an industry guide to pinterest advertising

Pinterest AdvertisingEducation and Skills For The Professional Advertiser

AN INDUSTRY GUIDE TO

MODULE 9

ContentsLearning Objectives .............................................................. 1

Pinterest Ad Formats................................................. ........2-4

Promoted Pins

One-tap Promoted Pins

Promoted App Pins

Promoted Video Pins

Cinematic Pins

Where People See Pinterest Ads ......................................... 5

Pinterest Campaign Management .....................................6-7

Targeting with Pinterest users .........................................8-11

Buying Pinterest Advertising .............................................. 12

Creating Pinterest Ads ....................................................... 13

Metrics & Reporting .......................................................14-15

Case Study ....................................................................16-18

Pinterest AdvertisingSharing.

Discovery.

The world of Pinterest.

Over 175 million people come to Pinterest every month ready to act on the ideas they find. Pinterest is a place where sharing a brand’s helpful, actionable ideas can lead to big, measurable results.

Pinterest is visual. It is pictures. Science has proven that the brain processes images in a completely different way than text. The information is processed quicker and at a deeper level. It is much easier to develop an emotional connection to images than it is with text. Hence, the value of Pinterest as a medium, and as a marketing communications tool.

The paid messaging facets of Pinterest will be exposed in this learning module. It is important to grasp that all opportunities are housed in Pinterest’s singular “image” focus as an advertis-ing medium.

This learning module provides an overview Pinterest as:

• A strategic advertising medium for business• A “show...don’t say” targeting tool• An impressionable platform that helps people plan

Module 9

Pinterest Advertising

1. Explain all Pinterest advertising forms: Promoted Pins, One-Tap Promoted Pins, Promoted App Pins, Promoted Video Pins and Cinematic Pins(introduced August 2017).

2. Show where Pinterest ads appear: home feed, search and related pins.

3. Demonstrate Pinterest’s abilities to target audiences

4. Explain Pinterest advertising pricing models

5. Detail the steps in Promoted Pin advertising on Pinterest along

with mechanical specifications.

6. Present Pinterest campaign performance metrics for campaign

optimization.

Pinterest Advertising 1

Go to page

TUTORIAL

Pinterest advertisingPinterest advertising is inspiration on the path to purchase. Yes, it's different. It is discovery, play and planning for life's moments of inspiration. Right now Pinterest advertising products include:

• Promoted Pins• One-tap Promoted Pins• Promoted App Pins• Promoted Video Pins• Cinematic Pins

https://ads.pinterest.com

Learning Objectives

https://ads.pinterest.com

Module 9 Pinterest Advertising2

Pinterest Advertising Formats

How people see ads on PinterestAdvertisements on Pinterest are unique to the social medium's visual platform. Pinterest is a visual array of vertical images. Ads blend tastefully into the fabric of each pin board page.

Promoted Pins

The core ad format of Pinterest are Promoted Pins. They are just like regular Pins, only advertisers pay to have them seen by more people. They are ads that perform just as well, if not better, than organic Pins, helping people discover and save ideas.

Promoted Pins don’t interrupt or distract Pinners. They help peo-ple find the products and services that are right for them.

Any business with access to the Pinterest Ads Manager can take advantage of Promoted Pins. Whether the goal is to branding, drive in-store sales, online actions or boost traffic, it’s simple to start.

Note: A prerequisite for all Pinterest advertising is that a company or

organization must have a Pinterest business account known as Pinterest

Ads Manager.

Full details: https://about.pinterest.com/en/advertising-standards


3 One-tap Promoted Pins

Pinterest recently rolled out One-tap Promoted Pins. They are the same as Promoted Pins. These ads act a little differently. When people tap on a One-tap Promoted Pin, they go directly to a chosen landing page.

Pinterest ads for this updated format must satisfy additional requirements in order to ensure a great user experience.

Landing pages for one-tap ads:

• Must load quickly• Must be mobile optimized• Must readily display the product, service, or information featured in the ad above the fold• Can’t include irrelevant pop-ups along with a webcast invitation call to action link


Promoted App Pins 4

Promoted App Pins make it easier for user to find out about the applications and app-makers just by click-ing on the Pin. These Pins link directly to the store for instant app download.

