If you’ve ever ran ads on Pinterest (known as Promoted Pins) then you already know that this ad platform is like no other. But, will that hold true now that all Promoted Pins are now update to One-Tap Pinterest Ads? I’m not sure, but time will tell.
Personally, I think the two biggest advantages advertisers have had when it comes to advertising on Pinterest have been:
1. The best ads on Pinterest don’t actually look like ads, they look like organic content that speaks directly to the Pinner.
On other digital channels’ ads look like, well, ads. But on Pinterest advertisers can run ads that fit in naturally with all of the organic content on the channel. Pinners are on Pinterest looking for new ideas and products and aren’t expecting to be served up something that looks like a banner ad. So, when advertisers deliver their ad in a way that answers to what the Pinner is looking for, and doesn’t look like an ad, magic happens.
2. Pinners can “save” your ad to one of their boards at no cost to you. When they later take action on your ad, it’s FREE!
It’s been the only digital place you can run an ad and someone can see that ad and then “save” it for later. No other platform allows people to save your ad with the intent to take action on it later–at no cost to you, the advertiser. Pinterest calls this “earned” engagement (and I’ve been calling it a fabulous bonus!). It really has been what sets Pinterest apart in my mind as an advertising channel.
The bad news is–both of these things changed around August 6, 2018.
Last year, I wrote about the option to run your Pinterest Ads as One-Tap Promoted Pins which removes the option for a Pinner to “save” your Promoted Pin and instead, takes the Pinner directly to your site with one click. I’ve tested this ad format many times and never much success. As mentioned above, I believe Pinterest ads are so successful because they don’t seem like ads. When a Pinner clicks on a Promoted Pin they expect the same experience as other Pins, the ability to “Save” it for later and they don’t expect to be taken off of Pinterest. One-Tap Promoted Pins change that user experience. And now Pinterest will be migrating all Promoted Pins to be One-Tap. There isn’t currently an option to run ads the old way.
So, what does this mean for Pinterest advertisers?
- You’ll need to try a new creative strategy. You’ll want to follow the lead of major advertisers and start designing Promoted Pins that have some elements of a traditional banner ad (see my insider tips for doing that, here). This goes against the creative strategy that has worked so well but the truth is you’re going to want Pinners to know your Pin is an ad because if they click it you will pay for that click. So, if your Pin simply blends in with other content you might begin to see really high click-throughs but they won’t likely be from a qualified audience. The Pinners likely won’t be expecting to leave Pinterest and might feel that experience of clicking and leaving the platform to be jarring which will likely mean they will bounce. That means, you’ve just paid for a click that resulted in nothing.
- You can’t count on that “earned” (aka free) value from people saving your Promoted Pins. Without this, advertisers are going to begin comparing Pinterest to other channels in a more apples-to-apples way since there won’t be this extra value to running Promoted Pins.
With this change, your Pinterest advertising strategy will need to evolve.
Here are some way to start setting yourself up for a better chance at success with One-Tap Promoted Pins.
- Include copy and clear calls-to-action (CTA) so that a Pinner realizes that if they click the Pin, they will be taken off Pinterest and to your website. Remember, there’s no value in paying for an unqualified click. It will just cost you money and be a bad experience for the Pinner. Here are some examples of Promoted Pins I have recently designed for brands (many more, here) that include a clear and obvious CTA like “Shop Now” and “Listen Free.”
- You need to overthink your landing page. Even if you make your Promoted Pin very obvious that it’s an ad, a Pinner might still not realize when they click on it, they are going to be taken off of Pinterest where they have just been in scrolling mode. If you can replicate in some way the experience of Pinterest on your landing page (think big, beautiful image and lots of content to scroll and explore), you might stand a chance at keeping their attention.
- Lower your bids on One-Tap campaigns. You are going to get a lot more click-throughs on your ads and you don’t want to be overspending. Lower your bids and you can always rachet them back up after you’ve seen some data around how these new ads are performing for you. The way I look at it, if you’re seeing really high click-through-rates (CTRs) or hiting your daily budget each day, be sure to lower your bids.
- Lastly, be sure you’re testing ads on other platforms as well. If you’re seeing better performance on say, Facebook, then shift budget to the better performing platoform.
Have you already began running One-Tap campaigns on Pinterest? Have you noticed a difference in performance? How have you adjusted your strategy?
*Want to more insider strategies for Pinterest? Join other bloggers, business owners, and marketers in my Pinterest Masterclass.
