How do I become a Pinterest expert?

By managing accounts for many businesses in different verticals consistently for over 8 years. And driving measurable improvements in traffic and sales along the way.

What is the first step?

Take an up to date course in Pinterest marketing. And find a way to get some experience using Promoted Pins to drive traffic and sales.

Can I start part time?

Yes you can start part time for sure.

Updated February 26, 2021

Pinterest Expert Explains How to Boost Your Performance With Promoted Pins

Why should you care about Pinterest for business? As a Pinterest expert I can tell you that you should care because over 459 million consumers worldwide now use Pinterest to guide their purchasing decisions.

According to a study by Millward Brown they claim that using Pinterest in your business is extremely influential for driving online purchases:

• 96% of all Pinterest users have used Pinterest to research and gather information
• 93% of all Pinterest users have used Pinterest to plan for purchases 
• 87% of all Pinterest users have purchased something via something they found on Pinterest

Why You Need to Buy Pinterest Ads

If you’re just starting out on Pinterest with just a few followers or none at all it’s going to take a lot longer getting found on Pinterest organically. That’s because Pinterest is now a publicly traded company and there’s more and more competition. Pinterest is in it to make money and they’re not going to give you the free easy “pass” you’ve been used to in the past. Sure it’s still great for organic growth compared to other social media networks but you need to invest in Promoted Pins. 

As a Pinterest marketing expert I can tell you that one of the fastest ways to get new customers is with Promoted Pins.

According to Pinterest brands & businesses have seen an average of 90% viewability for Pinterest in-app ads, a 93% positive lift in foot traffic and 51-69% of people visiting a brand’s stores were new customers. Source: https://bit.ly/2PyKqwx

How to Use Promoted Pins 

It can be daunting to learn how to manage a new platform which is why I as a Pinterest expert decided to create this guide to help you avoid wasting time going around and around in circles trying to figure it out on your own.

This is an overview of how to get started with Promoted Pins which is included in my best selling online course Pinterest Marketing for Business. I’m going to share some of it here but and if you decide to master Pinterest I recommend that you invest in my course. This step by step guide will teach you the fastest, quickest way to create effective campaigns so you get results.

How to Get Free Help Through the Propel Program

The Pinterest Propel Program launched on March 29, 2017 to support businesses and ad agencies new to advertising on Pinterest. 

Here’s what you need to know to qualify for the Propel Program: 

1. Pinterest Propel is for businesses who are ready to spend at least $100 a day. That’s a total of $3k per month. Go here to sign up for the program https://ads.pinterest.com/propel/ 
2. You will receive “limited” phone support for the optimization of the account from your assigned Pinterest Account Manager. 

The real truth is you’re not going to get a lot of advice and support from Pinterest. I know because as a Pinterest expert and an agency we work with them on behalf of our clients. 

They give very generic advice (sometimes none at all) and just email you links where you can learn more from the official Pinterest “Help Center” website. That’s it. They will not give you specific advice for your business. This is a real bummer considering $3K is a substantial investment to join this program. Bottom line folks; master the Pinterest Marketing for Business online course and you’ll have more success growing your account organically. 

Top Frequently Asked Questions

1. What countries are the Promoted Pins available in? 

Promoted Pins are offered to businesses in:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Malta
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States

2. Why should I invest in Pinterest ads versus other social platform ads? 

The beautiful thing about ads on Pinterest is that they are so subtle they do not annoy Pinners. According to a Siegel+Gale study of surveyed data from more than 12,000 consumers in eight countries they found that ads on Facebook & YouTube disrupted their experience. The bottom line is that Pinterest ads are more natural and preserve the user experience which means they stay on longer and you get more impressions and hopefully clicks per $.

3. What should I pay for: a close up (clicks to see it up close), a repin, or a click through? 

As a Pinterest expert it really depends on your goal. I suggest you start with consideration first.

4. What should my budget be? 

I would spend a minimum of $20 per pin per day for 30 days. 

5. What should my starting bid be? 

Pinterest gives you two options: Automatic or custom.

Automatic means Pinterest aims to get the most Pin clicks for your budget. Custome means you control your bid.

Remember that you are also competing with other businesses that are using the same keywords as you are so if you’re not getting many clicks its most likely that another bidder is beating you with a more aggressive bid. 

Bottom line; you need to experiment. I do and I’m a Pinterest expert. 

When someone saves a Promoted Pin, other people see that pin in their feeds, which drives additional sales, especially among new buyers. Since pins last forever, your ads continue to engage people and support your sales goals for years to come. Advertisers receive an average of 20% more (free!) clicks in the month after launching a Promoted Pin campaign. 

