Pay to Play on Pinterest

Pinterest Introduces Advertising Opportunities for Business Profiles

It’s here! The ability to pay to promote pins on Pinterest. If you are familiar with paid advertisements on other social media sites, like Facebook, you already have the gist of how paid promotional pins work. If you aren’t familiar, here is the rundown.

Promoted pins run on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, meaning when someone clicks your pin, that is the only time you are charged. Every pin you choose to promote has a daily budget and set duration you are able to monitor. This allows you boost the budget of the pins that seem to be attracting attention and to turn off those that aren’t working.

How to Get Started

Pinterest is still in the testing phase of Promoted Pins. Only U.S.-based businesses are allowed to apply for this service. To get priority access to the promoted pins apply here.

Once you’re accepted (and be warned it may take a bit of time to get approved), you can start promoting those pins. You do this by selecting a recent pin, yours or someone else’s, or if you want to promote an older pin just search for it. Once you have your pin, hover over it, and when the word “Promote” appears click it.

After you have selected the pin to be promoted you will take to another screen where you are able to set up your ad parameters. You will begin by setting the keywords. As always, research your keywords prior.

By using pin promotion, you are able to select your audience by demographics, location, device, and by interests. After you have set your keywords you will be prompted to define your audience by selecting options for each above-mentioned category.

Next, you will set up your maximum CPC. You will never be charged more for a click than what you have allowed as your maximum CPC, meaning if you set your highest CPC to $.50 you’ll never be charged a cent over $.50. When competition is low you are able to keep your maximum CPC low as well, but as more and more join the pin promoting game, you may have to up your bid to keep relevant.

Lastly, you can change the URL of your pin if you’d like. Then, name your campaign, set its running dates, daily budget, agree to the terms of service, and submit for approval. Pinterest does have a vested interest in what you are posting so they have guidelines and rules your promotional pins must abide by. For more information on those rules checkout their Advertising Rules page.

Why Pin Promotion?

With all the avenues of advertising you have access to currently you may be wondering why add one more? Well, with promoted pins you are able to reach an audience of both current followers and those who may not know you exist to promote special events or time-sensitive information. It is a great option to garner attention for an upcoming event or a seasonal promotion. For more information on the how’s and why’s you should use Pinterest for business, or if you have not already set up a Pinterest page for your business and want more information on how to do so, click here.