Tori Tait is sharing her experience as a Content Director and Pinterest expert. Since 2006 she's been helping entrepreneurs build their businesses online through simple & smart marketing strategies.
This one-tap thing is a bummer. I’m not sure why Pinterest felt it was necessary to make all ads one-tap. But thank you for your take on how to adapt! It really makes sense to create pins that are more like ads.
Cheryl, you’re welcome! I think it will be interesting to see if they hold too it. I think a lot of advertisers are seeing a big drop in performance so with that, I am confident they’ll want to address the issue some how.
I had all my eggs in the Pinterest basket and have been making a living just from selling via Pinterest. This has now ended and I need to figure out a new way to connect. In short my spending went up three times with no additional sales. I was already bidding as low as I could go.. so there is no way out. For each 100 people that engage my pin with the new one tap system versus old campaigns I have:
34 will click versus 14 from my old campaigns
4 will save versus 11 from my old campaigns
62 will have a close-up compared to 75 from old campaigns.
Further, I think the one-tap just makes people mad and feel like they have been taken advantage of rather than choosing to check things out themselves, it takes away from the Pinterest experience. I have had multiple conversations with Pinterest Business unit and was told they were using One Tap because many businesses felt it worked better for them. My comment was that if One Tap was so great.. we will choose it our self – so let it be an option. For those that are already bidding low… there is nowhere to go.
Kristin, Your experiences are very similar to mine. I think the challenge now is to really create more typical banner ads in the best “Pinterest” way possible. So that only really qualified people will click–Pinners that WANT to go to your site. With that said, I think the Promoted Pins now will be closer to apples-to-apples comparisons with other ad platforms for most Marketers. I also feel Pinners will now begin to spot the ads (because we have to design them so obviously) and be annoyed. They’ve been there all along, it’s just the now we can’t “disguise” them as organic content.
I’m really curious how many advertisers out there are absolutely loving the transition to one-tap ads.
Personally, I cut all advertising on pinterest a couple weeks ago after they transitioned my account. I saw my ad costs increase between 2x-5x with zero increase in leads or sales. Lowering bids wasn’t nearly helpful enough (or possible if the bids were already at the minimum).
After that, I wrote to pinterest requesting that they offer one of two solutions:
(a) The ability to choose between one-tap and double-tap ads
(b) The ability to go lower than their current minimum bid
I keep googling to see what the latest is on this, hoping people find a truly workable solution. My ads already looked like ads, so it’s good to see other people like you thinking about how to make it work.
At the end of the day though, I couldn’t. Your apples-to-apples comparison is also spot on. At this point, Facebook and Google are looking much better than pinterest… which is so unfortunate since pinterest was working so great for me up until the one-tap ads.
Chris,
Totally feel you. It’s frustrating. I do think there’s still some potential with running Promoted Pins in a Retargeting Campaign though. Since those people will already be familiar with your brand/business they would be a much more qualified lead. Maybe something to test? The pure Prospecting Ads are really tough … not able to make them work at the moment either.
Appreciate this post. Let me try it out.
The user experience for mobile is deceiving to the pinner. They don’t realized that the advertiser website loads in the background and it looks like a normal pin yet the advertiser pays for the click?!? We have pulled back a ton.
Lauren, Yes! And most advertisers don’t realize that they are paying for the click AND that it’s inflating CTR’s.
stumbled upon this great blog and figured id let off some steam too 🙂
absolutely agree with the above comments, i had some great campaigns running that just no longer convert, bounce rates have gone from 60% to 90% and thats for the actual clicks that register with google analytics, i did the math and I was pretty much paying for an extra 30% of clicks that never had time to get tracked
I think the only way one tap could ever work if we had facebook type targeting options but its crazy to think they’d just force this on everyone without improving the platform, i mean you can’t even copy and paste stuff, managing ads is a complete nightmare and the whole idea of having minimum bids just seems to price myself (and sounds like most others) out of the market
would love to test video ads but again the minimum bid is too high
think i read pinterest is set for $1 billion revenue this year, my main worry is most of that is coming from big businesses running brand awareness campaigns so they really might not care about the smaller guys using one tap, fingers crossed running up to December though :/
I totally agree with all of the previous comments. After, One-Tap started, my ad spend went up 5x, with no extra conversions to make up for the expense.
I was also paying the minimum bid, so there was no way out for me, either. Basically, I have entirely shut down all my campaigns on Pinterest and have taken all my ad spend elsewhere.
I am really upset about it because I had very many successful campaigns going, but I guess this is what they wanted – to only cater to the big businesses. Too bad.