One-Tap Promoted Pins on Pinterest: Friend or Foe?

Read the July 30, 2018 update – all campaigns are one tap! Have you seen them yet? The pins that you click on, expecting to see the image enlarged and more of the description and instead you’re whisked away to the pinner’s website? They’re one-tap Promoted Pins, and Pinterest is getting excited about them.

How can you tell which are one-tap and which are conventional? When you hover over an organic pin or a Promoted Pin that is NOT one-tap, you’ll see a magnifying glass icon with a “+” on it. A one-tap pin will change the cursor to a pointing hand. Subtle!

Pinterest is All In with One-Tap Promoted Pins

Pinterest is currently upgrading everyone to this new ad format, converting all active traffic campaigns to “one tap,” claiming that “You’re likely to see increases in your click-through rates and a 30-70% reduction in the cost-per-clicks for traffic campaigns.”

Now, it’s obvious that your click-through rate will jump as they’ve eliminated that secondary step of clicking on the pin to enlarge it before clicking to go to the website. But the reduction in cost-per-click for traffic campaigns? Not so much.

In fact, unless Pinterest wanted to give us a financial incentive for using one-tap Promoted Pins by purposefully reducing pricing on the inventory for these pins, there is no good reason to think they would reduce cost per click. One user reports that her spending shot up by 500% with no increase in sales. Ouch!

More Clicks, More Money, Fewer Sales?

Since Pinners are accustomed to clicking on a pin and seeing the closeup before they click to visit the site, what impact will one-tap Promoted Pins have on your site’s bounce rate? Will Pinners find the experience jarring and close out the new window (your site) to return to their happy place, Pinterest?

Even more important than the somewhat arbitrary bounce rate, what impact will one-tap Promoted Pins have on your conversion to sales rate? Will you not simply be paying for more clicks, but not getting any more (and possibly generating fewer) sales?

If you give them a try (or forget to shut them off when your account is upgraded), look carefully at how your pins are converting to sales or leads on your website. Did one-tap increase the number of new leads or customers, or just the amount you’re paying Pinterest?

For my money, I’d rather have people view the pin close up (free with a traffic campaign) before clicking. Screen out those who aren’t really interested by requiring two clicks before I’m charged!

What do you think? Have you tried one-tap Promoted Pins? Do you think they’re a good idea, or will you be turning them off as soon as they’re added to your account?

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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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