Interactive Pin Demo

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS522US528&biw=1343&bih=761&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Promoted+app+pins&oq=Promoted+app+pins&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i24k1.369463.371543.0.371790.12.12.0.0.0.0.116.1081.11j1.12.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.9.792...0j0i7i30k1j0i7i5i30k1j0i13k1j0i5i30k1.H2u6c2wrGvI#imgrc=LahnnyFfawoBYM:



Promoted Video Pins

Pinterest Promoted Video is a pin with up to 30 minutes of program. A notable difference from other social media video are the presence of featured Pins below the video. This is an ad-vantage for advertisers who use video to demo their products and feature Pins below that showcase the products used.

Cinematic Pins

These made-for-mobile animation Pins have the allure of motion as Pinners scroll past. Cinematic Pins are created using a sequence of images. Advertisers get the benefits of eye-catching action in an easier-to-execute format that’s sure to grab audience attention as a branding strategy.

Cinematic Pin Demo

Video Pin Demo

File type: MP4 or MOVMax size: 2GB, or less; 30 min, or lessAspect ratio: Square (1:1); Vertical (9:16)Resolution: Min 240pFrame rate: Minimum 25fps

https://archive.org/details/youtube-f5h1vNhoDig

https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/introducing-promoted-video


Where People See Pinterest AdsHome Feed

Home Feed is the first thing a person sees when they come to Pinterest. Promoted Pins on the Home Feed are just like regular Pins—the only difference is that an advertiser pays to have more people see it. These Pins will always be labeled “Promoted” so they’re easy to spot.

Search

With Search Ads on Pinterest, advertisers can pro-mote visually engaging ads as consumers search for relevant products. Search marketers on Pinterest can engage earlier in the buying journey, when their cus-tomers are most open to new ideas.

Related Pins

When a Pinterest user clicks on topic button, a related pin may occur for a feature advertised product. These are related Pin advertisements.



Pinterest Campaigns

Campaign Setup and Management

Recommendation: It may be best to let students set up their own Pinter-

est business accounts at this point of instruction. The ability to personally

walk through the account set up, campaign goal, targeting and budget

process will enhance their comprehension.

STEP 1

A Pinterest business account is required to advertise. Go to http:www.pinterest.com. Opening a business account will unlock special features like Pinterest Analytics, and of course, Promoted Pins for advertising.

Next step is to establish a business profile. That will unlock the Pinterest Ads dashboard. Go to http://www. ads.pinterest.com or select the Ads menu option at the top.

Campaign Set up

Pinterest, like its social media cohorts, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, is very deliberate about helping advertisers succeed. As a result, advertisers are lead through a direct sequence of steps beginning with “objectives.”

The first step is the ‘Create Ad’ button. Pinterest presents five (5) campaign objectives:

1. Build Brand Awareness2. Boost Engagement3. Drive Website Traffic4. Increase App Installs5. Build Brand Awareness through Video


Pinterest Campaigns

STEP 2

Upon selection, Pinterest leads advertisers through the entire sequence of naming, start and end dates of campaign, budget and audience selection or “targeting.”


Targeting Audiences

Pinterest ad targeting is directed to the visual audience with up to three(3) coinciding strategies:

1. Pinterest Data (interests, behaviors, location, device, language, gender)

2. Actalikes (people who act like an advertiser’s desired target based on their Pinterest behavior)

3. Advertiser Data (past purchasers, loyalty members, website visitors and advertiser in-house data)

Advertisers begin with selection of any of the three choic-es. In-house data or existing board Pinners of a business or brand’s Pin board may be utilized. Many advertisers expand the target through interest, behavior, location, language and gender layering that Pinterest delivers upon campaign set up.

STEP 3

Targeting with Pinterest Users



Pinterest Data Targeting

Existing Pinterest user data from actual Pinners is a powerful kickstart. Pinterest advertisers may choose from over 420 interests. This targeting allows advertisers to reach audiences when they are looking for new content, inspiration or discovery. The notion is that advertiser reach people (or Pinners) based on their affinity for certain things such as healthy recipes, or yoga without needing to make the ad message contextually-relevant.

