How To Use Pinterest For Business: 10 Tips To Get You Started

Rapidly evolving technology can lead to a tremendous increase in the need for advanced marketing strategies. It is challenging to manage marketing campaigns, fulfill orders, stay updated with the latest marketing trends, and simultaneously overcome your competitors–phew! It’s a burdensome task. 

But all of these efforts will be in vain unless you use the best strategies devised for different marketplaces. Whether it’s optimizing your Pinterest feed or mastering other platforms, flourishing in an e-commerce marketing platform’s competitive landscape can be a hurdle few merchants easily overcome.

Pinterest is a treasure trove for merchants looking to expand their horizons for marketing. Pinterest is a visual platform. It offers unique features (curated specially for merchants!) that can help your business achieve marketing success.

There are many tactics that you can employ to garner higher sales and increase clicks and conversions. In this blog, we have specially picked out strategies for using Pinterest for business.  

Understanding Pinterest’s Platform

Selling on Pinterest has innumerable advantages. From high-volume, young-aged demographics to low saturation for numerous niches, Pinterest can offer various other features that merchants can use to help them develop their brands. 

Pinterest is a visual media platform with a powerful search engine. 

But how is it different from other search engines? 

Pinterest displays search results based on relevancy rather than recency. This means that if you post a listing on Pinterest, it will be visible to users with relevant searches for years to come. 

Of course, many factors will influence your listing, such as the keywords you use, the quality of the image, etc. However, with 5 billion searches happening every day on Pinterest, it is one of the most profitable choices for merchants, marketers, and agencies. 

What Is Pinterest For Business?

Pinterest a platform with a visual discovery engine. Pinterest for business is a platform that helps merchants get more out of the Pinterest, they can utilize it to advertise their products, analytics and specialized formats. To use Pinterest for business, you must ensure that your content reaches users.

Many merchants utilize Pinterest’s unique visuals to craft out-of-the-box marketing strategies that fit their niche. 

To start, let me explain how content reaches Pinterest users. Users access the platform via a mobile app or browser. 

This is what a typical user’s browsing experience will look like. You’ve got your ‘home’ where you explore content that is similar to your interests and preferences as well as content from users that you follow. 

Explore tab: 

The ‘Explore’ tab allows you to divert from what the home tab displays. Here, you can see what users similar to your feeds are exploring–allowing you to divulge different types of content. 

Boards and Pins:

Now, you must know what a ‘board’ and a ‘pin’ are. A board contains one or more ‘pins’. A pin holds all the data about your products, including an image, title, description, price, etc. 

This is a pin: 

This is a board (a collection of pins):

As a merchant, you need to upload your product data to Pinterest to get your products onto a prospective buyer’s feed. You need a Pinterest business account to do this. 

How to create a Pinterest business account 

You will require a Pinterest business account to run ads on Pinterest, access analytics on how well your ‘Pins’ are performing, and add data to Pinterest (without manually uploading each product’s details in a singular pin). 

You can create a Pinterest Business account in a few simple steps: 

Step 1 Click on this link. You will be redirected to this page. Enter your email address, create a password, and your age.

Step 2 Once you’ve filled this out, you will be required to choose what you will use the Business account for. Select your preference.

Step 3 You will be asked a few more questions about your business: 

Step 4 Lastly, you will be asked what you wish to accomplish with a Pinterest business account. 

Select the answers to all these questions according to your preferences. The next step is to Claim your Website. Doing this enables Pinterest to verify the identity of your store and the authenticity of your products, which allows you to become a verified merchant (more on that later!)

And there you have it! You have created a Pinterest Business account and are set to begin uploading your product feed. Here’s a guide on how to create and upload a product feed on Pinterest. 

Pinterest Marketing Tips

Maneuver Pinterest advertising like a pro! Here are some strategies you can employ to ensure you achieve your goals: 

#1 Leveraging Pinterest SEO

As we mentioned previously, Pinterest is a formidable search engine. It answers users’ queries with relevant posts, not recent ones–i.e. It doesn’t matter how “outdated” or “untrendy” your content is; as long as it is relevant to the user’s search query, your listing will show up on their feed. 

But the question is, how do you make it relevant for your target audience? 

This is where Pinterest SEO comes in. 

There are three main components in the content that you showcase on Pinterest: 

• The image
• The title
• The description

Keep these three well-refined. Ensure you use a high-quality image with a contrasting background for your product images. Since Pinterest is a visual platform, the image you use is of utmost importance. 

