Pinterest’s Promoted Pins Program is designed to help marketers reach a larger audience and better target their audience. Pinterest’s new program has more than a million users across the world, which makes its platform ideal for businesses looking to increase sales and visibility. The beta testing period for the program showed successful results, and now the newly-initiated program is giving advertisers a chance to use social media in their marketing campaigns in new ways. If you are not familiar with the social media platform, Pinterest provides an image-based social sharing experience for 70 million different users. This new program is a perfect opportunity for many businesses to expand their brand recognition and reach higher sales goals.
The Results of the Promoted Pins Beta
The beta version already finished off with some pleasing results for the company. The average jump in media recognition for advertisers was 30%, but that’s not all the beta results showed. Promoted Pins were getting the same or more repins as natural pins posted by users. The organic pins tended to be repinned about 11 times. The Promoted Pins usually surpassed that number, and those repins could easily result in sales and increased brand awareness for the companies who posted them. Promoted Pins often went on to continue being effective even after a marketing campaign was finished. Pinterest blogged about this phenomenon, which showed that Promoted Pins enjoyed earned media increases of about 5% beyond the end of their campaigns. The Promoted Pins didn’t just prove successful for one or two industries- multiple industries have already had success with them.
Pinterest is usually frequented by fashion and beauty businesses, as they tend to see the most value in the platform. But the new program was tested across a variety of industries, including retailers, food manufacturers and more. This advertising program is just beginning its rollout, and there is little competition at the moment. That makes it the perfect jumping-on point for companies hoping to make use of the tools being provided to them.
Making Use of the Promoted Pins
Companies with limited advertising budgets can use the Promoted Pins Program to invest as much or as little as they want in their marketing. The program operates on a pay-per-repin basis. This means that businesses will only be charged if their Promoted Pins are repinned by someone else. Additionally, advertisers can specify just how much money they want to spend on individual pins. This allows them to control their budget closely and never spend more than what they are able to. The program is new enough that additional features are still expected.
Businesses are expecting to see a variety of advertising options available to them through this service, much like Facebook and LinkedIn offer. At the moment, there seem to be no plans from Pinterest to add in keyword competition access or search volume options. That limits how advertisers can track their pins’ success, but the program does allow the use of the Google Keyword Planner, however. While it should seem obvious, the searches that Google conducts are not all based on images, whereas all of Pinterest’s searches are. Companies are going to have to come to the realization that Pinterest works differently from Google, and the way they advertise there is going to have to change as well. Advertisers can use Pinterest’s tools to make the most of their marketing campaigns. This includes dashboard analytics that tracks the Promoted Pins with the most repins. It assists advertisers in determining whether the methods they are employing are effective, and it is currently one of the most useful tools provided by the program.
How Users Feel about Promoted Pins
Pinterest’s users were generally either indifferent or favourably inclined toward the Promoted Pins. Less than a third of the users said they disliked it with about 20% saying that they just hated advertising in general. Still, it is important to keep in mind that this minority is quite vocal, and the dislike of the program is being made known. Now Pinterest isn’t looking for its new program to drive its customers away. So they are ensuring that while the Promoted Pins are valuable to advertisers, they are not getting in the way of the user experience. They are trying to avoid having their platform overrun by advertisements, which means they are regulating Promoted Pins and ensuring that they meet certain standards. These standards often include ensuring advertiser honesty, using only verified calls to action and making sure that any necessary information is properly displayed.
How You Can Get Started with Promoted Pins
Now Pinterest has managed to be a successful place for marketers to promote their businesses already, long before the Promoted Pins Program took effect. As compared to social media channels, Pinterest only lagged behind Instagram and Polyvore in creating value for advertisers. They even beat out Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and many more. The organic influence of their program is among the very best on social media platforms. Businesses that have found sales growth on Pinterest are likely to want to take part in the Promoted Pins Program.
Many businesses that have yet to try Pinterest may be starting to look into the platform as well to improve their market reach. Pinstitute is another program being launched by Pinterest. It provides those interested in the Promoted Pins initiative the tools with which to understand how they can increase sales and brand recognition through the advertising program. The Pinstitute program offers workshops, internet seminars and tutorials that equip businesses and marketers to make the most of their investment in Pinterest. They can even give feedback on how they made the program work for them and help others with their advice. The Pinstitute is designed to serve a variety of customers with an array of different budgets and needs
