…and it’s also a top-tier way to reach a really, really aligned audience.
However, advertising on Pinterest comes with its own set of best practices. To really succeed and lower your cost-per-lead, you’re going to want to avoid these Pinterest ad mistakes.
4 Pinterest ad mistakes you might be making
Mistake #1: You’re going too broad.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make with Pinterest ads is actually a pretty simple one — AKA, not targeting a narrow enough audience. This saturates your ad with a ton of content from others and makes it expensive to land the clients and customers you’re looking for.
To succeed with Pinterest ads, make sure you’re using Pinterest’s interest categories and taking advantage of its detailed targeting options. Wondering what this means? On Pinterest, you can target based on:
- Audiences
- Actalike audiences (similar to Meta’s lookalike audiences)
- Interests
- Keywords
- Demographics (gender, age, location, language, device)
- Ad placement
Plus, you can make this easy by setting up targeting templates and utilizing your insights. Here are some good tips from our pals at Pinterest!
Mistake #2: You’re not tailoring your SEO or CTAs the right way.
In its own unique way, Pinterest really does act like a search engine — and it follows search engine logic for its users.
I’m going to give you a really simple example here to spark your imagination. Just think about it: if you’re looking for an apple crisp recipe, what are you going to look for?
(Correct. You’re going to search for an apple crisp recipe.)
Now, if you’re a food blogger trying to push ads to your apple crisp recipe, you wouldn’t caption it “Delicious dessert! Tap the link to try.” Instead, you’d caption it “Try this delicious apple crisp recipe! It’s a low-sugar, easy dessert that can be made in 20 minutes.” That way, you’d attract views from those looking for apple crisps AND from those looking for low-sugar, easy desserts.
It’s truly SEO, baby. Those tiny, strategic details — read: keywords — can really impact performance.
At the same time, you don’t want an audience to be confused about what to do once they click on your ad. Your CTAs need to be strong — with actionable steps — in order to work.
(They also need to be followed by solid landing pages or funnels. Just sayin.’)
Mistake #3: You’re setting unrealistic budget expectations.
Setting an ad budget can be really frustrating — especially when you’re already seeing success on another platform. I see this a lot with Pinterest specifically, since it tends to cost more per lead than things like Meta (especially at first).
However, trust me here: you just need to give it some time! Pinterest tends to learn slowly compared to some platforms — it typically takes up to a month to really optimize an ad. Monitor your performance closely and adjust as you go, but resist starting with a really low budget. You won’t get the results you want that way.
Mistake #4: You’re forgetting about consistency.
Pinterest is an example of a platform that functions best off of consistent, fresh content… and consistency is absolutely key in seeing results from your ads. Continue pinning new content, regularly launch campaigns, and stay agile with performance adjustments as you go. The more you experiment, play around, and try new results, the more ROI you’ll see.
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At the end of the day, every single platform has its quirks — and running ads online can be tricky. However, I have lots of experience around these parts… and I can promise you that fixing these mistakes will help you to absolutely accelerate your Pinterest ad performance.
You’ve got this, friend.
And, as always, I’m here to help ya.
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