What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is an image- and video-based social network, launched in 2010 by its co-founders Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp. This platform enables users to curate, share, and organize images and videos, also called “Pins”, on their personalized boards.
Pinterest offers a platform where users can discover, organize and share a wide range of visual ideas and interests on various topics like fashion, cooking, arts, design, travel, and so on.
Here are some key features and important benefits of Pinterest:
- Boards: Users can create their own boards on specific topics and add related Pins to those boards. For example, you can create boards for “Halloween costume ideas”, “Christmas decoration ideas”, or “Summer outfit ideas”.
- Pins: Each Pin is an image or video shared on Pinterest. You can upload content from your own devices or share content from different sources on the internet and store it on your pins and let others discover your curated visuals.
- Search and discovery: Pinterest is best known for its finely-tuned algorithm for searching and suggesting ideas. Just enter keywords or phrases, and the search engine will return related pins, boards, as well as related accounts – all tailored to your interests. With a visual search and infinite scroll interface, it’s as if they’re unraveling a map of endless inspiration.
- Idea curation: Pinterest is a massive library of images and videos in every niche imaginable, providing unlimited sources of ideas for its users. The best part is users can easily arrange, and categorize their Pins so they can access these ideas easily and save them for future reference.
- Sharing and connecting: Besides internal sharing, users can share their Pins and boards with others on Pinterest or on other social networks. This fosters an open environment for users to exchange ideas and interact with each other.
- Business and marketing: In addition to personal use, Pinterest also offers credible tools for businesses to share and promote their products, services, and ideas. Pinterest has become one of the popular social networks with a massive active user base, reaching up to 463 million users worldwide every month.
Pinterest’s current user base spans across the globe: US (92.6M), Brazil (37M), France (19M), Italy (19M), Mexico (18.2M), UK (17M), Germany (15M), Spain (13M), Colombia (11.8M), Argentina (11.4M), Canada (10.3M), Japan (8.7M), Australia (7.5M), Nordics (4M), Netherlands (3M), Ireland (1M), New Zealand (0.78M).
Content on Pinterest covers a wide range of categories: Fashion, Decor, Home, Pet, Beauty, Travel, Wedding, Drink, Baby, Food, and so on. All content can reach users in various ways:
- Home Feed: Each time users open Pinterest, their home feed will show up. Your home feed is a curated and dynamic feed of all Pins based on your previous interactions.
- Search: Pinterest delivers the most related and popular results on the search result page when you enter a keyword.
- Related: Every time you click on a Pin, you will immediately navigate into a new stream of new similar ideas.
2. Why you should use Pinterest Ads?
Pinterest is usually referred to as a future-oriented social network, as Pinterest users often seek ideas and products for their future plans on this platform.
Especially, Pinterest has the highest percentage of customers with shopping intentions of 55% while those of other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter only are 12%, 12%, and 9%, respectively.
Another impressive number that Dropshipper might be interested in: the market for fashion dropshipping on Pinterest is projected at 69M, which is twice that of other similar social networks; the home decor segment is estimated to stand around 72M, around 2.6 fold higher.
Notably, the largest markets like the US, UK, and Canada has the highest CTR rates of up to 1.64% and ROAS of 8.1.
Diverse audience: Pinterest boasts a large and diverse community of users with various interests and needs. Users use Pinterest to plan and envision their future projects, events, and goals. They turn to the platform for inspiration and guidance on anything from home decor and recipes to travel destinations and fashion styles.
Pinterest also segments target customers based on diverse criteria, making it easy for businesses to reach their customers, for example, Interest, Engagement retargeting, Keywords, Visitor retargeting, Customer list, Actalike. Additionally, there is also segmentation by other factors like Location, Device, Language, and Gender.
Highly interactive user base: Pinterest is a platform with high user interaction. Users enthusiastically save images and ideas they’re interested in on their personal boards. They also actively search and dive into their Pinterest feed. This behavior pattern facilitates an effective approach for businesses to reach their target users and fosters positive interaction with the brand.
Furthermore, Pinterest provides a highly useful feature, especially for dropshipping and POD businesses, which is statistical reports on consumer activity during US holidays. You can refer to these reports to develop a suitable timeline for your holiday campaigns during the peak holiday seasons.
Huge potential for commercial: Pinterest users frequently seek new and creative products on this platform. It is revealed that 80% of weekly Pinterest users found a new brand or product on Pinterest. That’s why Pinterest is an ideal platform to introduce and deliver your products and brands to a wide range of customers with a high buying tendency.
To optimize your brand’s marketing efforts, Pinterest also offers a full-funnel strategy as a comprehensive solution for businesses, divided into phases: Build awareness, Drive consideration, and Get conversions.
Depending on the goals and targets you set for each phase of your campaign, you can utilize one of the following ad formats on Pinterest:
– Standard static/video Pins
– Max width video
– Carousel
– Collections
– Product Pin
– Idea Pin
Increasing website traffic: When advertising on Pinterest, you can direct users to your website directly through “promoted pins." This helps increase traffic to your website and take them one step closer to your conversion path.
Efficiency analysis: Pinterest provides reliable analytics tools for tracking the effectiveness of your ads and adjusting your ads according to maximize marketing efforts. Key metrics like impressions, interactions, clicks, and many others are available for you to gauge the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
Cost efficiency: Currently, compared to many other common advertising platforms, Pinterest has very competitive advertising costs. This is particularly beneficial for small and startup businesses with limited advertising budgets. Pinterest also offers flexible bidding options and advertising strategies for optimizing spending effectiveness.
Brand Awareness: Pinterest is an ideal platform to build and promote your brand. Advertising images and ideas on Pinterest help create recognition and positive impressions of your brand in users’ minds. Users can save images and relevant content about your brand on their personal “pin" boards, helping maintain interaction and brand recall over time.
Additionally, Pinterest can be integrated into your website, allowing you to add “Pin it" and “Follow" buttons to your site. This helps users directly save and share content from your website to Pinterest, creating additional free marketing and increasing website traffic.
Community building: Pinterest is an open community focused on sharing and interacting with each other. When advertising on Pinterest, you can build a community of brand enthusiasts through sharing and saving images, ideas, and useful content. This fosters a growing connection between the brand and customers, enhances loyalty, and creates organic an marketing channel for your brand.
In conclusion, advertising on Pinterest offers numerous benefits for Dropshipping and POD businesses, from increased interaction and website traffic to brand and community building. Take advantage of the platform’s potential from this point forward to become trendsetters and market leaders!
