Updated February 26, 2021

Why You Need to Include Promoted Pins in Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy in 2021

If your business has been leveraging Pinterest marketing since it’s fruition you’ve most likely grown your traffic organically. Those were the good old days. But guess what? As a Pinterest Management Services Pinterest is has evolved so much since 2010. In fact, since Pinterest became a publicly traded company it’s been a lot tougher to get noticed. Organic reach is an all-time low for many. Pinterest is all about making money now. They have to please their investors. They want to drive their stock price up.  This is how all the insiders will cash out. You get this right?

What that means to you is you will have to invest in Pinterest ads (Promoted Pins). It is no longer an option. It must be part of your Pinterest marketing strategy in 2021 and beyond. 

Retail Brands Can See 2x Higher Returns on Pinterest Than Other Digital Channels

Advertising on Pinterest Gives Your Brand Instant Visibility

This is especially important to those who are just starting out on Pinterest. Competition is becoming more and more fierce. Investing in ads is like saying to Pinterest “I’ll pay you if you put my products/content in front of my target audience right now”.

If you don’t invest in Promoted Pins you have to let your content bake for some unknown amount of time so that it shows up high on Pinterest’s search engine (Assuming you optimized your content correctly). Bottom line, pay to get found right away or don’t pay and hope and pray your content will rank high in search eventually. (Unless you use a Promoted Pins expert service like ours).

I’ll dig deeper in a bit to help you decipher how to find your competition on Pinterest and what to look for. But first, let me give you an overview of the type of ads available to you.

5 Types of Pinterest Ads Campaign

1. Brand awareness
How it works: Help people discover your brand, products or other services.
What it will cost you: You will pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad serves.

2. Video view
How it works: Optimize the quality of views, average play times and completion rates for people most likely to view your video.
What it will cost you: You will pay per view when people view your video for 2 seconds or more.

3. Consideration (used to be Traffic)
How it works: Increase the number of Pin clicks on your ad.
What it will cost you:You will pay cost per click (CPC) when people click on your ad in-grid.

4. Conversions
How it works: Drive people to take actions like checkout, sign up, or add to cart on your website.
What it will cost you: You will pay average cost per action (CPA) when people click through your ad to visit your website (or complete an outbound click).

5. Shopping Catalogs
How it works: Help people discover your products or services while searching Pinterest for inspiration.
What it will cost you: You will pay for every 1,000 impressions your ad serves. When you set an oCPM bid, you’ll also set your target cost per action (CPA).

8 Smart Reasons Why You Need to Spy on Your Competition

Now, let’s go over who your competition is on Pinterest. Speaking as a Pinterest Management Services expert I think it is vital that you make the time to do this so you learn what’s driving traffic them. Watching your competition closely is important so:

• you learn how new trends are embraced by the consumers you’re all fighting to keep
• you see how what types of content are working so you can do more of that, but better
• you anticipate shifts in the market
• you spot new trends
• you learn new tactics
• you determine what to charge for your products and/or services
• you stay on the cutting edge of what’s working within your niche
• you keep getting better and better. Competition brings out the best in us!

How to spy on your competition and what to look for:

1. Make a list of your top 5 competitors.

You can do this two ways:

a) Go on Google and search via their company name. When you have found their website go to their home page and look for their social icons which are typically on the bottom of the page or above the fold somewhere. Above the fold means where the content is positioned in the upper half of a web page without scrolling down the page.

b) Or failing option “a” above go on Pinterest and type in their business name in the search box, then click “People” to the right of the search box.

Don’t be surprised if you don’t find them under “People” because if they have not properly optimized their Pinterest profile they won’t show up.

2) Use BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo will reveal what people are sharing the most. It shows your competitor’s top content in the past 24 hours and up to five years or a specific range.

3) Sign up to receive their emails

You can sign up to receive their emails or use a tool like Mailcharts. This tool can give you insight into your competitors’ email marketing, from the frequency of email sends, their subject line tactics, and more.

4) Subscribe to their blog

5) Follow them on social media

6) Shop on their site and then abandon it and see what happens

7) Purchase a product

How was your experience from the beginning up to the moment you receive the product. This will allow you to really experience their customer service. If you dislike the product and would like to return it, what was your experience?

Just as Pinterest is constantly evolving so are your competitors. It’s vital that you keep an eye on your competition every six months – it’s not something you do once and think voila I’m done. By doing a regular competitive analysis you will have a better understanding of your market over time, and learn from them too. Remember…none of us knows it all.

Have you purchased Pinterest ads? If so, what was your experience? Have you spied on your competition? What did you learn?

If you’re not sure how to use buy ads or how to get started check out my FREE step by step The Ultimate Guide to Promoted Pins 2021.