Pinterest was once a relatively niche social media platform with only a small marketing and ad presence. That has changed dramatically over the past few years as the platform has grown exponentially and attracted more and more brands for advertising purposes.
In this article, we’ll cover a few of the most effective ways to optimize your Pinterest marketing practices for even better results.
Take Advantage of Rich Pins
Your Pinterest board should be a funnel to the rest of your online presence, and rich pins are the best way to encourage further engagement from Pinterest visitors. You can currently set up rich pins to direct users to apps, articles, products, or recipes.
An effective rich pin gives users enough information to attract their attention while incentivizing them to click through to learn more. If you’re selling products on Etsy, for example, you can use a rich pin to provide some basic information about the item while making it easy for interested users to access the product page on Etsy and quickly complete an order.
Pay for Impressions
Pinterest offers a variety of options when it comes to buying ads. If you’re trying to generate traffic, for example, you might bid based on the cost per click. While this is a good strategy for some campaigns, paying for impressions rather than clicks can help you improve your ROI.
When you bid on impressions, you’ll have the opportunity to set a maximum payment for each set of 1,000 impressions. You’ll also be able to set how many times you want the ad to be displayed to the same user—it often takes more than one impression to get a reader more interested.
Narrow Your Targeting
The Pinterest Ads Manager also provides excellent flexibility for audience targeting. Of course, you can always target existing customers by providing your own list of contacts.
Furthermore, marketers can now choose to market directly to Pinterest users who have visited their sites. Visiting the site demonstrates a base level of engagement, indicating that the user may be interested in your products with the help of additional ads.
Finally, Pinterest offers lookalike targeting for businesses that are trying to reach out to new audiences. When you select lookalike targeting, your ads will be shown to users who match your existing audience based on criteria such as age, gender, location, and Pinterest history. Each of these three targeting methods has an important role to play in any Pinterest campaign.
Pinterest marketing is a complicated field, and successfully managing Pinterest ads isn’t as easy as transferring your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram strategies to a new platform. These are just a few of the ways to build better campaigns and generate more traffic and sales for your brand through Pinterest.
Use Your Own Name and Photo
Don’t limit your reach by using the title of your book or a book-related nickname for your profile. You may end up publishing many books, and it would be time-consuming and counterproductive to make a profile for each book. Readers should be able to easily find you and then learn about everything you’ve written. You want to develop brand recognition and have a consistent brand across all marketing platforms. For the same reasons, use a professional photograph of yourself and not one of your book, a pet, your family, or any other interest.
Being authentic develops trust and loyalty. Fans on Pinterest want to get a glimpse of your life, so don’t hide behind your work. Use your About section to write a description that invites interest in your book and you as an author and link to your profile on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Claim Your Website
On the more technical side of things, Pinterest allows you to claim your website, which gives you data on how often your content is shared on Pinterest. It gives people the option to pin directly from your website. Additionally, it helps users know where to find more information, because your Pinterest profile will be linked to any Pins with saved content from your website. Whenever an image from your claimed website is saved, your profile picture will appear next to the Pin, and people will have the option to follow you on Pinterest.
You can also claim your Instagram account. This makes cross-posting a breeze! It’s another way of tracking the performance of Pins that feature your content, and if someone shares your Instagram content, it will be credited to you. Here are instructions for claiming your account.
Make Your Pinterest Visible
Another quick, easy step you can take is to make sure your setting for “Search Privacy” is set to No. This will allow search engines to display your Pinterest profile in search results, and may help your profile be ranked higher in Google searches, since Google indexes Pinterest content. To do this, click on the down arrow next to your picture in the top right corner, then click on settings, then Profile Visibility.
