Raise your hand if you’ve tried running an ad for your blog/biz at one time or another? (Meee!!! I’m raising my hand!!!) I’ve tried a few types of ads on different platforms, but the one that I liked the most was the promoted Pinterest pin. Today I am going to share with you 7 reasons why promoted pins are so lit!
The thing about Pinterest is that their algorithm changes. So back in the day when you logged into your account, you would see a feed of the most recent pins being pinned. This meant that I could pin something right now and everyone that logged into Pinterest right now would see it sitting there, no matter who you were. Well those days have changed and pins now appear based on criteria that the Pinterest bots are looking for (popularity of pins, visually pleasing images- size and clarity, etc.). Unfortunately, this isn’t always enough to get you to the top especially when you’re just starting out. So what are you supposed to do?
Promote your pins!
Promoted pins are advertising campaigns for your pins, so you pay to play. When Pinterest began offering promoted pins, the game totally changed. Pinterest is in essence a HUGE search engine, and the results from search terms tend to be more relevant than results from a Google search. This is one reason why Pinterest is so popular and why it has so many users. As a blogger/biz owner, you can use this to your advantage! So let me tell you why promoted pins are so lit:
1. Flexibility
There are three different types of campaigns that you can run, so there is flexibility depending on what your end goal is.
- Awareness- this is when you want to raise awareness for your brand. These pins tend to have top placement with their desired target audience.
- Engagement-this is when you want to get more people to engage with your pin meaning viewing a closeup, repinning or clicking it. You pay for each type of engagement.
- Traffic- this is when you pay a set amount per click to your site. Basically whenever someone clicks your pin to visit your website, you pay for it.
2. Affordable
I know as a budding blogger/biz owner, lack of cashflow is a huge factor when you need to get things done. Fortunately Pinterest makes it affordable to drive traffic to your site when organic strategies just aren’t getting you the results that you want. You basically set your daily budget and depending on the type of campaign, you can set an amount that you pay per click, per repin or per view. It’s all up to you and what the intent for your campaign is. For example, for the traffic ads that I run, I only pay $.10 per click and have a $1 a day budget.
3. Longevity
When people repin a promoted pin, it stays on their board even if you stop promoting it. A pin is a pin and it’s there fo’ life. Some of my previous promoted pins still get some good activity even though they are no longer running on a campaign. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
4. Targeting
You can get very specific with the audience that you want to target. You can choose to target a certain sex, country, city, interest, mobile device, language spoken, etc. You can also target certain keywords in searches. Pinterest makes it so much easier to reach your target market. The more specific you get the more successful and relevant your engagement will be. Remember, when you target everyone you target no one.
5. Tax Deductible
They’re tax deductible! This is considered a marketing or advertising expense if you file business taxes.
Related: Tax Deductions For Bloggers and Creative Entrepreneurs
6. Impressions On Fleek
By running a promoted pin campaign, your pin is going to get waaayyyyy more eyes on it than through traditional means of pinning. This is helpful when you are just starting out and you need more exposure.
7. Analytics On Point
When you have a promoted pin, the reporting that’s available to you is very helpful. The reports tell you how many impressions there were (aka eyes on your pin), how many likes and repins and the number of clicks. They also tell you some information about the audience that is engaging with your pin. It tells you the percentage of pinners by gender, their interests, their location, etc. This can tell you a TON about the audience that you are attracting versus the audience that you intended to attract. Hopefully the two are in line with each other, and if not you may need to rethink your approach to target your ideal audience.
You can also compare results of different pins that you promote sort of like A/B testing. For example, you could create two versions of a pin, promote them both and see which one gets better engagement. You can also compare campaigns for different pins and for the ones that don't get much action, stop promoting them.
I began running ads on Pinterest in May of 2016 and have since seen a huge increase in traffic to my site as well as newsletter subscribers. I have only promoted pins for a traffic campaign which means that I pay each time someone clicks the link in my pin and visits my site. I’m cool with this because I created a budget of $1.00 a day and I only pay $0.10 per click (yes, ten cents!). This is probably going to be one of the most effective ads that you could run because they can be so inexpensive, and again, because the pins are always around even when the ad is no longer running.
Here is the data for my most popular promoted pin that started on 7/1/16 and continues today:
Even if I stop promoting this pin, it will still live on nearly 2000 boards and still has plenty of opportunity to be repinned further!
Pinterest can be an awesome marketing strategy if you know how to work it. The only requirements to run promoted pins are being in the US, UK or Canada and having a business Pinterest account (which is free).
I would love to know if you have used promoted pins in your marketing strategy and how the experience was. Leave a comment below!