💡Add your store’s logo to all product images you upload on Pinterest. This subtly reminds users about your store. Do not add it to the bottom left corner of your image, as this is where Pinterest adds its own element to the image.

Pinterest’s algorithm will showcase the right content to the right audience, but only if you use the relevant keywords in the title and description and use clear, concise, and simple language. 

To enhance your visibility further, try to incorporate eye-catching phrases and imagery into your pins. You can also use hashtags and try to create more engaging content. 

Videos are yet another excellent option for promoting the usability of your products. To assess competition, you can type your target keyword in Pinterest’s search bar to see what your competitors are doing and to get an idea of what the user sees. 

This will provide you with a deeper insight into how you can refine your keyword usage.

I suggest using an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Moz to help your research. 

#2 Use the Premiere Spotlight feature for high visibility 

The premiere spotlight feature allows advertisers to showcase their content in the max-width video format in a high-visibility position on the Pinterest home feed or the search page. It allows brands to own exclusive placements on the Home feed or search page to increase the visibility of their ads. 

💡Do note that this feature is only available in certain countries, namely the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, France, Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, and Mexico.

This is a great ad opportunity for those who are launching new products or have big announcements related to their business. These are the rules for using the Premiere Spotlight feature: 

• It is necessary to reserve these campaigns.
• The ads are priced for each day (different from the usual auction)
• Duration of the campaign is fixed (1 day in USA, 1-3 days in other countries)
• The frequency caps are fixed for the ‘home’ tab (maximum 3) and unlimited for the search tab.
• Ads need to follow the unique guidelines set by Pinterest. 

Pinterest advised advertisers to connect with their account representatives to set up these campaigns.  

#3 Use Shoppable Pins, Rich Pins and Retail Catalog to advertise

As mentioned above, Pins are the lifeline of your business on Pinterest. Pinterest has allowed merchants to use these pins as product ads. 

Retail Catalogs

It is vital to know that in order to create ads, you must first upload product data to Pinterest. Once the data has been collected, it is called a ‘Retail Catalog.’ Pinterest periodically updates this catalog from its source and creates product listings using this data. This takes away from the hassle of creating a product listing for each product individually. 

This is especially useful for merchants with larger inventories. It is important to note that you must keep your source updated. Shopify merchants can use a feed management app like AdNabu to create a Data Feed URL that can be added to the Pinterest business hub as the source for their product data. 

Now, let’s move on to how you can enhance this data using Shoppable Pins and Rich Pins. 

Shoppable Pins

Shoppable Pins: Also known as Product pins, these pins display product information and are formatted accordingly. In a single frame, users can see the pricing, availability, and other details about the product if they look at a Shoppable Pin. 

Occasionally, the pin might be labeled the ‘Best Seller’ or ‘Popular’ pin if it is the most sold or has the most clicks.  

Rich Pins

Rich Pins: Similar to Shoppable pins, rich pins are curated to contain metadata about the product. They are synced to your website and periodically updated to reflect the changes made on your website on the rich pin. 

It requires you to add a ‘Meta tag’ to the product landing page so that whenever users click on the product in the pin, they are redirected to the landing page and can directly buy it. Additionally, all pages’ product data on your website that contain the Metatag will be directly published on Pinterest as Rich pins. 

Here is an article on how to add the meta tag to your site.

#4 Create Product Group

Product groups on Pinterest (as the name suggests) are groups of products that can be advertised together. Wondering how this is useful? 

For starters, Pinterest automatically generates product group suggestions once every 24 hours. This reduces the hassle of grouping a particular type of product together. Second, and the most important point, these product groups are advertised as ‘Shopping ads.’ Instead of a single product ad, you can advertise a set of products together. 

Pinterest offers excellent suggestions for product groups such as ‘Back in Stock’ products, which advertise products that were previously out of stock but are in stock now, or ‘New Arrivals’ products, which advertise products that have recently been added to your store. 

You can manually edit a product group to your liking and create a unique product group to be advertised. 

This Pinterest article explains product groups in depth. 

💡Shopify users can feature up to 30 product collections on Pinterest as product groups. Every 48 hours, Pinterest will sync up to 1000 products from your store to be added to product groups. Changes made on Shopify will be reflected on Pinterest after sync.

#5 Engaging with the Pinterest Community

Users on Pinterest are encouraged to buy, get inspiration from, and browse similar content to the content already on their feed. What’s more, in January 2024, it was found that the majority of the Pinterest user base is about 25-35 years old, followed by 15-25 years old. 

They are much more sociable and thus highly likely to comment, share, and engage with content. It is observed as an effective marketing strategy when brands interact with users through their official accounts. Take ‘Duolingo’ as an example. 

