It’s the new frontier: Promoted pins are here for all! But the process can seem daunting. The Pinterest community is a strong one, and the company is listening, with strict rules and guidelines to keep the platform as organic and real as possible. Here are a few tips to get you started: 

Brands, retailers, website and blogs all have various reasons for being on Pinterest, but the one objective they all share is to drive traffic to their websites. Repins and impressions are great, but the real challenge with Pinterest (and promoted pins) is creating a pin that will convert to a website click. 

Design and imagery is king. A quality pin will convey your idea immediately. Ideally, a consumer shouldn’t have to read the copy incorporated in your post to understand what it’s all about. That being said, descriptions still matter and serve a purpose. Write descriptions to provide additional context, extra information and trigger action. Do not be promotional. Watch a pin fail to be approved if you use any words like “BOGO,” “Two for $5.99!” or any unnecessary hashtags and exclamation points. Every pin goes through a review and there are more clear no-no’s. Check them out and follow these rules if you want your pin approved.  

Pins need to be beautiful. Stock photography and square, Instagram-esque photos will not be approved, or will get lost in the shuffle. Images should be high-resolution, professional-quality and vertically oriented – Pinterest recommends and image aspect ratio of 2:3 to 1:3.5, minimum width of 600px. Pinterest suggests that no more than four separate images should compose a pin. Have a clear theme (not just a group of random products) and keep borders, rounded-edges and promotional text overlays out. Any text overlay should be part of the design. The most successful branded pins are done so very tastefully, or are somehow integrated into the image. For example, the Target logo on a reusable grocery bag in a beautiful kitchen, or the Starbucks logo on the coffee sleeve next to a delicious blueberry muffin. You get the idea.

Pinterest is unique from any other social platform because pins last forever. It’s an amazing opportunity to create evergreen content. This board has amazing examples and inspiration of brands doing right.

When setting up a campaign, be very thoughtful about the keywords you associate with your pin. Industry folk recommend using Google Adwords’ Keyword Planner to find these words, but test what works best. You can also just put on your pinner hat. What would you type in the search bar to find your content? 

Like other social platforms, there are no clear rules or right and wrongs for budget; at least not yet. Pricing works in a CPC (cost-per-click) format, which makes it very affordable since you only pay for clicks to your website. You can set a max daily budget and pause a campaign at any time. My advice –  start small, continually monitor and test different amounts of daily limits and keywords to see what’s worth your time and money.