***Psst… you can skip all of this ↓↓ by speaking with a First Page digital strategist who’ll take care of it all for you!***

Before you can create a Pinterest ad, there are a few things you need to do first. For example, you need to set up a Pinterest business account and sign up for ads. Then, create some boards and begin pinning relevant content to each of them. Next, you should start following brands and personalities that are relevant to your brand and products. The last step here is to create the Pin that has something in it you’d like to promote.

Once you’ve done all that, head to the Pinterest advertising page and click on ‘create ad’, then choose the goal of your campaign (e.g. brand awareness, traffic, conversions, etc.). Go through the setup steps like creating a name for the campaign and start/end dates, then decide on your budget. Select the Pin you created earlier, give it a name and set search terms to attach to it. You can be a bit general, and Pinterest will suggest some additional terms; click on any relevant to what you’re advertising. Set demographic determiners like location, language, device type(s) and gender, then click on ‘Promote’ and once it’s approved it’ll go live

Approaching any marketing campaign, you should have a good idea of the ballpark budget you’re looking to spend, and it’s really no different with Pinterest ads. But how do you know exactly how much you’ll need to spend in order to ensure you’re getting the most effective ad campaign possible?

Really, the cost of advertising on Pinterest will entirely depend on what your campaign goals are.

If you’re looking to boost awareness of your brand, you’ll be looking at a CPM (cost per thousand impression) rate which you might expect to pay between $2 and $5 per thousand impressions.

For website traffic-driving campaigns, this will be a much more targeted campaign with demographic parameters as narrow as possible, to make sure only the most qualified buyers are being funneled to your site. Here, you should expect a CPC (cost per conversion) of between $0.10 and $1.50.

Engagements such as video views and purchases will be around the same; $0.10 to $1.50 CPC.

Pinterest ads can be incredibly effective, and for a number of key reasons.

First, there are several different formats you can choose when setting up an ad campaign on Pinterest, which allows for a mixed approach to reaching your desired audience. This means you can analyse data and refine your campaign to promote the better performers more, while removing the underperformers to minimise wastage.

Also, demographic targeting enables your Pinterest ads to only be shown to the people you want to see them which again minimises wastage and increases the likelihood of clicks, conversions or purchases.

Then there’s the user base; they’re highly engaged while browsing (no mindless scrolling like some other socials). This means an increased chance of clicks or conversions, simply because they actually see your ad instead of scrolling straight past it.

Because of how engaged Pinterest users are, adding Pinterest ads to your marketing campaign can be a very effective way to increase your ROI, and without breaking the bank either. You can determine what your campaign goals are such as whether you’re interested in brand awareness, website traffic, conversions or video views (or a mix of two or more) and align a Pinterest ad campaign to match your goals.

Plus, with so many other brands (including your competitors) who might see it as a waste of time, you’re taking advantage of an untapped audience who are statistically more likely to take on a new brand and stick with them. They’re also there with a higher intention to buy than users on any other social media platform. So, choosing against advertising on Pinterest could mean you’re missing out on a substantial amount of sales.

How long is a piece of string again?

But seriously, how much you decide to spend advertising on Pinterest is entirely dependent on what you’re looking to achieve by doing so. It’s incredibly difficult (read:impossible) to have much of an effect on brand awareness if you’re only going to spend $5, and is just as difficult to achieve a high amount of traffic hits with the same.

Marketing is an integral piece of the brand success puzzle, and should be budgeted for as such. If you want your marketing budget to be stretched further, though, get in touch with First Page.

While Facebook is more of a social media platform, Pinterest can be seen as more of a search engine. It even has its own search algorithm (Smart Feed) which matches your search terms to the most relevant to the phrase - not the newest.

And where Facebook and Instagram users get on those platforms for entertainment purposes and to catch up with the latest in their families’ and friends’ lives, Pinterest users hop on to get inspiration and ideas, and look for things to buy.

Plus, unlike Facebook or Instagram posts which become dated in a few hours (or even minutes!) which necessitates constant posting, Pins can last years. This of course means they’re able to continue working for you and making you money long after they’ve been pinned.

Finally, while there’s a significant amount of ‘noise’ on both Facebook and Instagram, with every advertiser and their mum trying to get a share of voice, advertising on Pinterest means fewer advertisers and a much better chance to have your brand’s voice heard.