Pinterest Brings a Positive Environment, Along With Engaged and Inspired Users
Brands looking to add a social media platform with a slightly different approach than stalwarts Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to their creator marketing mix may want to consider putting a Pin in it.
“Pinterest fosters a unique symbiosis with creators, providing a visually driven platform that amplifies creativity and engagement,” Open Influence Senior Director, Partnerships and Innovation Jenifer Golden said. “Essentially a shareable and shoppable digital scrapbook for the modern age, Pinterest is the perfect marriage of a blog and a social platform.”
Far from a newcomer, Pinterest is well established, with 518 monthly active users across the globe, including a robust presence among Generation Z.
The company said Gen-Z accounts for 42% of its global MAUs, up 20% year over year, and users in the demographic save nearly 2.5 times more ideas on the platform than those in other age groups.
Pinterest also attracts tens of millions of unique monthly visitors 18 and older who are not visiting other social media platforms. Specifically, according to the company:
- 70 million unique monthly visitors are not on Snapchat, representing 71% of Pinterest users 18 and up.
- 56 million are not on Instagram, or 57%.
- 53 million are not on X, or 54%.
- And 50 million are not on TikTok, or 51%.
The top four categories on Pinterest, in terms of audience size, are:
- Fashion, 71 million
- Home decor, 69 million
- Food and drink, 63 million
- Beauty, 59 million
Other categories that Pinterest called out as emerging include men’s fashion (up 27% year over year), automotive (22%) and travel (10%).
The platform had already carved a niche for itself, but it took a major step forward in February 2017, when it introduced three visual search tools:
- Lens, which allowed users to tap the camera icon in the Pinterest application and capture a photo, bringing up recommendations for similar objects and, where applicable, examples of the object in finished projects.
- Shop the Look, which let people browse and buy items in fashion and home Pins, as well as see recommendations for similar items available for purchase and ideas on what to do with those items.
- Instant Ideas, a way for users who see a concept that they like in a Pin to tap the circle in the bottom-right corner for similar ideas.
Much like Snapchat, Pinterest strives to differentiate itself from other social media platforms for marketing, but while Snapchat pitches connections with family and friends, Pinterest bills itself as the online destination for positivity.
The company said its mission is to inspire people through positive, personal experiences and help them focus on their next big idea, rather than sitting back and being passively entertained.
“Over the past decade, we’ve made deliberate choices to engineer a more positive place online,” Pinterest explained in a February 2023 blog post. “For example, our algorithm prioritizes explicit signals from people who use Pinterest: more conscious, active engagements, like ‘saving’ an idea. We use those active signals to determine what you see first on Pinterest.”
The company added, “Pinterest is a more positive place online. That didn’t happen by accident. We’ve made consistent, people-first decisions to protect everyone who uses our platform. And we’ve been diligent about measuring ourselves annually to confirm what we’re doing right—and wrong—to maintain that position of positivity … A more positive internet is possible.”
Credit: Pinterest
Advertising Options on Pinterest
The three main placement surfaces for advertising on Pinterest are its Home feed, its search function and related Pins.
Content in the Home feed is based on the profiles a user follows, Pins that they save and similar content they have interacted with on the platform.
Keywords and targeting determine the content users see when they search on Pinterest.
And Pinterest users in close-up mode can scroll through like-minded Pins, which may include branded content.
The ad types that are available across all experiences on Pinterest are standard static, standard video, Idea Ads, carousel ads and Collages.
Collages, the platform’s newest ad type, are immersive and interactive, giving creators a way to tap into a brand’s imagery to illustrate their favorite ideas, and Pinterest said users engage with collages twice as much as with other Pins, and they save collages three times as much.
As a social media platform for marketing, Pinterest’s versatile advertising options cater to a variety of marketing goals, enhancing brand visibility and engagement.
“Pinterest recently released the Collages feature to expand audiences, attract more users and keep people on the platform,” Open Influence Director of Partnerships Tommy Johnson said.
Pinterest’s mobile-only ad types are collections ads, showcase ads, quiz ads, maximum-width video and Premiere Spotlight, with the latter offering advertisers exclusive placement on the Home feed or search page for an entire day.
For businesses exploring social media platforms for marketing, Pinterest provides a diverse array of ad types that can cater to various marketing strategies. The company said its most shopping-friendly ad types are collections, showcase ads and shoppable video ads.
