Pinterest ads are the social media marketing answer in 2018 for your business. Everyone is looking for that silver bullet to hit it big with social media, but one platform, Pinterest, seems to stand out more than the others these days.
If you’re not utilizing this amazing ad platform yet, you need to add this to your ad strategy immediately. This article doesn’t get into the basics of making a profile or setting up your ad account, but it will show you how to make money. If you need help with the basics, all you need to do is follow the instructions from Pinterest, and you’ll know exactly what to do.
This article is your new ultimate guide to maximizing your ROI in 2018 with Pinterest Ads.
B2B businesses, despite what people think, are really making the most of Pinterest Ads. They do it by combining old-school marketing and new school growth hacking to provide great content the “Pinterest Way.” One kind of business that will do very well are Shopify stores, because combining Shopify and Pinterest Ads makes purchasing that much easier.
Pinterest ads are great for businesses that sell impulsive products for a purchase. If you’re not one of these kinds of companies, don’t worry because Pinterest is still perfect for you in a different way. You can use the ad platform to promote your posts and build your community. This is something I recommend for all businesses, because why should you only show your content to your followers, right?
Even if you haven’t thought of using Pinterest ads for your business, you should keep reading, because at the very least you’ll know another way to entertain your clients in new ways that gets results.
Steps to a Phenomenal Ad
It’s really that simple. Just pick a pin that you know either has been working or create one that will work. It’s imperative to create the right pin for your Pinterest ad. Here is what I would do to test it with your audience before you pin it.
- Test a similar pin for free on your free Pinterest account. That means if you have a similar infographic or meme to a possible future ad, you can test to see the engagement you get from it before you spend your money. If your own followers already like what you’re promoting, your ads should be along the same lines.
- Use other visual platforms to see how your images work out. A great place would be Instagram and Facebook. Keep in mind your company’s audience on each platform will be slightly different, but the knowledge you’ll gain from diversifying your ad is paramount to the sales themselves. Knowing your target market will give you the insight to create more valuable pins and posts on all platforms. That kind of information will help you build trust and show you’re interested in them and not just taking their money.
- Understand the analytics of previously promoted pins before you make another one. Try to understand how each ad affected your viewers. Did they click, but not buy? Did they not click at all? Did they read it, click and then buy? What demographics did all three? If you know these things you’ll know what works and then test further to grow your audience. There will be more on this in the split testing section below.
Go Visual with Pinterest Ads
Using visuals is more important than ever these days, and not just with Pinterest Ads. Pinterest is a visual app and that’s why the ad platform is so successful.
Making sure you’re connecting with your audience is essential for ad viability. If your target customer is mostly millennials then you need to adapt it to their interests. Knowing what millennials want is not easy sometimes, but it’s important to stay alive on social media.
Why does visual content work better? One word. Transparency.
A lack of transparency is what destroy’s most corporate marketing plans. They come off too professional and fail to make the connection with their target market. Even if you’re B2B, your buyer is a person and if you’re not speaking their language you’ll come off as robotic and most likely not make the sale.
Companies have been marketing like each other for decades. It’s time to stand out, and use your uniqueness to make friends with your buyers. Relationships are what sells these days, and will continue to sell forever. Give to your clients what you know freely, and they’ll reward you with success.
Find Your Company’s Rockstar
Every business has that person that loves speaking and being in front of the camera. Every company should understand that no matter what industry they’re in, they are in the marketing business.
Look for that rockstar in your company that is glued to Facebook, and instead of firing them, promote them to be in charge of your company’s social media stories. This is also a great person to put in charge of your Pinterest ads strategy. Creating clickable pins for a Pinterest ad takes time and practice. It takes understanding your industry and is a full-time job. Promoting from within is a great place to find this kind of person.
Another avenue to take is to hire a consulting company to handle your Pinterest Ads strategy.
Whoever you choose just make sure they are energetic, well-informed (on your company and industry trends), persuasive, and a born leader. They need to embody your companies goal with every image or ad they make. The right person will market your Pinterest ads well and you’ll see vast ROI gains on each ad set and your social engagement in general.
Don’t Just Sell with Your Ads
Anybody can create Pinterest ads with a discount or a 2 for 1 special, and nobody cares either. That doesn’t inspire a relationship, which is contrary to everything social media is about.
All Pinterest ads you create should build a relationship first and foremost. You’re not spamming here. If you spam your followers they won’t continue to support you.
I know what you’re thinking, how can we make money without asking for the sale? It’s a great question, and here’s the answer.
If you look at the companies that really do well on all social media platforms, you’ll notice they always offer free valuable content with every piece. A proper warmup is necessary before the close, and the best way to do that is to offer them something that will help their business.
Disclaimer: If you have immediate success with Pinterest ads, many marketers tend to focus only on ads to detriment of their brand on that platform. If you’re not consistently producing free content you’ll lose what you had when you started with the platform.
Free engagement is still the most powerful way to make your business flourish. Every time you put an ad out there you will lose followers, for a variety of reasons. The key is to produce at least have a 10 to 1 ratio of free value-oriented pins to every direct selling attempt you make. However, if you use Pinterest ads to just promote your free content (which I highly recommend) then you’ll simply magnify your brand in all ways.
Split Test Will Always Make You More Money
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure your Pinterest ads are targeted for your ideal brand, but slightly different. Sometimes, just changing the copy is enough to create major ROI gains.
A great tool for understanding your target market is Facebook Audience Insights. It’s a free way to learn where your target market hangs out online. You’ll learn the words they say and the content they like.
Sometimes the image you select, the copy on the infographic or the targeted market you select just doesn’t rub the viewer the right way. There isn’t an exact science to this, and it will take some practice so don’t go all in on one ad ever.
Try posting the same content in other places to see what happens. If you post an infographic your a Facebook or LinkedIn group, you measure the success and modify your ad for more engagement. How many likes does it get, or what are the qualities of the comments made? Are they spam comments or are they thought out?
Using other platforms to gauge engagement with your audience will make your ads more successful especially if you try these free strategies before you spend $1,000s on an ad that might not work. Being a copywriter and split testing in multiple industries, you’d be surprised how much even one word can make when running an ad. It can throw the whole thing off in an instant and push the viewer away.
What’s Holding You Back?
Too many companies are focused on the wrong things when they approach the Pinterest ads platform or any social media ad platform for that matter. They don’t have the right mindset. It’s not their fault, most of them are just new to this new way of selling and there is a learning curve.
The right mindset is to give. Give to your clients and your clients will reward you when you have a product they desire. You don’t even have to give a discount, because the ones that consume your product will respect your brand so much that they’ll be happy to pay the price you ask and sometimes overpay if it’s really good. Think about that the next time you buy a luxury product.
Most companies are too worried about competing with their competition. Don’t play in a price war if you’re product offers more value. Remember, people don’t want to be sold. They want to buy what they love. If they love you then you won’t have to worry what your competition does.
If you found this guide helpful, you’ll need to supplement this information with more visual content information. Learn to generate more stunning visual content, with another article on why every business needs video marketing.
