Advertising on Pinterest

What ad types does Pinterest offer?

Currently, Pinterest only offers one advertising type to all businesses in the US, Canada, and the UK: The Promoted Pin. The company is also testing a Pin in which you can directly buy the product you see (Buyable Pin), but this feature is currently only available to a limited audience.

Promoted Pins are inserted into a user’s feed and search results. They look exactly like regular Pins, but are marked as “Promoted Pins”.

You can buy Promoted Pins optimized for three different campaign objectives: Awareness, Engagement, and Traffic.

Awareness campaigns

Awareness campaigns are the right choice if your main objective is to get your brand or product exposed to as many people in your target audience as possible. A lot of people use Pinterest to discover new ideas and get inspiration without a concrete plan in mind. Awareness campaigns get optimized for reach, not for engagement, and you will pay based on the number of impressions your Pins generate.

Engagement campaigns

If you choose an engagement campaign, Pinterest will optimize the delivery of your Pins so they reach people who could be interested in saving or repinning them. These campaigns target people who are in the ‘intent’ stage and who are actively looking for solutions to their problems or ideas for their projects. This is also the right campaign type if your objective is to build a bigger following on Pinterest. You will be charged for engagement (close-ups, repins or clicks), not for impressions. Note that this campaign type won’t direct users to your landing page. To do this, choose traffic campaigns.

Traffic campaigns

Traffic campaigns are designed to drive Pinterest users to an advertiser’s landing page. So, if your objective is to target people who have completed the inspiration and planning phase and are ready to act (or buy), choose this campaign type. This is the only campaign type that will include a link to your landing page in the Promoted Pin. You will be charged for every link click.

What targeting options does Pinterest offer?

Pinterest offers a variety of targeting options that you can combine to build a specific audience:

Target by	Description
Location	Target any combination of users from the US, Canada, and the UK, at the country level or at the metro level.
Languages	Target users who speak specific languages.
Gender	Target users based on their gender.
Devices	Target users based on the specific device they use to access Pinterest.
Keywords	Target users who search for a specific keyword (which must be relevant for your ad).
Interests	Target users based on other Pins they have saved and engaged with.
Audience	Target: people who have visited your website (you have to embed a Pinterest tag in the code of your site); existing customers or leads (you have to upload a list of email addresses); an audience that has engaged with Pins that link to your website; or an ‘act-alike audience’ that behaves similarly to your existing audience (you need to provide a list with at least 100 email addresses of customers who are also Pinterest users).

What is the minimum budget to advertise on Pinterest?

Once you have set up a campaign and entered your bid for a specific audience you target, Pinterest will give you some guidance on whether your bid seems promising or not. Only awareness campaigns require a minimum budget; the other two campaign types do not require a minimum bid. Have a look at the table below to understand how you may be charged:

Advertising objective	What your maximum bid means
Awareness	Your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay for every 1,000 people (CPM) who see your Promoted Pin. The minimum you can bid is $5.
Engagement	Your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay when a user engages with a Promoted Pin, i.e. close-ups, repins and click-throughs (Cost Per Engagement, CPE). Important: if a user close-ups, repins and clicks through on your Pin, you will be charged for each of these actions.
Traffic	Your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay for each click a person makes on your Promoted Pin to visit your website (CPC).

How to get started

To get started, you need a Pinterest business account (you can register here). You can also convert your existing account into a business account. After you have registered your business account, click here to get started. If you have any questions or issues once you get started, have a look at Pinterest’s Help Center.

Case Studies

Adore Me

Adore Me is a subscription service for modern lingerie, targeting millennial women. After building a great basis of followers organically, the company used Promoted Pins to reach a bigger audience and sell subscriptions to new customers. The most successful Pins were when the model’s face was not visible, so the user could imagine herself wearing the products. Adore Me saw a 2,600% increase in website traffic from Pinterest, and higher conversions than on other channels.

REESE’S

REESE’S used Promoted Pins to drive product consideration for their iconic Peanut Butter Cups. The brand aimed to reach young customers who were planning menus or tailgate events during the football season. To do that, REESE’S promoted Pins featuring unique Football themed recipes to their target audience. A market research study showed that the campaign indeed drove product consideration and brand favorability for REESE’s products.

Pura Vida

Pura Vida sells bracelets made in Costa Rica in more than 3,500 stores worldwide. Before using Promoted Pins, the company used Pinterest to tell their company story, share their blog posts, and showcase their products. To drive new customers to their website and extend their Pinterest fan base, the company set up traffic and engagement campaigns, featuring their products and the lifestyle associated with them. 25 days after the campaign ended, Pura Vida saw an increase in orders by 31%.

Next, we will take a closer look at advertising on Snapchat.

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