Pinterest’s New Advertising & How It Can Help You

 

With the recent expansion of Pinterest’s ad platform, many business owners have been curious on how to place ads and how it can help their own business.

Before we engage your questions, we must find out “exactly” what Pinterest is and what it has to offer. Pinterest is a mobile/web social media platform that offers users the opportunity to share, store, collect and discover digital visual items. So in short it’s a digital ‘scrap book’.

History

Founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. It is managed by Cold Brew Labs LLC and funded by a small group of entrepreneurs and investors. The company is valued at $5 billion with a funding of over $700 million dollars from a series of investors. It has over 70 million members with an estimated 45 percent coming from outside the US.

Growing Demographic

Before Pinterest was officially launched and after a couple of failed debuts it garnered the interest of Shana Fisher (IAC M&A boss). Fisher noted that she loved the product and would want to invest with Pinterest. Unbeknownst to the founders or not, Fisher would be an indicator and harbinger of a treasured demographic that would determine Pinterest’s future and ongoing success. The company boasts one of the most sought out demographic in the United States. Middle to Higher income women. Recent estimates suggest that females make up 84% of Pinterest’s users.

Opening Its Doors

Pinterest as of January 1st 2015 expanded its advertising platform to more businesses.

Early last year Pinterest began ad experiments with some advertisers that included Sony and WayFair. (For the observant the ads depicted below are generally coaxed towards a female audience.)

However, despite our enthusiasm, caution must be courted. The ad platform is still in its early stages. So will it actually work for small businesses, and if so how much should your campaign be? These are questions that must be answered. But unlike many social platforms, including the ones you are probably receiving this report on, ads on Pinterest have a natural symmetry with the pictures viewed by their users. This means it’s non- intrusive. That’s good thing. This motions this writer to segway for the pros and cons of Pinterest.

Pros and Cons:

Pros: Because of the natural symmetry of its pictures it is a great place for brand exposure.

Cons: Just because users click or collect pins displayed by advertisers it does not necessarily mean a sale of a product or service. (To be fair, same with most ad platforms)

Pros: Instagram (without the ad campaigns) has so far proved that pictures can lead to sales or converts to your services.

Cons: Advertising tools not as extensive or sophisticated as competitors like facebook.

Pros: Very fine tuned and desirable targeted audience.

Cons: Still smaller amount of users than facebook, twitter and Instagram.

Pros: Might prove more lucrative for businesses because of smaller size of Pinterest’s users, their wide interests and income.

So if the question still lingers as how Pinterest can benefit your business contact NovoFex.