Idea ads can increase brand recall by 59%, brand awareness by 38% and reduce cost per impression by 64%, according to early tests.
Pinterest recently launched a new ad format designed to inspire audiences and encourage action. Idea ads officially launched last month, bringing “immersive, fullscreen storytelling” to the company’s portfolio of ad products.
In a post published on the Pinterest Newsroom, the network unveiled Idea ads as the latest ad format designed to inspire purchases. In this article, we take a closer look at Idea ads, explore the early performance data and show you how to create your first ad.
Pinterest Idea ads are the equivalent of organic Idea Pins, a video post format that combines footage and images to tell stories. The Ideas concept is Pinterest’s answer to the Stories format innovated by snap and later adopted by the likes of Instagram and TikTok.
With Idea ads, businesses and creators can combine video and images across multiple pages to tell their story. They can also add detail pages for instructions (eg: recipe ingredients), interactive elements like people tagging and stickers, and a CTA button for users to click through to their landing page for more information.
Pinterest says Idea ads are designed to help you “tell a story that inspires your audience and encourages action”.
“Idea ads are an immersive, multi-page format designed for advertisers to showcase ideas in action. Shoppers can visit the brand’s website, get step-by-step breakdowns, view ingredients lists and materials, and so much more.”
The new ad format is already available in the UK and more than 30 countries around the world. Pinterest has also introduced a new partnership tool to help companies team up with influencers and promote their brand/products through Idea ads.
“Idea ads may be created and promoted by a business, or they may be created by a creator and promoted by a business via a paid partnership (Idea ad with paid partnership).”
Later in this article, we’ll look at how you can create your first Idea ads and how to partner with influencers using the new partnership tool. First, let’s take a moment to look at how effective Idea ads have been in early tests and the secrets behind their impressive numbers.
According to Pinterest’s early testing of the new ad format, users who see Idea ads are 59% more likely to recall the promoting/promoted brand. Furthermore, it says brands that work with creators using Idea ads saw 38% higher brand awareness and 37% higher Pin awareness.
The network’s promotional material for Idea ads also features case studies showing how US brands Gatorade generated 34 million impressions and 99K clicks and Scotch™ Brand achieved 4x higher CTRs while lowering cost per impression by 64% by partnering with creators.
This all sounds very promising and we’re seeing impressive performance from story-driven posts across networks, particularly on Instagram and TikTok.
Pinterest has an inherent advantage in using the story concept as an ad creative, too – and the company knows it. In last month’s announcement, Pinterest opened with a statement every network wishes they could legitimately claim:
“People come to Pinterest with a unique mindset – they are ready to try, do and buy – which is why great ads are both expected and welcomed on the platform.”
For most networks, ads are detrimental to the user experience so the likes of Facebook have to grapple with the challenge of maximising ad revenue without scaring away too many of its users.
Pinterest doesn’t have this problem – at least, not to the same extent – because its user base turns to the platform for shopping inspiration. Ads fit seamlessly into the experience and Idea ads leverage the platform’s inherent role of inspiring its user base to make purchase decisions.
With 400 million users, Pinterest can’t match platforms like Instagram and TikTok in terms of reach but, when it comes to influencing purchase choices with unintrusive ads, Pinterest is unrivalled.
You can find instructions on how to create Pinterest Idea ads on the official documentation page. First up, you’ll need to create your Idea Pin, which you can do in Ads Manager by logging into your Pinterest account on desktop (browser) or in the mobile app iOS or Android (make sure you’re using the latest version.
You’ll find the complete instructions for creating Idea Pins via web and the mobile app on this documentation page.
To create an Idea Pin in the Pinterest mobile app, make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of the app. Next, follow these steps.
Once you’ve added your video and images, tap the Next bottom one more time and fill out the following information:
Once you’re happy with all of the above, tap the folder icon to save your Pin as a draft and tap Publish if you’re ready to go live.
To create your Idea Pin in the web app (desktop), log in to your Pinterest account, select Create in the top menu, then Create Idea Pin and Create New. Next, click the upload icon and select the video and image files you want to include in your Pin (max. 20 files).
Now, follow the same instructions listed above and save your Idea Pin as a draft or hit the Publish button when you’re ready.
You can also save a draft Idea ad in Ads Manager and access it in the Idea Pin Builder from the Pinterest mobile app. This is useful for doing the bulk of creative work on a desktop device, saving as a draft and, then, publishing from the mobile app at a later date.
You can add several effects to your Idea Pins to stylise them, match your brand image and emphasise key parts of your message:
Here’s a quick preview of what the virtual try-on feature might look like for eye shadow products:
Once you’re happy with your Idea Pin, save it as a draft or tap the Publish button if you’re ready to go live.
To promote your Idea Pin as an Idea ad, open up the Pinterest app and click on the account icon at the bottom-right of the screen. Next, tap the bar chart icon at the top-left of the next screen (you’ll only see this if you’re signed up for a business account.
Click Ads from the list of Business options that pop up at the bottom of the screen. This takes you to the Ad Manager tool and, next, you’ll want to click the Create new ad button at the bottom of the screen.
Finally, select the Idea Pin you want to promote and follow the instructions to create your campaign. If you run into any problems, this documentation page runs you through the process of creating ads for new campaigns and creating ads for existing campaigns.
Idea ads with paid partnerships include content produced by creators (influencers) promoting a brand or product with a tag clearly showing users the content they’re viewing is promotional.
“With Idea ads with paid partnerships, brands can partner with the most positive people on the internet – Pinterest Creators – to tell their story authentically and creatively. Businesses can collaborate with creators and produce immersive, interactive branded content that can be promoted to a wider audience.”
In this case, you don’t need to worry about producing any video content or other assets for the Idea ads. Instead, you focus on forging relationships with creators (you still have to do this outside of Pinterest) and they’ll take care of all the creative stuff for you.
Once you’ve agreed to run an Idea ad with paid partnership, the creator will come up with the creative and tag your business. You’ll automatically receive an email notification for you to approve the Idea pin.
When a creator tags your brand, their post will show with a “Paid Partnership” label but your brand name won’t appear on the post until you approve the partnership. If you approve the Pin, your brand name will be added to the paid partnership label and if you reject the pin, the paid partnership label will be removed but the post will continue to show as normal.
Once you approve an Idea Pin created by one of your partners, you can start to promote it as an Idea ad with paid partnership with the same paid partnership label.
Creators can’t promote Pins that include paid partnerships themselves, so this content will only reach their followers and other users through organic impressions. However, you can promote Idea ads with paid partnership via new campaigns or add them to existing campaigns and expand your reach by showing them to your target audiences.
Your ad will appear with the profile image of your partner creator. A “Paid Partnership” label will show on the ad, along with your brand name, to provide transparency for users and ensure they understand the content they’re seeing is part of a corporate relationship. The ad will show to the creator’s followers and relevant Pinners via the homepage and other placements.
You can find eligible Idea Pins under the Paid partnership tab on the ad selection page in Ads Manager. If you remove the paid partnerships from an Idea ad, the ad will be set to Archive in Ads Manager.
If you’re advertising on Pinterest and you need help with crafting Idea ads that inspire purchase decisions, our social media team can help. Call us on 023 9283 0281 to speak to our team or fill out the contact form to arrange a callback.
Chantelle is a PPC Specialist at Vertical Leap.
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