They reply to comments, respond on different social media platforms, and actively encourage UGC sharing. In a span of one year, their engagement has caused them to reach a whopping 16.2 million app downloads (in January 2024) from 13.8 million app downloads (in January 2023) when the marketing strategy was experimental.  

Incorporating user-generated content into your campaigns can also boost your brand visibility. 

Users with a significant audience will become more likely to buy from your brand. You can include user-generated content like reviews, unboxing videos, and product showcases.  

Moreover, other users will be encouraged to create content surrounding your products, which can cultivate long-term relationships with your customers. (It also helps that they bring in creative ideas and generate content with ongoing trends that you might not even know about!)

Hopping on the right trend at the right time and connecting with your audience via comments and other tools can result in a positive user experience and increase loyalty over time. Remaining polite and witty (and sometimes charming) can significantly impact how audiences view your brand. 

#6 Create better engaging content 

Since we discussed engaging with audiences, let’s also focus on how equally important it is to create content that your audience can engage with. 

Let’s break it down into 3 parts:

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing involves collaborating with an influencer who belongs (or is related in some way) to your industry. The influencer creates content around the product and leverages their followers to share the content. Very few merchants consider influencer marketing on Pinterest when planning their marketing campaigns. 

Unlike other social media platforms, influencers on Pinterest can seamlessly integrate their ads within the feed of their target audience. This allows for a less disruptive experience and can encourage users to explore more about your brand. 

Pinjacking

Creating pins based on the trending content. For instance, if you sell shower accessories, a merchant can leverage the previously ongoing Barbie trend and curate their content to fit it. 

An important thing to remember is that unless you have a lot of time on your hands or are in complete sync with the latest trends, following up on this might become slightly tricky for you. 

Trends fade out overnight, and algorithms are advancing each day.

If you do not wish to invest time, effort, and money into an ongoing trend, you can always prepare in advance for any festivals, celebrations, or significant events/days that come up at scheduled times in the year. 

#7 Give your profile a personalized touch

No interaction is complete without an introduction. Users visit your profile on Pinterest to learn more about the store, the products, and other services you might offer. Incorporate details about yourself in the ‘About us’ section to build credibility and recognition. 

An essential part of creating the ‘about us’ section is knowing its intent. It is not a section where you tell your customers whether you’re married, whether you like seafood (unless you sell seafood-related products!), etc. 

It is a section where you tell the average user what you do and why you do it. 

As a suggestion, you must also incorporate how your products can benefit or be useful to your audience. You can talk about what you plan to improve, how you can better meet your customers’ needs, and how positive feedback from customers about your products keeps you motivated. 

#8 Get Verified ✅

Pinterest’s merchant program is an initiative to bridge the gap between customers and sellers by proving merchants’ authenticity. 

It allows you to become ‘verified,’ i.e., Pinterest trusts you as a store. Additionally, verified merchants can avail of benefits such as: 

Displaying price and availability on all your product pins, higher chances of your products popping up on potential buyers’ feeds organically, and even increased trust from users due to the blue check mark ✔️

An important feature that you can avail of with the verified merchant program is the addition of ‘merchant details’ to your Pinterest profile. 

💡Merchant details are only available in certain countries, namely Germany, the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Merchant details are showcased on your profile and contain relevant business information that can inform users about your brand values, the communities you represent, etc. 

Brand values can include ‘Eco-friendly, Inclusive, Invested in good, Personal touch and Responsibly sourced.’ 

Communities you represent can include ‘Black-owned, Latinx-owned, API-owned, Indigenous-owned, Woman-owned, LGBTQ+ owned, and Disability-owned’ 

You can add these details to your Pinterest business account. Pinterest will review them, and once they have been approved, you can customize these batches to match your profile. 

Please ensure that you are not using these with malicious intent. They can deter users from your brand and ruin the image you have taken time to build. 

#9 Use Mobile deep links

We have already established that users on Pinterest are more inclined to use the Pinterest mobile app. This implies that your website must be optimized to fit a mobile format. 

However, it is far more essential to use mobile deep links. 

A mobile deep link helps direct users to a specific page in the retailer’s mobile app. It is the next step after users click on a shopping ad. For Pinterest, these mobile deep links ensure that your target audience is directly taken to your store when they click on an ad instead of going through unnecessary steps to arrive at your store. 

There are two types of deep links, 

A mobile deep link (for Android and iOS users) is required to take users directly to a page on an installed app. In case the user has not installed the required app, a backup link will be required to install the application. 