Targeting Pinners by interests only reaches them in theirhome feed. Interests may be related to people interested in anadvertiser or brand’s business. An example may be targeting“travel” as an interest to reach Pinners who may be interested ine-books.

Keyword Targeting

This is a way to reach Pinners based on their search behavior. Advertisers may select keywords which will allow their Pin ads to show up contextually in search results and related Pins. The strategy in keyword targeting is to group keywords by theme. Then include both head and long-tail terms to maximize reach.



Targeting Audiences

Actalike Audience Targeting

The words “actalike” and “lookalike” audiences areinterchangeable. This is targeting that scales an advertiser’saudience to people who act or look like existing customersbased on their Pinterest behavior.

Advertiser Data Targeting

This is targeting based on “owned” data of the brand oradvertiser. It may take the form of:

1. Customer List: Reaching existing customers through Pinterest by uploading emails, mobile ID’s or data application performance interface (API) captures.

2. Engagement Retargeting: Identify people who have already interacted with the advertiser’s Pinterest and drive them to action or purchase.

3. Visitor Targeting: Reach or retarget people who have already acted with an advertiser’s website or Pinterest account.


Additional Layering

In addition to Pinterest data, Actalikes and Advertiser data targeting, Pinterest targeting can layer four additional categories to further enhance the pinpoint identification of campaign recipients:

1. Location 2. Language 3. Device 4. Gender



Buying AdvertisingAuction-based Pricing

Pinterest advertising is based on bid which is handled throughthe medium’s online ad auction. This should be expressed tostudents upfront (as it is true with most online media.) Based onthe target audience specifications, Pinterest will express a bidmaximum based on its pricing algorithm. The advertiser enters abid that matches or is lower, or within a specific range. In addition, advertisers indicate “daily maximum” and “lifetime” campaign buy guidelines. In this way, no one advertiser will be charged more than a daily or total lifetime campaign capitalized sum.

Auction Pricing Methods

Cost per click (CPC)The cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount paid each time a user clicks on a promoted pin.

• Great for driving web traffic• Reach people in an action mindset• Only pay when someone clicks to website

Cost Per Thousand (CPM)This is the standard media measure of cost efficiency (CPM). It is the cost to reach one thousand people of a particular audience. Advertiser pays for “impressions.”

• Buying impressions with higher ROI • Recommended to drive in-store sales• Strategy for specific Reach/Frequency goals

Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

Impressions are free, and the advertiser only pays CPE when a user engages with their ad. Engagements can be measured by shares, interactions, likes, comments, click-throughs or app downloads.

• Efficient/Flexible auction buying• Pay only when someone engages• Charged up to 3 unique actions in a given ad• Reach people who are in-market and likely to engage

STEP 4

Buying Pinterest Advertising

The Pinterest Ad is actually a “Pin”

Pinterest ads look like most Pins with one exception. They are visually marked “Promoted Pin” at the bottom. Otherwise they are truly native advertising forms.

The challenge is to create advertisements that stimulate discovery, stories, creating or inspiration in a visual way. Advertisements are actually pins that conform to the basic 600x900 pixel format of Pinterest.

Pinterest Ad Basics

Mobile-optimize: Make sure text is legible on the small screen by adjusting font size for phone rendering.

Vertical aspect ratio: Ideal di-mensions are 600x900 pixels

Give detailed descriptions: Describe the brand in vivid and descriptive terms.

Text overlays: Use text on Pin images to convey details important to the audience.

Call to action: Include a clear action for Pinners– whether it’s shop, try, learn or buy.

Show multiple products: Show different products in a theme or the same product in different styles.

Module 9 Advertising on Pinterest13

Understand the medium

This is visual content marketing. Though Pinterest has fallen under the social media umbrella, people do not use it in the same way as other platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter. And it’s important to understand these differences when using Pinterest for a business or brand. For example, on Face-book, people often share pictures of big life events, such as a wedding, or their child’s birthday party. People typically don’t do this on Pinterest, but they’ll use Pinterest to help them plan these events.

