Pinterest is great for sharing visual content and discovering new ideas. Personally, I am a enormously Fan of the platform and use it as a source of inspiration – I make Pinterest boards that match my interests (travel, style, etc.).
Pinterest is a unique social platform in many ways, but one similarity to many other platforms is that it displays ads throughout the feed.
Enter: Business opportunity.
In a letter to shareholders last year, Pinterest said shopping ad revenue increased over 100% from the first half of 2019 to the second half. Pinterest’s 335 million active users are always looking for new ideas, and your ads can be a great way to keep them interested.
An effective way to determine what types of ads are grabbing the attention of your audience members on the platform is to use A / B testing.
We have a full guide to A / B testing here, but I’ll give you the long story briefly.
The goal of A / B testing – also known as split testing – is to conduct simultaneous experiments between two marketing variables to determine which results lead to a better conversion rate.
When it comes to Pinterest ads, the variables you want to test can include your copy, call-to-action, and / or visual representation. A / B testing these types of variables can help you understand what is most engaging with your target audience so you can run ads that get the right message across to your target audience at the right time.
Next, let’s review the steps involved in this process.
How to test A / B Pinterest ads
1. Set up a Pinterest business account.
In order to be able to place advertisements on Pinterest, you need a business account on the platform. Create one by logging into the Pinterest homepage or adding a business account to your existing personal account at the settings.
There is some basic information required about your business when you register, including your company name, website, and industry.
2. Create an advertising campaign.
For A / B test ads, you need to create an advertising campaign that will serve as the basis for the experiment. You can start by going to Show Drop down in the top menu and then click Create ad.
You will be taken to Pinterest’s ad creation dashboard, where you can create campaigns based on the business goal of awareness, consideration, or conversion. Choose your destination and Pinterest will work hard to achieve your goals.
Scroll down a little further to Name your campaign and Assign spending limits. While naming a campaign as simply as “Mug 1” is easier, it will help you stay organized and focus on your goals when you are more meaningful. For example, consider a name like “US Brand Name Mugs Ocean MugSo include the ad location, product brand, product category, and product name.
With the spending limit, Pinterest can make sure it stays within your budget. This field can be included optionally, but it can help avoid overspending and will not affect the speed of your campaign. (More on this in step four.)
3. Define your audience.
Now is the time to reach out to your target audience. By following these steps, Pinterest will automatically adjust the potential audience size you might get on the right.
If you stick to mugs as a product example, you’ll see Pinterest adjust my audience size from 85m + to 158,000-175,000 once I add mugs into that Add interests Section. The Search All Interests search bar is a quick shortcut to help you find your niche. Reducing the potential audience size is nothing to worry about.
In fact, you want to focus on a smaller audience to make sure you are actually targeting people who are likely to be interested in your offerings.
As you work through this page, you will be given several additional options for defining your target audience. In the section below, you can add more details about audience demographics if you select the “Select specific …” option.
4th Create your ad serving strategy.
Okay, it’s time for a few issues. By doing Budget & schedule This section asks you to allocate a budget to your campaign. This means how much money you are willing to spend on Pinterest to get your ads out there.
You can choose how much to spend per day (daily budget) or assign a total budget and let Pinterest calculate how best to spend the money (lifetime budget). You also have the freedom to choose when to start and end your campaign by the exact time and date.
in the Optimization & deliveryChoose how you want to bid on your ads, as ads will appear based on which advertiser wins the highest bid. The choice is yours, but it’s worth noting that Pinterest optimizes your budget in automatic mode.
5. Create and upload the ads you want to A / B test.
Here is your chance to get a little creative. Design two versions of your display with a difference in the variable to be tested. Just focus on creating the ads one Variables that you want to test (e.g. product image, ad copy, ad layout) to get the best results. Services like Canva or PicMonkey are simple online design tools to get you started.
In the cup example below, the product image is the single variable and it is the just Difference between the two versions. This enables clear and actionable results.
Then upload your ads to the Show Section. The ads are formatted like any other Pins on the platform. So please fill in all the required information. You definitely don’t want to miss the target link that will take users to your website!
6. Start your advertising campaign.
Now we are ready to go! Select your A / B ads and click on them Start Click the button that I know you watched throughout the process to start sending these ads to Pinterestverse.
Sit back, relax, and cross this task off your to-do list!
7. Observe and collect ad results.
With the ad campaign running, you may want to keep checking the ad campaign progress Display overview Dashboard.
I am with you but be careful when you come to conclusions. You should give your test enough time to produce statistically significant results prior to analysis. This can take anywhere from hours to weeks. In simpler terms, you want to show your ads to as many people as possible before you analyze the data.
We have created a free test calculator to help, along with all of the other tools you need to run effective A / B testing.
You did it! Kudos for your Pinterest A / B review, but the work doesn’t stop there. Ads are a continuous experimentation game. Build on your test results and consider other variables that you can test in the future. Your consistent efforts will improve your overall ad performance and increase conversions. Good luck!