Creators on Pinterest
“We spoke to Pinterest at Cannes Lions, and it is very open to becoming more creator-friendly,” Johnson said.
Open Influence Vice President of Strategic Partnerships Lenny Shteynberg agreed, adding, “Pinterest is trying to go all in with creators. It is using the same playbook as Snapchat, TikTok, Meta. It knows it needs creators to create content on its platform.”
Indeed, Pinterest credits creators with being a sparkplug in its “inspiration engine,” saying that content from influencers has a 45% higher save rate than other content on its platform, and brands working with creators on Pinterest have seen 38% higher brand awareness and 37% higher Pin awareness. This makes Pinterest one of the most essential social media platforms for marketing, especially for brands looking to leverage influencer-driven content.
Saying that creators are “the intersection of inspiration and influence,” the company noted their ability to combine their authenticity and credibility with the platform’s ideas-oriented mission and deliver hyper-relevant, targeted content to users.
According to Pinterest, 21% of Gen-Z and millennials credit celebrities and creators with sparking new trends, versus just 15% for brands.
Follower count does not have as big an impact on Pinterest campaigns as it does on other platforms, so the company said it pays influencers a fixed rate based on how their agency classifies them: nano, micro or macro.
Types of content that brands and creators can produce for Pinterest campaigns include:
- Idea Ads with paid partnership: Ideas can be shared in this immersive format and augmented with interactive features such as royalty-free music, stickers and tagging for boards and products. These Idea ads are ideal for boosting awareness and consideration.
- Curated shops: Influencers can showcase their personal styles and spins on products when choosing which ones to feature, and they can combine video content elsewhere with collection ads on Pinterest, with a video asset in the hero position and the curated shop in the secondary position. Creators and retailers can also join forces on ad types like Collages and styling videos.
- Board previews: Creators on Pinterest can turn their boards into highlight videos for sharing on other social platforms, such as Instagram Stories, helping them show off what makes them unique outside of Pinterest.
Pinterest stands out among other social media platforms for marketing due to their unique focus on creators and trendsetters, offering brands innovative ways to reach and engage with their target audience.
“Brands should consider Pinterest for their creator marketing campaigns because it not only drives organic discovery and long-term inspiration, but also seamlessly connects products with passionate, ready-to-act audiences,” Golden said. “Planning a wedding? Find creator content on Pinterest. Redecorating on a budget? Search for curated creator content on Pinterest. Looking for a travel itinerary to a remote destination? It is right there, developed and pinned by your favorite travel creator.”
Best Practices
According to Pinterest, the most effective creator content “leads with video, tells a story, uses text overlays and makes it actionable.”
Other best practices for influencer content on its platform include:
- The objective should help guide the imagery that is chosen. For boosting awareness and reach, look at the brand and how users perceive it in the real world, and use lifestyle or staged images to help people visualize how the product fits in their lives, along with detail shots to push the aesthetic of the brand and product and make it “cool.” For driving traffic, make the product the focus with studio imagery.
- The text overlay should include copy that connects the product to moments or trends, and names the product.
- Remember that the Pin title is key for search-engine optimization.
- Description copy is also a factor for SEO, but it is only seen by users on desktop in close-up mode.
- On content for the Home feed, play into the upper-funnel and midfunnel discovery mindset with content that is commanding, brand-focused and brings users something new.
- For search, brands and creators should highlight what makes the product they are promoting special within the context of what the user is searching for.
- A 2:3 ratio canvas is the most optimized size for phone screens, as content in 9:16 may be disrupted by the title drawer in close-up mode.
- For financial services brands: Use a simple animation instead of a broadcast ad cutdown, ensure that the branding is clear and add a disruptive, high-contrast background color.
- For alcohol brands: Ensure that the product is clearly visible (along with the brand and logo), showcase the product within a realistic use case and use the animated text overlay to call out its special features.
“Pinterest is a visual Google, there for all your needs,” Golden concluded. “In a world of aspiration, Pinterest enables you to attain your vision.”
Open Influence’s team stays on top of the latest trends and is here to help you maximize your creator campaigns. Open Influence is a leading global creator marketing agency dedicated to creating engaging campaigns.
