I know, I know. You feel like you’ve spent a lot of time already creating your offer. You are just anxious to start running the ads and generating the traffic, creating awareness, and revenue. Believe me, I get it. But trust me on this: you are going to have an easier time AND get better results if you set up these 5 things BEFORE running your Pinterest ads. Pinky promise. Rather get these tips in video? Click the link below to watch:
You may think online advertising is all the same, and perhaps you are used to running Facebook ads or Google ads. Don’t be so quick to assume Pinterest ads are the same. While I think Pinterest ads are an amazing asset in your marketing portfolio, each platform has its own nuances. You’ll want to be savvy about how to get the most out of your advertising budget and reach the best audience possible.
Set Up These 5 Things Before Running Pinterest Ads
1. Your Pinterest Tags
A Pinterest tag is a piece of code that you add to your website or sales funnel. It allows Pinterest to track visitors to your site and gives data about their actions after seeing your Pinterest ad. Think of this as the equivalent of a Facebook Pixel.
You’ll want to start placing your Pinterest tags on your website and on your offers and sales pages, even if you aren’t thinking about running ads right now. Why? It will allow you to gather important information and help you to collect data about the people who are visiting your website, engaging with your pins, signing up for your lead magnets, purchasing your products, and so on. Later, you can use all of the research to help you with retargeting and in setting parameters for your audience. It could also help you save money when you finally decide to run ads.
You can read more about Pinterest Tags and how they work in my blog, Using Organic Pinterest to Help Your Pinterest Ads, or review how to set them up step-by-step in Module 8 of my course, Pinning Foundations.
2. Your Pinterest Profile
At a minimum, you’ll need to have a Pinterest Business account, with a complete profile, a claimed website, and rich pins set up. Technically, you don’t need a full account in order to run ads, but I don’t recommend this. If you think about it: if you click on something on a social account like Instagram or Facebook and it links to an empty page with no posts, are you likely to purchase and trust them with your business? No, of course not. They just don’t seem reputable.
Take the time to build your account properly so when people click on your pins, they know you are someone they can trust.
Create your Pinterest profile using keywords. Remember this is super important because Pinterest is a search engine and it relies on keywords to find your information.
Add your keywords everywhere! Don’t keyword stuff, but strategically place them in your profile name and description, your board titles, board descriptions, pin titles, pin images, and your pin descriptions.
Start by pinning your pin to the most relevant keyworded board. Pinterest calls this ‘relevance,’ but essentially it is another layer signaling what the pin is about and telling Pinterest who to show your pin to.
Repeat this process for all your content. This could be your blog posts, your lead magnets, and your paid offers.
3. Your Offer
Okay, so this one might seem like a given! I mean, if you didn’t have something to offer, you wouldn’t really be spending the time or money with Pinterest ads, but for the sake of being comprehensive, I’ll mention it anyway.
My favorite offer is a lead magnet funnel. During my years as a Pinterest strategist, I have become really familiar with the way pinners’ minds work. I know they come to the platform for inspiration and they know they are usually trying to solve a problem.
With that in mind, I know maybe 90% of the searches on Pinterest are unbranded. This is great news for you, because if you are using the keywords correctly you have an outstanding chance of showing up in the search results as the one with the answer to their query! This is a great way for you to start building that relationship by offering something they need. If you are really stuck on an offer, you’ll want to check out my post on How to Create an Irresistible Offer in a Weekend. Go ahead and create the PDF, the video series, the free Canva template, or whatever it is that you can give them. Make sure you ask for their email address in return so you can follow up and continue to nurture that relationship over time. That leads to #4.
4. Your Thank You Page
Hopefully, you have a thank-you page in place as part of your lead-magnet delivery process workflow. If not, take the time to add one now.
On my thank-you page, I might include some copy like, “Hey, you just signed up for this great free lead magnet. I think this $37 would be super helpful for you too if you’d like to add it to your cart!” Maybe in my case as a Pinterest Strategist, I could offer someone a free download of a checklist in setting up their account and then, on the thank you page for the download, suggest my Pinning Foundations course for $37, which would be really comprehensive in setting up their account soup to nuts.
Another variation on this would be to offer it in a trip-wire urgency format where it’s a really good one-time offer. So if you have a $97 product, you could offer it at a $67 price, but only if they purchase it within the next 12 minutes. You’ll want to include a countdown timer on the page in this case to add urgency.
5. Your Email Sequence
Since you’re an entrepreneur in the online space, you might already know this, but you should have an email sequence set up before running Pinterest ads. If you’ve taken the time to create an offer, invest in ads, and your potential customers have signed up for your lead magnet, and you’ve shared your offer with them, they may or may not take you up on your offer at that point. This is understandable, especially if they have first “met” you.
This is where your email sequence comes in. It’s a series of emails in a nurture sequence, usually between three and seven (my preference is between five to seven). The purpose of this sequence is to offer your new customers lots of value in the beginning, warm them up, allow them to get to know you, invite them to join your Facebook community, ask them to follow you on Instagram, and continue to build the relationship you started. In the meantime, you’ll carefully present the offer again and again in a strategic but not overbearing way.
If you missed them the first time, now that they’ve gotten to know you and you’ve presented how you can help solve their problem, present the offer again: “Hey, if you took me up on this offer, great! But, if not, here’s your second chance. This is what I offer, and this is how I’m going to make your life amazing with my unbelievable offer.”
Summary of What to Set Up Before Running Pinterest Ads
In summary, before you begin a promotion campaign, you’ll want to be sure to set up 5 things before you start running Pinterest ads. It will save you a lot of time and money and make your efforts much more effective.
- Have your Pinterest tag set up
- Set up your Pinterest profile
- Have your offer ready to go
- Set up a thank you page, not just a generic one, but make it specific and introduce your offer! (you probably aren’t going to get rich off this, but it may help cover the cost of your ad spend)
- Set up an email nurture sequence if you don’t have one.
Email me (support@karriemarie.com) to request my Pinterest Ads Case Study, to learn about the amazing results my client, Esther, had with Pinterest ads, and how you might be able to duplicate exponential growth in your business too with Pinterest.