6. What’s the best day to promote my pin? 

Saturdays and Sundays are the best for ecommerce. 

7. Whose having success on Pinterest with Promoted Pins? 

Go here for success stories 

https://business.pinterest.com/en/success-stories

8. How long will it take to get my ad approved? 

Within a few hours.

9. Does Pinterest have any rules that I need to know about? 

Oh, yes they do. Go here for Pinterest advertising guidelines https://policy.pinterest.com/en/advertising-guidelines

10. Why should I bother being consistent on Pinterest since I can just buy ads? 

You still need to pin to grow your followers and repins because Pinterest only shows approximately 8% of ads in the user’s home feed. 

It’s crucial to grow your account organically because your non-Promoted pins will continue to drive traffic to your site. When you stop paying for ads you also stop growing! 

Pinterest is not just about pushing your products. It’s about creating meaningful content that your audience will find helpful so you build trust which is vital today.

How to Get Set-Up for Promoted Pins

Make sure your pins (your images) meet these requirements: 

• saved to your own business profile 
• saved to public boards 
• have destination URLs 
• don’t have link shorteners in the destination URL or description 
• follow Pinterest Ad Standards

1) Set-Up Pinterest Tag

The Pinterest tag tracks actions people take on your website after they view your Promoted Pins. Install the Pinterest tag on your site to get audience insights and measure your return on ad spend (RoAS). 

When you add the Pinterest tag to your website, you can learn which ads lead to more conversions and how people engage with your website. If you use the Pinterest tag, you need to disclose your use of conversion tracking on your website, as described in our Advertising guidelines. 

Go here to set up your Pinterest Tag 

https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/t rack-conversions-with-pinterest-tag 

2) Pixel/Tag Placement

You must add the necessary event codes in addition to the base code. 

Once again here is the implementation guide https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/t rack-conversions-with-pinterest-tag 

Please be sure to generate your new Pinterest Tag # and update the YOUR_TAG_ID in the code to the 13 digits of the tag ID. 

*Note: you should have this installed at least a week before any given launch, too, to ensure proper functionality. 

3) Billing

Once you set up the billing you won’t need to do it again for future ads. 

To set-up your billing go to the top left corner of your Pinterest page as shown on the image below. Click “Billing” under the Ads tab.

4) Get Your Images Right

One of the biggest mistakes I see many businesses make is they are creating images but I can see that they have no overall image strategy. Spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on images without a clear plan is BIG mistake on Pinterest. They figure all they have to do is slap an image out there and voila they will get lots of clicks! 

Experimenting with different product images to figure out what gets the best response from Pinners is the smart way to develop your image strategy. Pins that show lifestyle shots or how a product is being used have a 18% higher engagement rate. 

GUIDE FOR IMAGE DIMENSIONS, FILE SIZES & CHARACTER LIMITS 

1) Standard Pin: These specs apply to both organic pins and Promoted pins 

Images 

• File type: PNG or JPEG 
• Max file size: 32 MBA 
• Use a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels. Pins with an aspect ratio that’s greater than 2:3 might get cut off in people’s feeds. 

# of Characters

• Title: Up to 100 characters. If you don’t fill out a title, people will see your pin description instead. 
• Pin Description: Up to 500 characters. The first 50-60 characters are most likely to show up in people’s feeds, so put your most important info first. 

2) Video at standard width (organic or promoted): apply to both organic video and Promoted Video. 

Videos 

• File type: .mp4, .mov or .m4v 
• Encoding: H.264 or H.265 
• Max file size: Up to 2GB 
• Video length: Minimum 4 seconds, maximum 15 minutes 
• Aspect ratio: Shorter than 1:2 (width:height), taller than 1.91:1. 
• Make your videos square (1:1) or vertical (2:3, 9:16). 

# of Character: same as #1 

TIPS:

a. Start strong and make it actionable

The best videos teach people how to do something, or inspire people to try something new. Lead with a clear hook within the first few seconds to capture people’s attention. 

b. 6-15 seconds works best. 

c. Don’t rely on audio 

Many videos play in people’s feeds with the sound off. Make sure to use text overlay or captions to help convey your message when the sound doesn’t play. 

d. Pick a strong cover image 

Your cover image shows up in people’s feeds and should provide a good sense of what they’re about to watch. Cover images also help us show your video to the right audience. 

e. SEO pins 

Clear titles, descriptions and hashtags help your video get discovered in search. Spend some time getting your copy right before you publish a new video.

