The Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Ads: Types, Specs and Strategy
Pinterest Ads are a great way to reach new audiences. This guide to promoted pins covers Video Ads and Shopping Ads.
You might consider using Pinterest Ads to increase your social reach.
Pinterest is a social networking site that allows users to find inspiration and ideas for everything, from home decor and style to pet accessories and recipes to DIY projects.
It is used by more than 400,000,000 people every month. Pinterest’s growth has been driven by increased pick-up among Millennials, Gen Z and men.
Promoted Pins are a must-know for anyone who is considering adding Pinterest to their marketing mix.
This guide will explain everything, including how promoted Pins work and the various types of Pinterest Ads that are available. It also explains how to advertise on the platform.
Learn more about the Pinterest opportunity
Pinterest has billions upon billions of pins, including pictures, videos, and products. Pinners are people who find pins they like and can pin them to their account.
Pinners can also organize their boards by categories to make it easier to find ideas.
They are exposed to new content on their home page feed, both promoted and organic.
There are four main pages to the Pinterest interface: Home, Search and Messages. Profile is also available.
Home
Pinterest’s home page is where users can scroll and browse through pins recommended by Pinterest based on recent searches.
Pins are also generated by the home feed from boards and people that they follow.
Search
The search page sounds exactly like it does: a search bar that allows users search for specific pins or more likely ideas.
One example is “places to go with children”.
Messages
Pinterest’s messages section allows users to build more personal connections.
You can send or receive pins and boards to your friends or users by email, phone, or name.
You have the option of saving pins you receive.
Profile
Your saved pins are located on your profile page. You can save them in two ways: by pin or by board.
You can save a pin to your account by finding it and saving it to it. Pins that you save to a particular board you created will be saved into that board.
You can add a comment below the original pin to your profile. If you want to share your experience with any of your saved pins, this is a great option.
You can attach a photo and leave a comment below the pin if you try a new style from a pin that you have saved.
How Pinterest Ads Works
Pinterest Ads look similar to regular pins (pictures or videos, or collections) that are displayed by a company on the homepage for a user’s profile.
Advertisements can be targeted at the audience you want to reach via their search results and home feed.
Before you create (and pay for) a promoted pin campaign, it is important to be familiar with the various ad types.
No one strategy format is best. It all depends on the audience and what works for them. You can test different ad formats to find what works best.
Different types of promoted pins/pinterest ads
Pinterest allows you to post ads in six formats.
Before we get into the details, it is important to remember that each allows for a description of up 500 characters.
This description should be an integral part of your ad optimization. Pinterest:
Our algorithm uses descriptions to determine relevancy for delivery. To help your Pin or ad reach the right audience, we recommend that you enter a description.
Ad titles can be used across all ad types.
Your title can contain up to 100 characters. The first 40 characters are eligible to appear on user feeds. This is dependent on the device used by the user. Pinterest:
Titles will be displayed in the search feed and home feed when they are entered. If the title isn’t entered or there are no Rich Pin titles, it will not be displayed.
Static ads
A static ad can only have one image as the featured image. It can be either a.png file or a.jpeg file of up to 20 MB.
Pinterest recommends a 2 to 3 aspect ratio (1500 x 1500 pixels). It warns that images with a higher aspect ratio could be cut from Pinners’ feeds.
Video Ads
Video Pin ads of standard width are the same size and format as regular Pins.
Pinterest’s max. width video advertisement expands across the entire screen of a mobile user. This format can only be used as a paid advertisement.
Accepted file types are.mp4,.mov and.m4v with a maximum file size limit of 2 GB.
Pinterest video ads can be as short as 4 seconds up to 15 minutes.
The recommended aspect ratios is where the video ad formats are different. These are:
- Pinterest recommends standard width video ads that are shorter than 1 and taller then 1.91:1.
- Maximize your screen size by choosing 1:1 (square) and 16:9 (widescreen). Video ads with Width
App Install Ads
These ads have an image that allows users to download an application from the image, without having to leave Pinterest to search for it on the app store.
Carousel Ads
This format has multiple images that people can swipe through.
Carousel allows you to use up to 5.png and.jpeg images, with a maximum file size limit of 32 MB each.
