Social media platform Pinterest has just launched its ‘promoted pins’ service into Australia and New Zealand, allowing local retailers to advertise on the site for the first time.
With two million pins saved each day in Australia, the online pin board is worth looking at if you operate in its top categories: DIY, food and drink, fashion, art and home décor.
What are promoted pins?
Promoted pins are paid advertisements on the Pinterest platform. Similar to a Facebook ad, you create a post and then choose your target audience including locations, demographics, and interests. The campaign will then run on a cost-per-click basis, with a specified daily budget and duration.
How can you use them?
One way to use paid for pins is to raise brand awareness. According to Pinterest, in a study comparing users who saw promoted pins to those who didn’t; pinners who saw promoted pins had a 40 per cent greater awareness of new products and 50 per cent higher purchase intent.
Another option is to boost engagement, increasing the number of people who save and click your pins. Or, perhaps most importantly for retailers, you can use promoted pins to drive traffic to your website.
Who’s doing it?
Global cosmetics brand L’Oreal Paris used standard promoted pins and cinematic pins—images that move as users scroll down the page—to launch a new beauty product.
“Because this was a new product category for us, we wanted to elevate our typical launch strategy and actually show how the Lumi Glow Highlighter can accentuate our customer’s best features,” said Amy Whang, vice president of cosmetics at L’Oreal Paris.
“Since highlighting can be intimidating to some, using the cinematic pin not only inspired women to use a highlighter as their finishing touch but also positioned L’Oreal Paris as a leader of the highlighting trend.”
The campaign reached nearly 5 million people and saw a 20 per cent increase over the average engagement rate.
American brand MVMT Watches has also had success with promoted pins, finding that Pinterest users convert at a rate twice as high than users on other platforms. The company shared a range of shots, from pins of products along with lifestyle photographs, and found that close-up images of their watches worked the best.
“A lot of people that come for Pinterest are in discovery mode, looking for products to purchase for themselves or others,” said Jake Kassan, CEO. “Pinterest is different from other channels but when done correctly, it can have huge results.”
Kassan also said he found that promoted pins keep working after the campaign is over, as people save the image to their boards.
“A promoted pin, unlike most other ad formats, continues to drive sales even after the initial promotional campaign has ended,” he said. “This extended lifespan is really unique to Pinterest. On other platforms, once a campaign ends, your ads disappear until you restart them again.”
So should you advertise on Pinterest?
With so many social channels vying for your attention (and marketing spend), it can be hard deciding where to put your advertising budget. If you retail products in the platform’s top categories (DIY, food and drink, fashion, art and home décor), promoted pins are definitely worth a look.
However, if your target audience is men, or if you don’t have access to high quality imagery, you might want to give this one a miss.
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