direct link to your website. Such optimisation helps Pinterest better understand and categorise your business, enhancing your overall SEO.
Incorporate Strategic Keywords
As with traditional SEO practices, integrating relevant keywords into your pins can greatly improve their visibility. Use keywords thoughtfully in your pin titles and descriptions to attract the right audience and boost your content’s searchability.
Engage with Current Trends
Pinterest offers insights into current trends which can be invaluable for tailoring your content to meet current demands. By aligning your posts with these trends, you can increase the exposure of your pins and drive more targeted traffic to your site.
Utilise Rich Pins
Rich Pins are a feature that automatically updates information from your website to your pins. This ensures that your content remains fresh and relevant, providing more value to users and enhancing engagement.
Audiences Come to Pinterest to Be Inspired
In essence, Pinterest is a search platform where audiences come to be inspired, with this searchfor inspiration overwhelmingly coming without pre-conceptions or expectations. That’s why 97% of searches on the platform are unbranded. That is a huge opportunity for advertisers to get in front of their audience and convince them why you are the better choice first.
Let’s use the caravan category as an example. A user goes to Pinterest because they are starting to plan a holiday: they search ‘road trip Australia’ into the Pinterest search bar and all these photos populate their feed. They’re overwhelmed, so many places for them to visit, but they can’t visit them all.
Or can they? Because in their feed, your ad has appeared in the results. They weren’t considering a van, but now the seed has been planted, they start planning. Where will they go, and when? But more importantly, what van will they need? That’s when they search your brand and get further into your eco-system through a paid search ad.
See how it all works together?
Pinterest Supports an Omni-Channel Strategy
Advertisers we’ve worked with in the past have had the same criticism about Pinterest: ‘Google Analytics says it doesn’t work’. It can be difficult for advertisers to justify spend when their analytics says it doesn’t work, especially if you are using last-touch attribution models designed to favour Google Search and referrals, but it’s also important to understand how Pinterest works as an advertising platform.
As mentioned earlier, audiences come to Pinterest to be inspired and discover new things, and their searches on platform are unbranded. When we think of it like that, it is likely that Pinterest is the first time your audience has been exposed to your brand. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that consumers don’t immediately click ‘add to cart’ the first time they have encountered a brand, especially when the product they’re looking at is thousands of dollars. You research, you learn, then you decide.
The fact is, if you are using last-touch attribution, you aren’t going to see conversions in your analytics from Pinterest. But Pinterest does work, because Pinterest is where your brand is discovered, and it pushes your audiences along the path to purchase.
For a better understanding of how Pinterest is working for you as a platform, we recommend a mix of Pinterest analytics and Google analytics, looking for incremental uplift across those converting channels, because often, that is where Pinterest works it’s hardest.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
If you’re wondering if Pinterest is a good fit for your advertising strategy, we can help. At Retain Media, our team of ad managers and social media specialists are experienced at designing campaigns that work across channels to maximise your ad budget and deliver conversions.
For more information, contact us today to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation and find out how we can make Pinterest work for you.
