How do I create a Pinterest Ads campaign?

Creating a Pinterest Ads campaign is straightforward, and with the right steps, you can launch an effective ad to promote your brand, product, or service. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to create a Pinterest Ads campaign:

1. Log in to Your Pinterest Business Account
Go to Pinterest for Business and log into your Pinterest Business account.

If you don't have a business account yet, you'll need to set one up before you can run ads.

2. Navigate to Ads Manager
Once logged in, click on your profile in the top-right corner.

From the drop-down menu, click on Ads to access the Ads Manager.

3. Choose Your Campaign Objective
In Ads Manager, click on the Create Campaign button to start a new campaign.

Pinterest will prompt you to choose an objective for your campaign. Your campaign objective will guide how your ad is optimized, depending on your business goals. Pinterest offers several objectives:

Awareness: Ideal for brand visibility and reaching a larger audience. This includes objectives like Brand Awareness and Reach.

Consideration: Designed to drive engagement or traffic to your website. This includes Traffic and Engagement.

Conversion: Best for driving specific actions like purchases, sign-ups, or app installs. This includes Conversions and Catalog Sales.

Select the one that best matches your goals. For example, if you want more people to visit your website, you might choose Traffic.

4. Set Campaign Budget and Schedule
After choosing your objective, you'll need to set your budget and schedule for the campaign.

Campaign Budget:

Daily Budget: This sets the maximum amount you want to spend per day. Pinterest will try to spend this budget evenly across the day.

Lifetime Budget: This sets the total amount you want to spend over the entire duration of the campaign.

Campaign Schedule:

Choose when you want your campaign to start and, optionally, end. You can set a specific start and end date, or leave it open-ended if you want the campaign to run indefinitely until you manually stop it.

5. Create Your Ad Group
In the next section, you will set up your Ad Group. Each ad group contains a specific set of ads with shared targeting, budget, and bid settings.

Ad Group Name: Give your ad group a name for easy identification.

Targeting: You can target your audience based on:

Demographics (e.g., age, gender, location).

Interests (e.g., fashion, fitness, home decor).

Keywords (relevant to your brand).

Behaviors (such as people who've engaged with your content or shown intent to purchase).

Custom Audiences (such as people who've visited your website or engaged with your Pinterest content).

You can refine your audience further by adding exclusions or narrowing the scope based on specific behaviors.

Bidding Strategy:

Automatic Bidding: Pinterest automatically adjusts your bid to get the best results within your budget.

Manual Bidding: You set a maximum bid amount that you are willing to pay for an action (e.g., click, impression).

Ad Placement: You can choose whether to run your ads on Pinterest or include them on Pinterest Partner Sites (the wider web).

6. Set Up Your Ads
Now that your ad group is created, it's time to add the actual ads.

Ad Type: Choose the type of Pinterest ad you want to run:

Standard Pin: A regular static image Pin.

Video Pin: A dynamic video that auto-plays in users' feeds.

Carousel Pin: Allows users to swipe through multiple images.

Shopping Pin: Specifically for e-commerce stores, linking directly to product pages.

Upload Your Creative:

For image ads, upload the image you want to use for your Pin. Ensure your images are high quality, the correct dimensions (1000 x 1500 px), and properly formatted.

For video ads, upload the video file. Pinterest supports video ads in .mp4, .mov, and .avi formats with a size limit of up to 2GB.

Add a Pin Title and Description:

Your title should be catchy and contain relevant keywords.

Write a description that clearly explains the value of your product or service while also including relevant keywords.

Add a Destination URL: The URL should link to your website or a landing page relevant to your ad.

7. Review and Launch Your Campaign
Once you've completed all the necessary sections, you'll see an option to review your campaign.

Double-check everything: Ensure your targeting, budget, and creative look good.

Launch Your Campaign: If everything looks correct, click Launch to start running your Pinterest ad campaign!

8. Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign
Once your campaign is live, you can track its performance in Pinterest Ads Manager. Here, you'll be able to monitor key metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR (click-through rate), and conversions.

Adjust targeting and budget if necessary based on performance.

A/B Test different creatives or audience segments to optimize your campaigns further.

Summary of Steps:
Log in to your Pinterest Business Account and go to Ads Manager.

Click Create Campaign and choose your objective.

Set your budget and schedule.

Create an Ad Group with targeting options (demographics, interests, keywords, behaviors).

Upload your creative (image, video, carousel) and set up your Pin with a title, description, and URL.

Review everything and launch your campaign.

Monitor and optimize your campaign for better performance.