Does Pinterest still have interest? It certainly does, even as its format and the profile of its users is evolving.
Pinterest began as a social network that allowed users to visually share and discover new interests and inspirations by posting images or videos to their boards or the boards of others. On Pinterest, posting is called “pinning” and a “board” is a collection of pins that usually has a common theme.
Over time, Pinterest has changed to become more of a video and e-commerce platform, generating revenue through advertising and more specifically through promoted pins, which are paid for by advertisers and marketers to sell their products.
Launched in March 2010, by January 2012, Pinterest had almost 12 million users, making it the fastest site in history to break the 10 million visitor mark.
However, after having reported 11 quarters of consecutive user growth, Pinterest began to experience a decline, losing 24 million users in Q2 2021. Pinterest attributed these losses to the easing of lockdowns due to the global vaccine rollout. This resulted in the reopening of brick-and-mortar stores and reduced the adoption of e-commerce and online browsing, both of which are the mainstays of Pinterest’s revenue.
Is Pinterest still a good marketing platform for businesses? Here are some thoughts about including Pinterest as an effective part of your campaigns.
Is Pinterest Dying?
The short answer is that Pinterest is not dying but evolving.
While Pinterest began as a social network, it has adapted to become more of an e-commerce-focused platform where creators can share videos as well as images, and this has impacted its user base. It remains to be seen whether this change will help Pinterest rebound in user numbers, helping it continue to grow its revenue.
Is Pinterest Still a Good Marketing Platform?
While Pinterest has seen a drop in the number of users, its revenue continues to be strong. Pinterest’s change to more of a video sharing and e-commerce platform has begun to not only bring back users but bring new users that are more affluent and purchase-focused. These users present a great opportunity for marketing and advertising.
Which Industries are Present on Pinterest?
Despite its decline in users, nearly every industry on the planet is active on Pinterest, and some industries have been more successful than others.
Industries that can most benefit from visual content like entertainment, DIY, home décor, cooking, fashion, and automotive have been able to perform well with Pinterest’s adapted format. However, many alternative industries have gotten creative and done well on Pinterest. This includes healthcare, manufacturing and engineering, higher education, and software and technology.
Reasons to Continue Marketing on Pinterest
Are Pinterest ads still effective? While some industries do better than others in using Pinterest as a social medial marketing platform, below are five reasons why most industries should be using Pinterest to reach their consumers.
1. As The Platform Adapts, Focus on User Quality Should Improve
In its original format, Pinterest had been somewhat of a link dumping ground. This made it feel a bit like a spammy social media network. Users had to deal with broken links, useless content, and spam accounts, all of which made it less than useful.
Pinterest is evolving into its newer format as a more sophisticated e-commerce-style site and focusing more on the quality of content. This is expected to create a better user experience, especially if marketers use it as an opportunity to upload higher-quality advertising. This is expected to not only attract users, but users that are looking for brands and products to purchase.
2. As Pinterest Focuses On Video, So Should Marketers
While Pinterest doesn’t share their algorithm publicly like some social networks that provide advertising channels, they do provide a best practices guide that can help marketers create content that performs well. Starting in 2020, Pinterest has stated that it will be prioritizing more new, fresh content, which elicits a better response from users.
Users across the web continue to prefer video as their medium of choice. It’s also well known that video is much more effective than text or even images in digital marketing.
As Pinterest embraces a more video-focused format, this can be a good opportunity for marketers who use video as a strong part of their campaigns.
3. Pinterest Marketing Value Gives More Bang for the Buck Than TV or Radio
Digital marketing outpaces TV and radio marketing, and this gap continues to widen. In the case of Pinterest, this is even more pronounced. Pinterest gives marketers the ability to create custom target audiences.
This allows campaigns to not only be more precise but also to be more easily and quickly adjusted to improve performance. It can result in 63% lower cost-per-click and up to 96% more engagement, leading to more conversions.
4. Pinterest Advertising Offers A Much Easier Interface Than TV or Radio
YouTube ads are still relatively inexpensive and much easier to create, manage, and measure than TV or radio ads.
Campaigns are the highest level of advertising structure on Pinterest. Campaigns house ad groups and ads. To advertise on Pinterest, you first create a campaign in just a few steps. You can then edit your campaign as needed or duplicate it to create other, similar campaigns, editing to customize them for specific ad objectives.
5. Pinterest Measurement Is Robust and Campaigns Can Be Adjusted Easily
Pinterest provides you with data on your campaigns. You can gather metrics and observe trends to understand how viewers are engaging, then personalize the content to improve the response to your brand. Pinterest also provides a reporting dashboard that gives a quick snapshot of your campaign performance.
Knowing your audience is the key to a successful campaign. Pinterest collects data on the viewers who engage with your pins and the likelihood they will be interested in similar pins. Pinterest’s targeting allows you to edit your campaigns to personalize them based on the robust insights it provides. For example, in a Thanksgiving cookbook campaign, you might target viewers interested in “cooking,” “fall,” and “family gatherings.”
Pinterest Could Be Right for Your Business
Pinterest is a popular social network that allows its users to visually share and discover new interests and inspirations by posting images or videos. Although Pinterest has experienced some recent challenges in terms of its number of users, its revenue continues to be strong.
An evolving format has begun to not only bring users back to Pinterest but also ones who are more affluent and purchase-focused. Pinterest represents a significant and still-growing opportunity for digital social media marketing to generate brand awareness and revenue.
Do you have thoughts or questions on social media marketing on Pinterest? Post in the comments below and let’s keep this discussion going!
— Sean