These images should be sized at either 1:1 or 2:1.
Shopping Ads
These ads include a video or an image that connects users with to buy the product through Pinterest.
There are several steps to set up this ad format depending on whether Ads Manager is used or the bulk editor. contains the instructions for each of these steps.
Take note, Pinterest also says:
You can set up Pinterest placement targeting, but you can’t choose the shopping surfaces where your ads will appear. Your shopping ads will be automatically placed on shopping surfaces by us.
Collections Advertisements
These ads feature one “lifestyle” photo with three smaller product images below.
Before you can run Collections Ads you must set up Pinterest’s feed-ingestion tool, the Catalog.
You need to have the following:
- A Pinterest business account.
- A website claimed to comply with Pinterest’s Market Guidelines.
- An information source or file that contains your products and their attributes.
- Data source hosting is a way to store and host product data that you can send to Pinterest daily. (Pinterest supports integration with Square, Lengow and ChannelAdvisor as well as Feedonomics and FeedataFeed.
- You can use a Pinterest tag (Javascript) to add to your website. To ensure that your product IDs are being passed back to product detail pages, you can use the tag helper Chrome Extension.
Pinterest processes up to 20,000,000 products per account. The data source is ingested once every 24 hours.
Before you start Pinterest Ads at this scale, be sure to read this resource about Catalogs.
Note – Looking for Story Pins These organic pins can only contain multiple videos, images or lists and include custom text.
Setup your Pinterest Ad Campaigns
This process is applicable to all types of promoted pins other than Collections Ads.
1. Register for a Business Account
You can start by opening a new business account.
2. Select your campaign objective
After creating an account, you will be asked to select your campaign objective (brand awareness or website visits, purchase, etc.). ).
3. Budget your campaign
Scroll down to select your campaign budget from the same page.
Like other advertising platforms, ads will cease running once the budget has been met. Learn more about how to set a budget strategy here.
4. Create an Ad Group
You can group related ads together in an ad group and keep track of them. These ads can be distinguished based on the audience (as shown in the screenshot), interests, ad placements and other factors.
You might create a campaign called “loves Nature” and include different advertising groups like “male age 35+”, and “female 35+” in order to determine which group performs best within the campaign.
Alternativly, if your campaign is only for women, you can have the campaign “women aged 35+” with ads groups “those that love nature” or “those that love animals”.
5. Create Your Audience
Scroll down to “Targeting Details” to identify the people you wish to target with your ads. First, you choose a strategy (connect with users or find new customers). Next, select your audience, keywords, interests, and demographics. Finally, place your ads in the “search” or “browse” space on Pinterest.
Tip: You will see the potential audience size on the right-hand screen based on your targeting in the screenshot in Step 4.
6. Make your Ad
Select an image you already have pinned to create your actual ad. After you have selected your pin, you can add a title and a link to the destination you wish to send people who click on it. You can also track URLs to help you see which users clicked on your ads. This is useful if you use CRM or your customers are on a long journey to conversion.
7. Click “Publish” to get started!
To navigate to the top menu bar, visit Ads>Report for results.
Pinterest Dynamic Retargeting
Pinterest retargeting works the same as other advertising platforms. It allows you to reach people who have already visited your site or have items in their shopping cart.
This option is available to larger advertisers who use Catalogs on Pinterest. It is necessary for this type of campaign type.
To run retargeting ads, you must also meet Pinterest’s threshold regarding the number of PageVisit or AddToCart events within the last 7 days.
There are several steps to set up Dynamic Retargeting ads in Pinterest, depending on whether you use Ads Manager or the bulk edit. Learn more about each of them.
Why Pinterest Ads Are Important & Key Takeaways
Pinterest is the most popular social media site with over 2 billion monthly searches.
According to Small Business Trends 87% Pinterest users have bought something due to what they saw on the platform. This is likely because Pinterest allows consumers to go through the entire buying process while browsing the site.
They are inspired by pins and end up buying something.
While it is obvious that Pinterest is a place for young adult females, there has been an increase of Gen Z and millennial Pinterest users.
There are many types of pins that have been popular with this audience. It’s worth advertising to see if the platform is for you.
No matter how big or small your business is, Pinterest could be a great place to find people who are interested in your brand.
