Already running campaigns on Facebook and Instagram and want to expand to another platform, or simply want to learn more about another paid social media marketing option? Here is your quick guide to Pinterest promoted pins, which covers the basics, ad formats, and overall best practices.Pinterest is a great platform to grow brand awareness because most users, or “pinners,” are highly engaged in its online community—they use the platform to find new ideas, be inspired by and share those ideas, or their own, with fellow pinners. Therefore, the key is producing engaging ads, or “promoted pins,” and according to Pinterest, a pin’s creative determines 80 percent of its success. Aim to make your pin actionable but rather than using an explicitly stated call-to-action, motivate pinners to take action using your creative.Since the product research phase can be up to four months on Pinterest, this platform may not be your top choice for immediate direct response goals, but it does offer good ad formats for acquisition efforts. The first format is “rich pins,” in which Pinterest pulls real-time information from your site’s product page and dynamically inserts that info into the pin, helping to boost click-through rates (CTR). The other is “buyable pins,” which let users purchase your product directly on the Pinterest site/app, enabling seamless purchasing. Regardless of pin format, your creative is still the most important aspect of your ad, as engaging pins have been correlated with a ~2.5x sales increase.On the technical side of things, a set up to get you started is a campaign that focuses on a specific product and has two ad groups: One with Audience + Keyword targeting and the other with Interest + Keyword targeting. The ability to use ad groups was only recently launched, so advertisers now have more control over their campaigns because you can set budgets at the ad group level and also test different targeting parameters within the same campaign.Finally, here are some tips:

• CTR benchmarks: healthy is 0.20 percent, strong is +0.50 percent.
• Different elements you could test in your creative:
• Copy
• Imagery
• Multi-product shot vs. single hero image
• With text vs. without text
• Avoid including your brand logo on the creative—it makes your pin more sales-like (a big no-no), and your logo will automatically appear beneath the creative if you claim your domain for your Pinterest account.
• Interest + Keyword targeting usually has a higher cost-per-click than Audience + Keyword.
• Pinterest recommends a minimum of 100 keywords per pin, so reach out to Pinterest support if you need ideas. They can use their internal resources to provide you with keywords based on their search data.

Pinterest, like all social media, is meant to be a fun experience to explore and share new ideas. Have fun trying out different types of promoted pins to engage with your audience!