Pinterest Search Ads – Promoted Pins Keyword Campaigns

Wait a minute – we already have Promoted Pin campaigns which you can target by keyword – so why do we need Search Ads? Pinterest’s February first announcement that they were releasing Search Ads with two new types of campaigns – Keyword Campaigns and Shopping Campaigns, was baffling to many of us.

Facebook user Louise articulated the ensuing confusion this way,

I’m still confused about this… didn’t Pinterest already have keyword search advertising? Otherwise why were we entering keywords to target when setting up a promoted pin?

Great question – why, indeed?

The Surprising Truth About Targeting Promoted Pins by Keywords

When you run a Promoted Pin awareness, engagement, or traffic campaign, you can choose keywords to target. So, why would we need keyword campaigns? Don’t we already have that?

Truth is, when you target by keyword, your Promoted Pins will often show up in search results, but it will also show up in home feeds, related pins, and other feeds. Why would that be and how, then does Pinterest determine where to show your pins?

Pinterest uses “various” factors, likely including a pinner’s demonstrated interests, their board titles, search habits, etc. And no, they did not want to get specific about it. 🙂

So, it’s clear that we’re not able to directly target by keyword, which means we cannot target people when they’re ready to find what we have and buy what we have (ie, the moment they are searching for it). No wonder they don’t convert as well as interests.

Also, if you export you ad analytics, you’ll see that they are all BROAD match keywords, so there is no option to only target an exact match.

The other issue is, if you want to target by keyword and set a by-keyword budget, you would have to create one Promoted Pin for every single keyword. Given the fact that you cannot even duplicate a Promoted Pin, this is just not practical.

The Difference in New Pinterest Promoted Pin Keyword Campaigns

1. The new campaigns will allow you to target people based ONLY on what they are searching at that moment, meaning an impression of your pin that is much more likely to result in a click or a save since that’s what is on the pinners mind right then. Your ads will appear only in search results.

2. You’ll also be able to bid by keyword. You’ll be able to create ad groups (rolling out now) with keywords grouped there. As it stands now, your keyword-targeted campaigns apply the same bid to every keyword, which means you could be paying $.10/click for “black stilettos” and $.35 for “ruby shoes” within the same campaign – with no way to control the spend.

It will be a huge timesaver to be able to big by separate keywords without creating a Promoted Pin for each and every one of them.

3. Pinterest also says they’ll be helping you choose keywords based on the images you are promoting. According to this article on Marketingland, Michael Akkerman, head of Pinterest Marketing partnerships says,  “We are able to understand how people relate to an image based on how they are saving it and naming it different things, and we are able to show advertisers those keywords.” Cool.

These campaigns will be rolling out to all of us with Promoted Pins over time. For now, however, they’re limited to larger brands working with advertising partner Kenshoo.

Pinterest Search Ads also includes Shopping campaigns, which I’ll cover shortly.

What do you think? Will you use Keyword campaigns? Check out my conversation about them on Social Media Examiner‘s live show from last week (starting at about :29):

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Alisa Meredith

I've been creating marketing strategies for years - for both B2C and B2B businesses, formerly as co-owner and chief strategist of a HubSpot partner agency, and since 2015 right here. I have a passion for businesses that make the world a better place in ways large and small, and the people who run those businesses are the ones I enjoy working with. I am slightly obsessed with Pinterest. Not just because it is fun, but because it works amazingly well for traffic and lead generation.

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