For more than ten years, Pinterest has gained a significant following and transformed into an indispensable marketing tool beyond a social media platform.
The third quarter of 2022 saw a total of 445 million monthly active users recorded. In November 2022, the website tallied a total of 1 billion visits, reflecting a 4.25% increase from the 957.5 million visits in September 2022.
The main focus of the platform is visual search. Pinterest acts as a huge source of inspiration, where users can discover ideas and resources for various projects, travel, clothing, and other subjects. Moreover, it provides a platform for individuals to arrange their shopping and begin making buying choices.
Pinterest is a promising platform for affiliate marketing since your target audience is already present and looking to buy. All you have to do is point them in the right direction. In this guide, we will delve into how you can use Pinterest to generate additional revenue in the year 2023.
Pinterest and Why It’s a Great Tool for Affiliate Marketing
The term “pins” refers to the images or videos that are connected to an external source in posts on Pinterest. By saving these pins on their boards, users can produce and manage a virtual idea board.
By using Pinterest as an affiliate marketing tool, marketers can expand their reach and increase brand awareness. Additionally, it serves as a perfect avenue for promoting recommended products in a manner that motivates users of the platform and prompts them to buy.
Pinterest’s Sustained Popularity
Pinterest is gaining more traction with the younger demographic, particularly Millennials and Gen Zs, as it solidifies its position as one of the most embraced social media channels. The platform is predominantly used by women, who comprise over 60% of its global audience.
Online shopping on the platform experienced a surge of 50% in 2020, a year that kept most of us connected through the internet.
Pinners, also known as Pinterest users, have a higher income compared to other platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, and TikTok. About 29% of Pinners make between $50,000 and $74,999, while 40% make an annual income of over $75,000. These numbers suggest that Pinners have a considerable spending capacity.
The majority of Pinterest users, about 90%, use the platform to find inspiration for purchases and almost all of them, 98%, have made purchases from brands they discovered through Pinterest. Pinners are in search of recommendations and ideas, actively seeking solutions, and spend about 5 minutes and 39 seconds on the site, going through an average of 6.25 pages during each visit.
You have numerous chances to use your intent to create a possibility for affiliate marketing.
Using Pinterest as a platform for affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing entails promoting a company’s products or services and earning a commission when someone buys using the unique affiliate link. The same concept applies to affiliate marketing using Pinterest. You suggest products or services that your followers can purchase and earn a commission for every successful transaction.
Before jumping into using Pinterest for affiliate marketing, there are certain aspects that must be taken into account, even though the idea may seem appealing and straightforward.
The objectives
Before embarking on affiliate marketing through Pinterest in 2023, it is essential to establish your objectives. It is imperative that they are specific, feasible, and can be implemented. Would you like to create additional leads for your affiliate partner or cultivate a loyal audience? Or are you aiming to increase brand visibility for your own platform as well as your affiliate company?
specialization
If your business deals with products that rely heavily on visuals, Pinterest can prove to be extremely advantageous. A number of sought-after categories on the platform include:
- Travel
- Food
- Health and fitness
- DIY crafts
- Home décor
It is advisable to select a niche before enrolling in an affiliate program for beginners in affiliate marketing. However, those already in an affiliate program can still utilize Pinterest to advertise their affiliate offers.
Incorporating Affiliate Links into Pinterest.
Beginning Pinterest affiliate marketing requires an understanding of incorporating affiliate links into the platform, which is fortunately a simple process on Pinterest.
Create a new pin
To establish a Pinterest business account, access your Profile page if you have one. Navigate to the Create tab and choose Create Pin. You might also utilize third-party applications, such as Tailwind or Buffer, to generate and plan your pins.
Add your pin details
This is the place where you can employ SEO techniques to enhance your content.
Include a title and description for your pins and enhance their SEO by integrating particular and appropriate keywords. For instance, if you are advertising sneakers, select a distinct keyword such as “adidas sneakers” or “retro sneakers” to assist in curbing a product search. Refrain from overusing keywords and limit yourself to two or three relevant keywords that suit your post.
Make sure your descriptions are thorough and perceptive. Incorporate them into the solution since Pinterest users search for things on the platform. Utilize your descriptions to provide the answers or motivation they require. To increase the visibility of your pins, consider including appropriate hashtags.
It is worth noting that the use of hashtags on Pinterest may cause posts to be excluded from the platform’s algorithm as they are frequently utilized by spammers for inappropriate purposes.
In case you belong to an affiliate network, a pre-designed affiliate pin may be provided to you, but if not, you are at liberty to design one yourself, with the condition that it complies with the guidelines of both Pinterest and your affiliate network. Therefore, there is no obligation to use hashtags on the platform.
Add your affiliate link
Ensure to include your affiliate link in the Destination Link section. You can obtain links from your affiliate network, or if you are an Amazon affiliate, you can generate a link using SiteStripe.
When incorporating affiliate links, contemplate utilizing links that direct to landing pages in place of direct affiliate links. Nonetheless, this doesn’t imply that you should entirely forgo the usage of direct affiliate links.
Using direct affiliate links is a simple way to guide users to the desired destination. Nonetheless, some individuals may feel apprehensive towards unfamiliar online destinations. In certain instances, these links may direct users to pages that lack sufficient data, which could potentially deter them from staying.
It should be acknowledged that the utilization of link shortening tools is prohibited according to Pinterest’s policy.
Create eye-catching graphics
When designing graphics for your pin, always consider that Pinterest functions mainly as a visual search engine. Your picture should entice users to click on it.
Pinterest pins have a vertical layout with a standard aspect ratio of 2:3. The recommended image size on the platform is 1000 x 1500 px, exceeding which can result in truncation and adversely impact the performance of the Pin.
