Promoted Pins
Pinterest is allowing businesses to create an engagement campaign with Promoted Pins to reach people while they’re planning their next move. The platform already lets brands target audiences based on users’ interests and life stages, such as travelers and Millennials. Pinterest uses a cost-per-engagement (CPE) model that helps companies track a user’s future interest. When people engage with a Pin through closeups, repins or clicks, they’re showing intent to act.
Businesses pay for each engagement (a closeup, repin or click) on Promoted Pins, which are currently only available in the U.S. That means brands don’t pay for the impressions or just the number of eyeballs that see the pin, they pay for each action a user has taken, such as clicking through the pin to the website. The updated Pinterest Ads Manager allows them to track the performance of all of the campaigns, and get alerts to take action and optimize the Promoted Pins.
Cinematic Pins
The .gif-like Cinematic Pins are a subset of Promoted Pins. These motion-based videos are activated when users scroll. The user can tap the pin to enlarge it and watch the full clip. If you want your business or product to get noticed, then use captivating Cinematic Pins to make user’s thumbs stop in their tracks. The Pin Factory can create Pin images and descriptions for a nominal fee.
Potential for Brands
Buyable Pins could be great for businesses because Pinterest users aren’t just looking for inspiration, they’re ready to buy. These blue pins could make transactions seamless for users and cash in on the users’ impulse to have a cool item right then.
Promoted Pins help brands get exposed to people who may not follow that brand yet. Thanks to the Pinterest Smart Feed algorithm, Promoted Pins get higher priority than regular pins in a user’s feed, increasing the chances of it being seen by the target audience. So the branded content could reach a larger audience; therefore, increasing leads for the brand.
Brands could use Promoted Pins to highlight seasonal content, campaigns, contests or other time-sensitive material. Companies could promote a pin to resurface great, evergreen content posted a few months ago and bring more attention to it. For example, if a brand sees that something is trending, it could promote a pin with related content. To see what works best with Pinners, a brand could do an A/B or split test on two Promoted Pins featuring the same content. The images, call to action or copy could differentiate the promotions. Analytics could tell the company which style is most appealing so they can produce similar pins.
Lastly, Cinematic Pins give brands the opportunity to create quick tutorials, show a clip of an influencer with a product and tell their stories. For example, Wendy’s is using gif-like images to spread the message that their salad ingredients are fresh, not frozen. The food chain’s Cinematic Pins show strawberries ripening, going from the basket to the salad on the table. Within the three-second clip, Wendy’s has captured the users attention.
Facebook’s News Feed Lets Users Pick what Pages to See First, Discover New Pages
Facebook’s iOS app has revamped the News Feed preferences to allow users to:
- prioritize who to see first (friends and fan pages)
- unfollow people to hide their posts and discover new pages
- reconnect with people who they unfollowed
- discover new pages
Android app and desktop users will receive the updates later.
Potential for Brands
Brands could suggest their followers include them in one of their 30 high priority accounts so they can see at the top of their News Feed to stay up-to-date on the latest news, sales and giveaways.
The option to “discover new pages” could help smaller companies and organizations gain recognition with little to no spending on advertisements. Facebook makes suggestions based on the pages users already like or pages Friends with similar tastes like. Variety is the spice of life!
