Pinterest Ads for Small Business: Results on a Lean Budget

Pinterest works differently from Facebook or Instagram. People search and save ideas, often weeks before they buy. That makes it a good fit for products with a planning stage and visual appeal, and a weaker fit for urgent needs or services that are hard to show in an image.

Check two things before spending. Search your product category in Pinterest and see whether there are many saved Pins and active boards. Then look at your own Pinterest Analytics, if you already post, to see which Pins earn saves and outbound clicks. If organic content gets traction, ads have something to build on.

Setup is free and takes an afternoon. Do it properly, since tracking problems are hard to fix later.

• Convert to or create a Pinterest business account in Settings.
• Claim your website domain so your Pins show your profile and get attribution.
• Install the Pinterest tag, through the Shopify, WooCommerce or other platform integration where available.
• Set up the Conversions API for more complete conversion data, often through the same integration.
• Upload a product catalog if you sell products online, so you can run shopping ads.
• Create a few boards organized by theme, with keyword-rich titles and descriptions.

Check in Ads Manager under Conversions that events such as page visit, add to cart and checkout are recording.

Pinterest offers objectives for awareness, consideration and conversions, including catalog sales. On a lean budget, choose based on the data you have.

Consideration

Consideration campaigns optimize for outbound clicks to your site. They suit new accounts without enough conversion data, and they help the Pinterest tag gather events for later conversion campaigns.

Conversions

Conversion campaigns optimize for actions such as checkout or lead. They work best once the tag records conversions regularly. Starting here with very little data can lead to slow delivery.

Catalog sales

Shopping campaigns use your product feed and show products to people browsing related ideas. For an online store with a clean catalog, this is often the most efficient format, since Pinterest automatically creates ads for each product.

Pinterest targeting uses keywords, interests, audiences and expanded targeting. Small budgets work best with focus.

• Keywords: start with 20 to 30 terms that match how people search for ideas, such as “small balcony garden ideas” rather than just “planters”.
• Interests: add a few closely related interest categories.
• Audiences: retarget site visitors and people who engaged with your Pins.
• Actalike audiences: Pinterest’s lookalike option, built from customers or engaged users once you have enough data.
• Location and language: limit to areas you ship to or serve.

Expanded targeting lets Pinterest find more people beyond your selections. It can help discovery, but on a very small budget it may spread spend too thin; test it after the core targeting has results.

Creative is the biggest lever. Pins that look like useful ideas perform better than Pins that look like ads.

• Vertical format, with a 2:3 aspect ratio, such as 1000 by 1500 pixels.
• The product shown in a real setting, such as a room, an outfit or a finished recipe.
• A short text overlay describing the idea, not the discount.
• Your logo placed small and consistently.
• Video Pins for products that benefit from demonstration.
• Several variations per ad group, so the system can find the best one.

Reuse your best organic Pins as ads. They have already shown that people save and click them.

How do organic Pins and ads work together?

Organic Pins keep earning saves and clicks for months, which is unusual among social platforms. Keep posting a few fresh Pins each week, even while running ads, because new organic content feeds the pool of tested creative and builds the audience that retargeting reaches. Ads, in turn, put your Pins in front of people who then save them to their own boards, where they continue to circulate without further cost.