3) Promoted Video at max. width 

• File type: .mp4, .mov or .m4v 
• Encoding: H.264 or H.265 
• Max file size: 2GB or less 
• Video length: Minimum 4 seconds, maximum 15 minutes 
• Aspect ratio: Square (1:1) or widescreen (16:9). Note that max. width videos can’t exceed the height of a 1:1 aspect ratio.

4) Promoted App Pins: use the same specs as standard Pins. You can also use a standard video to promote your app. 

5) Promoted Carousels

Images 

• Image count: 2-5 images per Carousel 
• File type: PNG or JPEG 
• Max file size: 32 MB per image 
• Aspect ratio: 1:1 or 2:3 

# of Character: 

• Title: Up to 100 characters. The first 30-35 characters will show in people’s feeds. 
• Description: Up to 500 characters. The first 50-60 characters are most important. 

Here are some common reasons why an ad might not get approved: 

• Irrelevant targeting 
• Promotional material 
• Excessive symbology 
• Price in the pin description 
• No content on destination landing page 

If your ad is rejected, you’ll get an email explaining why and what you need to fix. Take a look at Pinterest’s advertising standards for additional details about their policies.

BIG NO NO’S 

• Fuzzy or grainy images 
• Overly busy images that are packed with different image frames and text overlay
• Poorly edited images that are distracting or exaggerated 
• Poorly cropped images that feel careless or recycled 
• Amateur or user-generated content like selfies and screenshots 
• Demeaning before-and-after shots for health and skincare products 
• Big no no on the image: Promotional and sense of urgency language like free shipping, 50% off, or Buy 1 get 1 free, Click, Buy Now, Quick! Visit Our Website. Add those to your pin descriptions. Using more than two fonts in your text overlay 

Pinterest Expert Actionable Tip: Look at all the images you have created to date and use this checklist to see how you can improve your images. Maximizing everything you do on Pinterest will help you not only stand out from your competition but help you get found on Pinterest’s search results. 

7 Ways to Target Shoppers on Pinterest 

1. Audience

Create audiences from your customer lists, people who’ve visited your site or people who have already interacted with your content on Pinterest. For example, you will choose this if you want to reach people who previously saved a pin featuring a new product from your new collection.

2. Actalike audience

Reach new people who behave similarly to one of your existing audiences. For example, if you want to find more people who will love your products, you can create a new audience list modeled after behaviors from an existing list of top customers.

3. Interests

Interest targeting allows you to get your ad in front of people based on their interests, tastes and life events. To use interest targeting, select interests related to the ad you’re promoting. For example, if you’re promoting mid-century modern living room furniture, try targeting people on Pinterest who are interested in “mid-century modern”, “modern living” and “living rooms”. To refine your audience, test both broad interests (“living rooms”) and precise interests (“mid-century modern”).

4. Keywords

Keyword targeting lets you reach people as they search for a specific idea on Pinterest. To use keyword targeting, select keywords related to the ad you’re promoting. For example, if you’re promoting living room furniture, try targeting people searching for “living room decor” or “home decor ideas”. For more precise control over which searches your ad appears or doesn’t appear in, use keyword match types. For best results use a minimum of 25 keywords. You can use up to 20,000 keywords per ad group but I would never use that many.

5. Demographics

Choose gender, age, location, language or device to refine your audience. For example, if your company sells back to school supplies to nearby college students, you might target your ad to people ages 18-24 within your postal code.

6. Placement

Placement targeting lets you specify where you’d like your ads to appear on Pinterest. You can choose from the following placements:

Browse: Show your ads as people browse their home feeds and related Pins
Search: Show your ads in search results and related Pins
All: Show your ads in both search and browse placementsNote: To begin, we recommend targeting all placements to maximize your chances of reaching people across all areas of Pinterest. This is the default setting when you set up an ad group.

7. Expanded

Expanded targeting uses signals from your ad to broaden your targeting and reach additional people on Pinterest who may be interested in or searching for relevant ideas. For example, a snack company might target topics like “recipes” and “snacks” but not think of targeting “road trips”. Without the company selecting “road trips”, expanded targeting will put their ads in front of people interested in or searching for related ideas.

Note: Expanded targeting is switched on by default in Ads Manager, but you can switch it off at any time. With expanded targeting you can see improvements in reach, click through rates and total spend.

Keyword Targeting Should Be Your First Campaign

I recommend that you choose keyword targeting for your first ad because Pinterest is a search engine. What I love about keyword targeting is you’ll have an insight to the most popular keywords you should be leveraging. 

Next, I’ll show you a step by step tutorial on how to boost your pins with keyword targeting in my best selling online course Pinterest Marketing for Business online course. BUY NOW.