GUIDE

A 6-Step Plan
for Making Money
on Pinterest
 Step 1
Get your website ready
Your Pinterest strategy doesn’t start on the network—it
starts on your company’s website.

When your website is optimized for Pinterest, it’s easier

for people to save your content and for you to track and
attribute sales and revenue.

Best practices:
••Confirm your site. Once you’ve confirmed your site, your
profile picture will show up on every Pin that comes from
your website. By doing this, you’ll also be able to track what
other users are saving from your website.

Learn how to claim your website here.

••Add the Save button. This lets your customers easily save
things from your website to their Pinterest board, making
it discoverable by other users. As Pinterest explains, “The
Save button is the best way for your business to get
discovered on Pinterest.”

Learn how to add the Save button to your own

website with Pinterest’s help article.

••Add the Pinterest tag. This tracks your website conversions

and provides important insight into how Pinterest users
interact with your site. The tag also helps with future
audience targeting thanks to the data it gathers.

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 Step 2
Optimize your content
Shoppers use Pinterest from the inspiration phase to the
purchasing phase of the buying journey, so you have to
make sure your content works at every step.

While all Pinterest content needs to be beautiful, helpful,

and actionable, there are key features to keep in mind if
your main objective is driving sales and conversions.

Best practices:
••Less is more. If you want your audience to notice and
buy your product, get rid of any unnecessary elements
in your images. While not advocating you share a photo
that is only a product shot, it’s good practice to keep
visual distractions to a minimum. Ask yourself if the extra
elements are adding to your brand’s message—or if
they’re distracting from it.

••Add appropriate branding. Make sure the original

images you Pin include your business’ logo so your
audience can easily recognize your brand. This lets other
Pinners easily find your Pinterest page and website when
your image gets repinned by other users.

••Tell the whole story. Help your audience understand

how your product will fit into their lives by showing them
aspirational lifestyle photos. For example, if you’re an
outdoor gear brand you can Pin images of your hiking
boots at the top of a mountain. Keep in mind that these
types of shots get 18% more engagement than product
shots alone.

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 Step 3
Use Buyable Pins
Buyable Pins let users purchase products or services with
just a few clicks—without ever leaving Pinterest.

Buyable Pins are recognized by their blue price and a “Buy

It” button in their description. Thanks to integrations with
eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, customers can
checkout without leaving Pinterest and sellers can track their
Buyable Pins’ performance.

Best practices:
••Promote your Buyable Pins. Just like with regular Pins,
you can pay to promote your Buyable Pins with Pinterest’s
Promoted Pin capabilities. This helps boost discoverability
and drive both online and in-store sales.

••Create multiple Pins for each product. Try out different

image shots, photo angles, styles or Pin descriptions. While
multiple identical Pins wouldn’t work, creating different
Buyable Pins for each product increases the chances of
your Pins showing up in more places.

••Make sure your Pin is buyable. Some products go

against Pinterest’s policy so won’t be eligible as a Buyable
Pin. These include customizable products, non-physical
Buy it
goods such as digital downloads, and adult products and
services.

••Direct to the right link. Your Buyable Pin will be rejected

if it does not lead to the specific web page for the featured
product. You can’t just add your website’s URL, a category
page, a redirect, or a shortened URL in place of the exact
product page.

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 Step 4
Create Promoted Pins
Promoted Pins might be your most powerful tool when it
comes to driving sales and revenue on Pinterest.

Promoted Pins can lead to 5x more sales and for every 100
Promoted Pin impressions, brands see 30 free views thanks
to repinning. These Pins look and have the feel of regular
Pins—meaning your audience will be much more receptive
of them when compared with regular advertising techniques.

Best Practices:
••Create ads from your best performing Pins. Rather
than try to promote a brand new Pin, pay attention to
the content that is already seeing engagement. If it is
performing well as an organic post, chances are it will do
well as a Promoted Pin.

••Include relevant keywords. Over 40% of clicks on

Pinterest come from search results and related Pins, so
you want to make sure your business is discoverable.
Include relevant keywords in your Promoted Pins to
reach people based on their search behavior and related
interests. This helps your Pins show up in search results,
related Pins, and home feeds.

••Refine your creative. While it’s advisable to create ads

from already-performing Pins, it might be necessary to
fine-tune this content to better suit your business needs.
Make sure your content is mobile-friendly (For example,
Promoted by is the text big enough to read on a small screen?). Also
Hootsuite
make sure it fits Pinterest’s ideal 600 x 900 ideal vertical
dimensions, includes a call-to-action, and has a detailed
description.

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 Step 5
Target the right customers
With over 200 million monthly users on Pinterest, it’s
important your business knows how to effectively reach your
target audience with Promoted Pins.

Pinterest lets advertisers target Pinners based on their

unique consumer behaviour and purchase intent—making
sure your content is shown to the most relevant audience
possible.

Best practices:
••Use interest targeting. Interest targeting lets you reach
Pinners based on other Pins they’ve saved or engaged
with, meaning you’ll get a comprehensive view of who
your audience is and what content resonates with them.
Add interests related to the product you’re promoting,
such as “interior design” if you’re advertising a selection
of rugs or furniture.

••Create an actalike audience. An actalike audience lets

you find users who are similar to those already responding
well to your ad content. Pinterest lets you create an
actalike audience from any audience type—engagement,
visitor retargeting, or customer list.

Learn more about actalike audiences with

Pinterest’s video.

••Test, test, and test again. You might not get the same
results from the same audience groups, so it’s important
to test your different targeting options. Change up your
target demographics, interests, devices (mobile vs.
desktop), and other variables to find the audience that
works best for your content.

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 Step 6
Measure your results
While you might be a measurement expert on other social
media networks, Pinterest’s analytics are a different story.

“People take time to plan, discover and save their ideas on

Pinterest long before they go shopping in-store, so conversions
can happen over a longer window,” Pinterest explains.

When your goal is to drive sales, you need to pay attention

to your Pinterest analytics so you can learn exactly what your
customers want—and continue giving it to them.

Best practices:
••Use the Pinterest Tag. Insert this piece of JavaScript code
on your business’ website to help you track conversions. It
will also help with audience targeting and lets you measure
conversion rates and campaign success across devices.

••Think about timing. People start using Pinterest early in

the shopping process, so you need to use an attribution
time period that gives people enough of a window to
move through the entire path to purchase. Pinterest
recommends using at least 30 days for clicks, 30 days for
engagement and 1 day for views.

••Track the right metrics. Because of Pinterest’s longer

conversion period, it’s important to measure different
metrics for each stage of your customer’s journey. For
example, you might track clicks and impressions at the
awareness stage, saves at the consideration stage, and
purchases at the decision stage.Know the metrics that
matter to your business, set goals, and track them.
Photos by Angelos Michalopoulos, Pavel Anoshin,
Frankie Cordoba, and Samuel Zeller on Unsplash.

Schedule, publish and inspire with Pinterest. Use Hootsuite to keep

your boards beautiful and help your customers discover things they love.
Start publishing pins to Pinterest in Hootsuite.

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