How to Use Pinterest Promoted Pins for Business
Promoted Pins are PInterest’s version of paid advertising campaigns. Pinterest has free (organic) and paid posts, called Pins. Saving organic Pins to your boards can increase brand awareness, generate sales, and boost a search engine optimization campaign even if your brand or business does not fit into one of Pinterest’s popular categories. The social media channel now has over 300 million active users and is working toward a stronger video strategy for businesses with its new video features and metrics.
Promoted Pins appear in home feeds (news feeds), search results, and the “more like this” section under Pin close-up views. Businesses can use standard image Pins as single image Promoted Pins. These were the first version of Promoted Pins, but the advertising options have expanded. Promoted Pins now include app Pins, carousels, and two versions of video Pins.
No matter which type of Promoted Pin you choose – video, app, carousel, or standard be sure you use clear images with optimized text, titles, and landing pages. Pinterest data shows that Pins with a brand name in the first line of Pin description earn two-times higher brand awareness.
Promoted App Pins look and act just like a Promoted Pin or Promoted Video Pin. This type of Promoted Pin lets Pinners download an advertised mobile app by tapping on Pin labeled “install now.” They also need to convey your marketing message to encourage Pinners to click through. App Pins must link to an official app store like Google Play or iTunes. Promoted App Pins are only seen on mobile devices so this is a good strategy to get more app downloads since the majority of users access Pinterest from a mobile device. They can quickly download your app by tapping on a Promoted Pin.
Promoted Carousels
Carousel Pins have multiple images (cards) that users can scroll through. Each card in a Promoted Carousel advertisement can feature a different image, title, description, and landing page.
Pinterest Promoted Video Pins
A video Pin is an easy way to introduce your product to viewers. A video Pin does not have to be excessively long to be effective either. Something as short as 25 seconds can help a viewer make a buying decision.
Promoted Video Pins appear in the viewers’ home feeds, search results, both depending on what you specify in your campaign. They also show up in the “more like this” section that shows underneath the Pin when the viewer taps the Pin for a close-up view. The number of close ups is something you will see in your video metrics. Promoted video Pins also include an in-feed preview and a cluster of featured Pins. To get the most out of your video Pin marketing use the clustered Pins for related Products or storytelling.
Promoted video Pins can be standard width or max width. Standard width videos are the same size as image Pins. Max width video take up more than one column, so they are more visible. Because of this, they are also more expensive to run because the minimum bids are higher.
What Types of Video Pins Are Most Effective?
Pins that show a person interacting with your product are 67 percent more likely to increase online sales lift. According to Pinterest, storytelling videos and how-to tutorials make the best video Pins. Pinterest videos auto play as soon as half of the Pin is on the viewer’s screen. As with any video marketing strategy, it is important that the video conveys your message without relying on audio. Many viewers watch videos with the sound off.
There is no solid correlation between video length and video completion rates on Pinterest. However, Pinterest viewers watched videos 29 percent longer when the video had a storyline. Video completion rates doubled for videos longer than 25 seconds.
Promoted Pin Placements
There are two types of Promoted Pin placements to choose from when setting up a campaign. Choose from search or browse placements. You can use both if your budget allows and it makes sense for your advertisement. Pins that use Browse placements show in users’ home feed and as related pins. Browse placements work well for interest and behavior targeting.
Pins that use search placement show when a Pinterest user searches for a word of phrase using the Pinterest search bar. Remember that the overwhelming majority of Pinterest searches are unbranded, so this is an easy opportunity. Pins that use search result placements work best with keyword targeting.
Promoted Pins Campaign Objectives
Videos Pins work well for brand awareness campaigns. Promoted Video Pins are more memorable than standard Promoted Pins. Promoted Pins can utilize four campaign objectives as follows.
- Get traffic to your website. Pins can drive shoppers to a website. These are pay-per click campaigns
- Build brand awareness. Storytelling can increase visibility for your brand. Pins are charged per 1,000 impressions
- Increase installs for your app. Promoted App Pins are run with two different structures – pay per installation or pay per click. Pay per objectives are optimized for click traffic
- Build awareness through video views. Video Pins work well for brand awareness, tutorials, and storytelling. Advertisers pay per 1,000 impressions
Text overlays can help your campaign objective. The best text overlays call out unique features or are actionable. For instance, adding the word “new” can result in nine times higher aided awareness. Overlays with actionable copy see a six percent lift in online sales.
Metrics for Promoted Pins
- Impressions: Impressions are the number of times your Promoted Pin was seen on Pinterest either in the feed or in search results. Viewers may have only scrolled past your Promoted Pin, so an impression does not indicate any type of interaction or interest
- Closeups Close-up are a count of the number of times a viewer tapped the Pin to see larger images. This is a good indication of interest
- Saves: This is the number of times people saved the Pin to any Pinterest board
- Link clicks: The total number of clicks on your Pin’s link to your landing page URL
Metrics for Video Pins
In addition to the standard Promoted Pin metrics. Video Pins, both organic and Promoted, have additional metrics. Even if you are not running a Pinterest Promoted Video campaigns, you can still get a lot of useful metrics by creating video Pins for your boards.
- Video views: The number of times someone watched the Video Pin for more than two seconds with at least 50 percent of the video on their screen. Remember that Video Pins auto play when half of the Pin is within view
- Average watch time: The average amount of time, in minutes, people watched your video. This is how you measure completion rate for a video Pin
- Saves: The number of times people saved the Pin to any Pinterest board
- Link clicks: The total number of clicks on your Pin’s link to your landing page URL
- 95% views: The number of times your 95 percent of your video Pin was watched again with 50% or more in view
- Total watch time: The total number of minutes your video Pin was watched or viewed