On Twitter, users see tweets about current events, breaking news, or about something happening now. But on Pinterest, users see pins about things to do or places to visit in that city. Pinterest Co-founder and CEO Ben Silverman put it best in a recent Forbes article, “If Facebook is selling the past and Twitter the present, “Pinterest is offering the future.” Think about that just a second, Pinterest gives businesses insight into the things people want to have or to do in the future.

The key to advertising on Pinterest is to present ideas for life’s moments that will inspire a path to purchase.

Creating Pinterest Ads

600 x 900 px

Creating Ads

Creating Ads Help

https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/creating-and-editing-promoted-pins


Conversion Tracking

Pinterest analytics, called “con-version tracking” show what Pins people like, what they save from an advertiser’s website, and learn more about what customers really want.

The key point of benefit with Pinter-est is that data occur from paid as well as organic Pin activity. Pinter-est really gives an advertiser a vi-sual voice of inspiration that can be delicately weaved with Promoted Pins to create a fabric of marketing advancement.

Promoted Pins receive dashboards for every effort and/or campaign like the one alongside.

In addition, there is organic Pinter-est data that incorporate all activity including organic and interaction shown on the following page.

Metrics andReporting

Metrics and Reporting


Metrics and Reporting


Lowes® Focuses on Customer Experience

Case Study

One company that successfully uses Pinterest as a marketing tool is retail and build-ing supply chain: Lowes with over three million followers.

Moving Away from Tradition

Almost 70 years old, Lowes is no stranger to marketing as it has gone through almost every kind of campaign, from magazine and newspaper to radio, television and now online with social media and website ads. Most of the time its ads would focus on products, in-store sales and promotions or the efficiency of its sales asso-ciates. Although effective, when using Pinterest Lowes had to move away from this promotional tactic to show followers how its products could help them and what at projects these items might be useful with.


Be Subtle

Pinterest is all about pinning, or sharing content from others sites, which is something that Lowes has done with its 47 boards and 1,695 pins. Instead of merely pinning photos of its inventory, such as a toolset or furniture saying that they have that item in stock and what its price is, Lowes has taken photos from its website and made suggestions on how people can use this product in their own home. An example of this is the posting of its Patio Gatewood furniture set, which features a couch, chairs and tables with the caption “Bring comfort and style to your patio.”

Lowes Pinterest social Marketing

This simple statement not only encourages engagement as it has 111 likes, 16 comments and 1447 pins, but also promotes curiosi-ty in that a visitor might want to know more about the product and thus will click on the photo to be redirected to the Lowes website. In doing so, they may become interested in buying the featured item and other products, which will equal more revenue and ROI for Lowes.

Repin, Repin, Repin

It’s not enough for a company to post content from it own web-site or product catalogue, a business has to integrate itself into the wider Pinterest community by posting content from websites and other Pinterest pages that aren’t part of the Lowes brand. This shows users that the company is just as interested in what its followers and others are doing on the site.

An example of a post that Lowes has repinned is from Pinterest user Laura Barnes’ board Kids, which featured a bug repellant idea for sandboxes. This idea suggested that an affordable alternative to traditional bug sprays was for parents to add cinnamon to the sand to ward off flies and mosquitoes. The post itself was original-ly from user Kristen B’s profile and since it was first pinned over a year ago has a total of 713 repins from other users, including Lowes.

Not Everything, Just the Kitchen Sink

Despite Pinterest having a vast amount of page categories, with a vast amount of items that can be pinned in each specific category, a company does not have to pin every single item its store sells. Businesses should highlight one or two items from its stock or something that relates to a particular event or season.

As the summer season has just started, Lowes has decided to focus on outdoor spaces and tools that can be used to build these spaces. One of the company’s boards is “Outside Your Home”, which features furniture, stone walkways and yard decorations. Despite only having 56 items pinned, the board itself has 78,415 followers. A photo of garden posts with the caption “ A Rainbow Color for Your Garden” which was re-pinned a little over a week ago already has 38 likes, two comments and 338 repins. The item itself was pinned from a source external to the Lowes page, but with the subtle rule in place suggests to visitors that they could buy items needed for this project from Lowes, such as paint and wood.


