The Power of Pinterest
With over 300 million users as of January 20201, Pinterest has solidified its place as a major player in the social networking space. What makes this channel stand out? Its ability to visually engage users throughout different points of the consumer journey with high-quality organic creative (think full-screen takeovers) and shoppable ad elements.
Pinterest and the user journey
As with most social networks, not all user journeys on Pinterest are alike. With ads and organic content intermingled in Pinterest feeds, the journey to conversion depends on what catches the user’s eye. It’s no secret that “dreamers,” or those in an aspirational planning stage, tend to be most engaged on the platform, so many brands focus their resources on high-funnel inspirational content. However, don’t overlook the fact that some users are ready to convert on timely and well-placed ads. Campaigns targeted to these users with ads that feature stunning creative can help your brand drive key actions on the platform.
Of course, users don’t often convert after seeing just 1 pin (or ad) from a brand. But even if Pinterest isn’t a last-click conversion referral, it can work hard for your brand by building awareness and contributing view-through conversions. If a brand offers relevant and engaging content organized across curated boards – and which ideally mirror the brand’s website experience – the platform excels at driving brand recall, encouraging users to organically search for content, and prompting users to visit profiles and boards.
Take Room & Board for example. As a home furnishings brand, it places a high priority on its Pinterest messaging and targeting strategy, which helps to deliver a strong return on investment. Key to success is its well-structured and organized channel, which supports a high-quality user experience. Read more about its profile success in this Pinterest success story.
As brands continue to receive more and more referral traffic from Pinterest, many marketers are facing pressure to build a strong, beneficial presence on the channel. But where does one start?
Why conduct a Pinterest audit?
The first step: a Pinterest audit. A thorough analysis of a brand’s Pinterest profile enables marketing teams to assess friction points and identify growth opportunities. This empowers teams to craft and deploy an optimized content and creative strategy. Opportunities can often be as simple as pin optimizations or board layout restructures, or they may include more nuanced creative recommendations, like where text and logos are placed on an image.
If you’re considering investing time and resources into completing an extensive Pinterest audit, focus on these three areas to get those most out of your investment.
(1) Build an inventory of current content (public & hidden)
Before adjusting a Pinterest account and board structures, it’s important to first understand what content lives on the profile and how it performs. Taking stock of current content themes can be especially helpful when planning to freshen up stale content. This inventory of content is the foundation for a Pinterest audit as it outlines areas of opportunity for optimization and new content creation. It’s the first step we take at Collective Measures when engaging in a Pinterest audit for any client.
(2) Analyze creative performance
Pinterest is a visually-driven platform, making relevant imagery essential to achieving strong performance. Conducting an audit can help you decide if the current creative being used meets best practices in terms of layout, image size, and text overlay positioning. Important to note: As only small (file size) images could be used on the platform when it first launched years ago, conducting a Pinterest audit helps uncover and outline needs for higher-quality creative that will boost conversion rates.
(3) Understand the user experience
One of the greatest “aha” moments when auditing a platform is identifying ways to enhance the user experience. For example, with Pinterest it’s important to determine if any links direct to 404 error pages and, if they do, update those links. Taking inventory of not only the content that is showcased on Pinterest, but also the associated links and landing pages will enhance the performance of a brand’s digital ecosystem in the long-term as more users engage cross-channel.
What marketers need to know
Pinterest is not a platform for every brand, but when used properly it can propel a business’ digital and social efforts forward. By conducting a Pinterest audit, marketers can identify opportunities to better align content with business objectives, consumer intent, and the wants and needs of key audiences. Reaching people with the right content at the right time and in the right place is a marketer’s ultimate goal, and one that a Pinterest audit can help uncover.
Sources
- Photo: Unsplash
- Sprout Social, 2020