Ensure that your visuals are engaging by utilizing captivating images. If you decide to include text in the visuals, utilize styles that are clear and legible.
Publish
There are two alternatives available for you to release your pin: “publish instantly” or “publish on a future date.”
Pinterest affiliate marketing tips to earn passive income
1. Know the rules
One advantage of Pinterest is that its content is mostly timeless. Putting in effort initially will yield long-term benefits, such as a consistent flow of fresh visitors to your website and an increase in affiliate earnings.
Familiarizing yourself with the rules of affiliate marketing on Pinterest is crucial to avoid wasting your hard work by getting caught out a few months into your strategy. Therefore, it is only possible to succeed if you know the rules. Hence, before progressing further, ensure that you know the rules, which include:
- No cloaking. Many affiliate marketers disguise their affiliate links with redirection tools like Bit.ly or Pretty Links. Pinterest’s community guidelines state, “We encourage you to follow a ‘no surprises’ principle—Pinners should be able to reasonably anticipate where your link will take them.”
- Disclose affiliate links. TheFederal Trade Commission (FTC) has strict rules on disclosing affiliate links. Err on the side of caution by labelling any affiliate content as “sponsored” or “affiliated” in both the pin description and on the landing page you’re directing people to.
- Only operate one Pinterest account. Some marketers try to game the system by repinning content from a selection of accounts. This is against the platform’s guidelines: “Don’t operate multiple accounts or coordinate with other people with the purpose of manipulating the Pinterest platform.”
2. Create several pins per post
The probability of a particular pin type engaging Pinterest users is low. Explore the search outcomes related to your industry. Most probably, a variety of visual elements are exhibited, including black and white photographs and lively graphics.
When it comes to creating affiliate pins, there are no limitations on the number that can be produced for a single piece of content or link. The crucial factor in creating a successful pin is a visually appealing graphic that sets it apart from others. Utilize do-it-yourself marketing tools such as Canva, and try out various pin styles like templates for optimum results.
- Vertical versus horizontal images
- Colored versus black and white photos
- Stock imagery versus graphics
- Text heavy versus visual only
3. Schedule pins in advance
Automation-wise, eliminate the need for a mental prompt to distribute fresh pins by prearranging them using scheduling software such as Tailwind, Later, and Hootsuite. Create a personalized timetable and input new material into your lineup, which will be automatically pinned to your board at the designated time.
The greatest advantage is that by scheduling pins ahead of time, the likelihood of reaching users while they’re active on the platform increases. Depending on the user, the Pinterest algorithm displays new content at various times, such as 7 a.m. or 5 p.m.
Through the strategic distribution of content at different times during the day, your online presence will improve by becoming visible in your audience’s feed when they are active.
4. Enable rich pins
Compared to regular images on the platform, rich pins provide greater detail. Within the pin description, they display supplementary information that attracts greater notice amidst a crowded feed. Consequently, utilizing rich pins on Pinterest boosts the likelihood of generating traffic.
Allow for rich pins to be available for the given kinds of content:
- Products. Show up-to-date pricing and availability in your rich pin.
- Recipes. Show cooking time, rating, ingredients, and serving sizes in your rich pin.
- Articles. Show the headline, description, and author in your rich pin.
While the process of enabling rich pins may seem complex, it only needs to be done once. By following this procedure, all subsequent pins will be considered rich (provided they meet the criteria).
- Add rich meta tags to the pages you want to use rich pins for—such as a blog post review of your affiliate product.
- Use the rich pin validator to check the tags have been uploaded correctly.
- Select the option you’ve used to add rich meta tags: HTML, oEmbed, or Shopify.
- If everything looks good, hit Apply now and wait 24 hours for your rich pin application to be approved.
5. Optimize for SEO
As mentioned before, Pinterest is not solely a social network; it is also a search engine utilized for finding fresh material. By optimizing your profile for SEO, you can connect with users actively seeking products you are affiliated with.
To make a Pinterest connection, pins are matched with specific keywords. Therefore, it is necessary to begin by identifying the keywords that your intended audience is using. The browser extension, Keywords Everywhere, reveals monthly search volumes and provides recommendations based on a single seed keyword.
Once you’ve got your keywords, there are three areas to play close attention to when implementing Pinterest SEO:
- Pinterest profile. Include relevant keywords that tie into the overall theme of your content within your account bio. If you’re promoting health supplements, for example, include terms like “women’s health” in your account description.
- Pin description. Get more granular with the keywords related to each individual pin. If you’re sharing a pin for a tutorial on how to tie shoelaces, for example, use the “how to” keyword in your pin description.
- Board description. Boards are more specific than a profile, but not as targeted as a pin. Use middle-ground keywords in your board title and description, such as “shoe tutorials” or “women’s health tips.”
6. Analyze pin performance
Improving your understanding of pins can enhance your Pinterest affiliate marketing approach. Schedule a monthly review of pin performance through Pinterest analytics and your post scheduler to optimize new content distribution.
Generate a personalized audience segment on Google Analytics specifically for visitors who accessed your site through Pinterest and analyze their activity during their visit. Ultimately, evaluate your affiliate dashboard to determine the number of individuals who bought products that you promoted on Pinterest, as this is the ultimate objective of your affiliate marketing plan.
During this assessment, it is important to prioritize the following metrics:
- Click-through rate. What percentage of people see your pin and click it? Do specific pins get more clicks? Do pins with an endorsement from a well-known blogger or influencer drive more traffic than those without?
- Time on site. How do Pinterest users differ from visitors from other traffic sources? A high time on site and low bounce rate indicates your pin matches the contents of your landing page.
- Conversions. Pay close attention to those you’ve heavily promoted with minimal product sales, or items you’ve not promoted with high conversion rates. Balance your content strategy with this in mind.
