Thinking Ahead to Holidays: Using Pinterest for Q4 Conversion & Awareness Objectives
Holiday Planning on Pinterest
There’s nothing standard about the year 2020, a year that has forced marketers to start from the drawing board with their promotional efforts over and over again. This season is no different — and an unprecedented number of early holiday searches is driving businesses to rethink their social media management efforts. If your brand isn’t thinking about holidays yet, you’re already late to the ball game.
According to Pinterest, search volume around the holidays spiked as early as April — a record-breaking headstart for the platform that normally sees holiday activity kick off in June/July. Even though the annual Christmas party has to be canceled for many families this year, gearing up for the Christmas holiday is exciting on its own. Whether you’re preparing gift ideas, setting up holiday decorations, or perfecting your sweet potato pie or cookie recipe, these are all the factors that make the holidays special.
It is apparent that this year has been riddled with uncertainty, panic, and fear, and your audience is itching for something to finally look forward to – whether it be holiday treats, holiday decorations or making fun Christmas crafts with little ones. And the best part? They’re starting with their Pinterest board to generate their decoration and Christmas gift ideas. There are already thousands of holiday boards filled with DIY Christmas decorations, ornament and garland designs and Christmas wreath ideas. It is apparent that people, now more than ever, are looking to have the perfect holiday with the loved ones they cherish dearly.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive strategy to take your holiday efforts to the next level, you’re in the right place.
Step One: Set Tracking Up for Success
Before you begin tackling a Holiday 2020 strategy, it’s imperative that you’re set up for measurement success. Pinterest offers multiple methods for tracking awareness and conversions on the platform. Consider creating a checklist to ensure your tags are healthy. We’ve created one for you:
- Set up/optimize your Pinterest Tag: Do you have event tracking, Enhanced Match, and Product ID passback set up correctly?
- Track in-app conversions: Utilize Pinterest mobile measurement partners’ attribution and analytics to accurately measure campaign efforts.
- Conversion upload: Don’t let web, in-app, and offline conversions go unidentified. Help Pinterest match these conversions to campaigns using LiveRamp or by uploading CSV files to ads manager.
- Conversion insights: Verified Merchants can access a specially-curated analytics dashboard for conversion tracking.
Step Two: Think Conversions, All Season Long
This year, we have to think differently about our conversion objectives and the means to attain them. Most brands ramp up their conversion goals beginning in October, with a peak in December/January as the holiday season wraps up.
However, according to Pinterest, conversions should peak in November, with an awareness focus in September/early October and late December/January.
But, what are some ways to capitalize on this two-pronged approach?
- Use standard, carousel, and video pins to spark interest and build your audiences in time for the holidays
- Cross-sell multiple products using collection pins with interest and keyword targeting to drive consideration
- Run shopping and dynamic retargeting campaigns to reach the pinners who are most likely to convert
An “always-on” strategy will allow your brand to cut through the noise and out-convert the competition.
Step Three: Think Like a Pinner
Perhaps one of the most important considerations when formulating a strategy for Pinterest is to ensure you’re in the pinner’s mindset — the platform’s creative inspiration combined with quantifiable search abilities makes it a force to be reckoned with.
This year, there is a 30% greater likelihood for a Pinterest user to treat themselves with gifts this Christmas holiday, and early birds aren’t waiting to get a head start on their holiday shopping. Pack pins with authentic keywords to capitalize on interest — including ideas like “Holiday self care,” “Holiday destinations,” “Holiday crafts,” and more.
Consider your target audience’s search behavior before formulating a pin. Does your campaign answer their query’s needs?
Step Four: Win Conversions with Winning Creative
Pinterest operates by a different set of rules for creative. Before pushing your pins live, consider these best practices for Pinterest assets:
- Vertical is king: Use high-quality, vertical assets with a 2:3 aspect ratio. This ensures your creative won’t truncate or be negatively impacted by the Pinterest algorithm.
- Make your product the focal point: Your product or service should be front and center, don’t let your creative distract from your selling point on Pinterest.
- Include your logo: Your logo should be (tastefully and subtly) on every pin you make to increase brand awareness and recognition. Avoid the bottom right corner — product icons appear here!
- Add text overlay: Make your pins stand out with concise copy. Pinners should know what you’re selling and what the value add is for them.
- Optimize copy: With a description max of 500 characters and a title max of 100 characters, these are two gold mines for keywords. Try to hit as close to the character max as possible in order to capitalize on searchability.
- Check links: Don’t forget, link shorteners are not allowed on Pinterest. Be sure to double-check that your link is working properly and directing pinners to the right place.
Step Five: Optimize Over and Over Again
Set yourself apart from the competition with a strategy that’s always optimizing. Are you noticing pins with a “free shipping” promotion spike compared to pins without it? Consider creating more pins with this value add. Are pins with button CTAs seeing higher impressions and click-through compared to those without a clear next step? Be sure to add button CTAs to future assets. Are pins with longer titles driving higher results? Don’t forget to beef up your titles with keywords on your next set of pins.
The key to success on Pinterest is to think like the Pinterest user, or consumer, and always be ready to fine tune your strategy. Stubborn brands with static campaigns lose out on high-quality traffic and sales leads. Don’t miss your opportunity to inspire this holiday season.
Are you in need of a new Pinterest holiday strategy to stand out from the competition? Contact us today for a free nova appraisal.
Resources
https://business.pinterest.com/basics/how-to-make-pins/#best-practices
https://business.pinterest.com/content/start-your-holiday-sales-today/
https://business.pinterest.com/content/get-to-know-pinterest-holiday-shoppers/
https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/track-conversions-with-pinterest-tag