The other is a Universal deep link that will lead people to a destination link regardless of their device (Android, iOS, or web). 

You can set up your deep links in your ads manager account. To learn more about it, you can check out this article.

#10 Pinspiration

Pinners create highly creative, unique, and inspiring content. Here are some ideas to inspire your Pinterest growth journey. 

IKEA using Quiz Ads

IKEA is known worldwide and well-loved for its simple, affordable furniture and home accessories. They have multiple ongoing ad campaigns across different platforms. Being a huge organization definitely has its perks. However, the variety of its products also tends to confuse, overwhelm, and frustrate its potential buyers.

To combat this and narrow down the sales funnel, they immediately began to utilize quiz ads to simplify and reduce their customers’ overwhelming feeling when browsing through their product catalogs. 

This is a very smart tactic for merchants with more extensive inventories, multiple variants, or customers who require specific customizations. 

PEUGEOT PANAMA for creating engaging content 

Peugeot is an automobile brand from France. It launched a creative campaign that caught the attention of many users worldwide. Although quite old and lacking in followers, Peugeot showcased marketing creativity that was unheard of back then. 

Their out-of-the-box thinking increased engagement dramatically, and they became the talk of the town. 

What did they do? 

They utilized Pinterest’s pins and challenged users to look for missing puzzle pieces in their already published content. 

While the prizes definitely caught the attention of many Pinterest users, the sheer amount of excitement at being challenged is what kept the campaign at the top. Since the campaign required users to follow their accounts, they also amassed a huge number of followers. 

While marketing tools and strategies have advanced since then, this remains a stellar marketing example for those looking for creative ways to engage audiences. 

# Bonus tip: Pinterest Quiz Ads

As the name suggests, quiz ads contain multiple-choice questions and answers that can help guide users to a more suitable product from your shop based on their choices. Each quiz ad can contain up to 3 questions for users to answer. 

Many brands use these to expand their reach and create more engagement with their user base. They also use them to learn about their customers’ problems, opinions, and insights. 

Before you launch a new product, you can even put up a quiz ad asking customers to guess which product/category you’ll be launching your product in.  

It can incredibly boost your chances of making a sale as users feel involved from the beginning 

💡Do note that Quiz ads are only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and France as of now.

Conclusion

Implementing these tips and curating them according to your store’s products and marketing strategies can effectively boost engagement and visibility and attract loyal customers. 

Reach out to us if you require any additional information regarding the blog. 

FAQs

What is a product feed on Pinterest?

A product feed (or retail catalog) is a file containing information about your products. It can be uploaded to Pinterest Business Hub and accessed by Pinterest to create product pins. 

Can I promote my product on Pinterest?

Yes, you can promote your products on Pinterest using ads, product pins, shoppable pins, rich pins, etc. You can also utilize special features created for merchants, such as Premiere Spotlight, to enhance your marketing efforts. 

How do I advertise and sell on Pinterest?

Advertising on Pinterest requires you to have a Pinterest Business account. You can upload your product feed to this account. Once Pinterest has synced the data, it will directly create product Pins, which you can boost using specialized Pins. 

Pinterest offers features that allow you to link your product landing page to product pins directly. These links will lead the user to your website and allow them to make purchases. 

How to use Pinterest for small business? 

Small businesses can utilize Pinterest’s expert algorithm to enhance the credibility of their store. Apply for the verified merchant program, upload retail catalogs to Pinterest, and your product pins will be directly published and shown to appropriate audiences. 

All of these come at no cost. Moreover, setting up ad campaigns on Pinterest is cost-effective as the content published in these campaigns will show up on relevant search queries long after the campaign has ended.  

How do I create a product catalog?

A product catalog can be created manually or using a third-party application like AdNabu. You require a data feed URL fed onto Pinterest Business Hub. Pinterest extracts this data to create product pins for your store. 

How do I get a blue checkmark on my profile?

A blue checkmark is proof of the Verified Merchant Program. It indicates that Pinterest has vetted the brand. To qualify for the program, you require an active catalog, a functioning Pinterest tag, and compliance with Pinterest’s merchant guidelines. 

Once you fill all the requirements, you can apply for the Verified Merchant program for additional benefits. 

What are rich pins? 

Rich pins are pins that hold metadata. They are divided into three categories- Product-rich pins, recipe-rich pins, and article-rich pins. Merchants that utilize these pins to get their products to show up for relevant search queries and provide additional information to users. 

Check Out These Related Articles:

• Complete Guide to Connect Shopify to Pinterest
• How to Sell on Pinterest with Shopify?