If you haven’t heard of Pinterest by now, you are definitely missing out on a different kind of social media experience. Pinterest is a place where users can save, or Pin, images and videos to a specified, user-created board. The boards will display the pins in a pleasing visual format, making it easy for users to come back and view what they have saved. Content can vary from recipes to home cleaning tips, DIY builds to art projects, and so much more. The popularity of pinning and sharing tips has ranked Pinterest as the third most popular social platform, following Facebook and Instagram. Plenty of users rely on this social site as a discovery tool for new brands, consumer goods, and ideas.
Out of the 335 million monthly users on Pinterest, the platform has a big reputation amongst women. 80% of their users skew female whose age ranges from 18 to 64 years old, most of whom have children. That’s a highly targeted demographic that many brands can utilize to their advantage, all in one place!
Additionally, according to a Pew Research Study, the majority of Pinterest users earn more than $75,000 a year. This may indicate that users have a high-degree of expendable income and are ready to shop whenever they come across something interesting. In fact, the platform upgraded its marketing and ad services for its business users for this very purpose. The social site’s revenue topped $1 billion in 2019 due to the rapid expansion of its ad capabilities. Marketers and brands should not underestimate the power of Pinterest by any means! Many opportunities for successful advertising campaigns lie in the world of Pinning.
Is Pinterest Actually a Social Platform?
Some may argue that Pinterest isn’t considered a ‘true’ social media platform. It’s not exactly like Facebook where you can share general updates with friends, nor is it like Twitter where you can exchange thoughts and opinions rapidly. While that all may be true, Pinterest is quite similar to Instagram. The social site is mainly used as a discovery tool by users, similar to Instagram’s explore page and easy searchability. Also like Instagram, it’s a highly visual site that aims to capture attention via quality content, with an emphasis on inspiring, educational, skill-building, or how-to topics. Unlike Instagram where comments matter for engagement rate, comments within Pinterest are rarely used, relying instead on views, repins, and shares to measure engagement.
Despite the lack of comments and user-to-user interaction, Pinterest still maintains a high user satisfaction score of 80, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). ACSI measures customer satisfaction across various industries within the U.S. The site surveys roughly 500,000 Americans on their consumption habits, brands, and preferences. To maintain their high score, Pinterest provides quick reactions to customer issues and constantly makes appropriate changes on their site according to user feedback. Most notably, during the recent COVID-19 situation, Pinterest took immediate action to limit the spread of medical misinformation surrounding the virus and related topics. The site stopped producing results to queries associated with vaccinations, which was a major step that prompted other social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, to follow suit. As a result of this high user satisfaction, Pinterest users also enjoy sharing ideas with friends and family, as well as planning for the future. Sharing pins is a key feature on Pinterest, and it sets it apart from other platforms because of this. Users like to keep shared boards for home projects, home goods, or other shoppable items.
From Discovery to Purchase – Pinterest’s Updates
One thing Pinterest does well is utilizing its image-based search capabilities. The platform knows how to work that to its advantage, which differentiates them from other social sites. It has one of the best image-based search engines on the internet, and using it to your benefit is a great way to find success, especially considering up to 80% of searches on Pinterest are unbranded. This gives marketers an excellent way to connect with their customers who are looking for inspiration but not sure where to find it.
Because of this, they recently expanded and improved on their ad and selling capabilities for brands. On the business end, its ad management is designed to help marketers cater their campaigns to specific KPIs and goals with ease. The ad platform is intuitive enough for both amateur and professional marketers to successfully use. On the user end, Pinterest uses image search to help users stumble upon ads that are relevant to their search queries. The site will automatically push ads to their users in a way that feels like natural discovery, making it simple for brands to get their name out there.
Another great feature to note is the addition of shoppable pins. This is a pin option where brands can directly link items featured in the pins and redirect users to their website to purchase. This feature minimizes the user journey from discovery to purchase at the click of a button – great for conversion driven campaigns!
The company has also introduced four new features for users to shop specifically for home goods and fashion, which include shop from a board, shop from search, shop from Pins, and style guides. These new shopping options allow users to see in-stock products directly on their boards, use the newly added shop tab during search, click on a Pin to purchase an item, or use style guides for recommended decor ideas that match cohesively. The platform also recently launched a verified merchant program, which helps build trust and rapport between merchants and users. Pinners will now see a verified blue checkmark for brands that have met Pinterest’s guidelines for a trustworthy experience, giving customers peace of mind when ordering online.
At the release of the shoppable pin updates, Pinterest made a statement saying, “As we continue to make improvements to the shopping experience on Pinterest, we’ve increased the number of shoppable Product Pins by 2.5x since last year, while driving a total increase in traffic to retailers by 2.3x. And, the number of Pinners engaging with shopping on Pinterest has increased 44% year over year.” That kind of growth is worth paying attention to!
Keep Pinterest On Your Radar
With high user satisfaction and high user retention, Pinterest is definitely a platform to keep on your radar. The social site has certainly proven its value as a marketing tool for brands looking to add a new platform to their social media mix, no matter the kind or size of your business. This site is great for any young direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand looking to be discovered or seasoned online/eCommerce brands aiming for customer loyalty. Year over year, Pinterest’s user base is steadily increasing as more and more people come to understand the benefits and utility of visual search. From a strong visual search engine to an intuitive ad platform to a new integrated shopping experience, users and brands alike will find themselves seamlessly immersed in the world of Pinterest.
Looking to introduce a Pinterest strategy for your brand but not sure how? Contact LMS at imgame@wearelms.com!