A Deal Here, A Contest There

Despite Pinterest being part of this new wave of social media marketing, there is always room for for businesses to incorporate older marketing tricks. Contests have always been a good way to reward current customers and attract new customers, which is something that can be done through Pinterest. The following is a contest that’s listed on Lowes’ “It’s Time to Shine” board:

Pin for a chance to win your dream outdoor space designed by HGTV’s Jamie Durie, and $5,000 in Lowe’s products/ser-vices. Two steps to get started: 1. Enter at www.lowes.com/pinterests-weepstakes. 2. Re-pin five images from this board.”

This contest encourage more board traffic and re-pins and product sales, but also takes note of other interests that visitors may have, such as home design shows on HGTV.

Another way to encourage more traffic is by offering deals, but in modern, Pinterest- friendly way.

One board that Lowes has is “50 Projects Under $50”. While most of the items pinned are originally from other Pinterest users, Lowes shows its followers fun, budgeted projects they can do over the summer months. An example from the board is a collection of

spray painted folding chairs with the caption “Even folding chairs can get a facelift. Use spray paint and make them feel

better.”

Pinterest Lowes on a Budget, social media marketing

At first glance Pinterest seems to just a be site where people mindless-ly post photos of items from websites and other sources, but it’s more than that. It’s a commu-

nity of content where people can relate to other users and find something in common with someone else. This in turn can help companies relate to their customers and customers to companies. That’s an important element of today’s digital marketing strategy.

• 8,270 foursomes created

• 32% open rate for Sponsored InMails

• 139 likes, 79 comments on “Hit the Links” status updates

• 1,500 new followers for Callaway Golf Company Page

• 83% lift in positive sentiment on social networks

Module 9 Advertising on Pinterest19

Challenge 1

What is unique about Pinterest?Pinterest’s single “image” focus as an advertising medium is the unique selling proposition. If an advertiser wants to share actionable ideas that inspire purchase, the “show, don’t say” premise of Pinterest is a solid lead through the marketing funnel.

Challenge 2

The Basic Pinterest advertising formatsThere are five(5) Pinterest ad formats.

• Promoted Pins• One-tap Promoted Pins• Promoted App Pins• Promoted Video Pins• Cinematic Pins

Challenge 3

Pinterest Campaign ObjectivesLike many online media (Facebook, Twitter, AdWords, You-Tube) Pinterest guides advertisers. Upon creating an ad, one must choose one of five objectives for their promoted Pin.

• Build Brand Awareness• Boost Engagement• Drive Website Traffic• Increase App Installs• Build Brand Awareness through Video

Challenge 4

Pinterest TargetingThe specific targeting of Pinterest includes:

• Pinterest Data (interests, keywords)• Actalikes • Advertiser Data

and may be further layered with targeting for: • Location• Language• Device• Gender

Challenge 5

Buying on Pinterest Pinterest advertising is priced on “bid.” The three(3) options are:

• Cost Per Click (CPC)• Cost Per Thousand (CPM)• Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

Review Time


1. What are the five(5)forms of Pinterest advertising available to all?

1. ______________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________

2. What is the "main audience premise" of Pinterest?

3. What are the three(3) forms of pricing Pinterest ads?

1. ______________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________

4. Pinterest Promoted Pins focus on five(5) action-oriented objectives. They are:

1. ______________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________

5. Your client has forty(40) pet store locations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. They want to promote their services of pet grooming, nutrition and obedience training. How can you "target" on Pinterest to further their presence beyond merchants of pet foods and goods? Who will you target? When? Keywords?

How? Pins?

Complete the learning module with several commit-to-memory exercises

Module 9 Student Exercise


Created by Daniel J. Petek

The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication • Washington State University

Please send comments to www.aaf.org/learningmodules

American Advertising Federation

1101 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005

www.aaf.org

an industry guide to pinterest advertising

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