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Staying Agile with Your Pinterest Strategy Will Prevent Your Impressions and Traffic From Tanking 📈

andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

I've noticed a ton of threads of complaints with severe drop-offs of both impressions and traffic. As marketers, it's easy to try and hack the Pinterest system. Heck, even I've tried. What I have found however is that Pinterest is the most transparent platform out there - in order to HELP their creators who create the content that lives on their platform. This helps them and causes the following -

  • Serve content to their users that's high quality to keep them coming back.
  • Keep their creators enjoying continued success so they keep creating high-quality content.
  • Which keeps users coming back and even expanding their growth of monthly users. 
  • Which gives creators a larger audience to market to.

There is a trend emerging from this. You could call it a win-win, or I-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine. The point is, that if you're unwilling to stay agile and adjust to an incredibly dynamic platform (which is free to use aside from promoted pins) then expect to see diminishing returns on your marketing efforts. Pinterest is telling you specifically what is working on their platform in realtime  almost realtime. This benefits everyone. 

A few ways you can see an increase in your impressions right now are as follows - 

  • Use Story Pins....seriously, this is the best way to grow your account as the distribution is extremely wide right now along with video pins.
  • This brings me to my next point....utilize video pins for the same reason cited above.
  • Don't try to hack the 'fresh-pin' algorithm. Quality or quantity. Try to re-frame your content to reach different audiences and different search intent. 

These strategies are just a start to what should be part of every marketer's diet of test, test, test. UTM your links to understand which pins are ACTUALLY driving traffic. Don't know about UTM's? No problem, here's a link - https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-are-utm-tracking-codes-ht

I'm pretty sure that if you follow these guidelines you will never see a severe drop-off in impressions or traffic. Heck, you may even see a bump. 

I hope this helps! 😊📌

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andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@foodiehomechef Thank you! 

Yes, what you say is true indeed, however, Pinterest doesn't owe it to their creators to give them a heads up before they make changes. It's their platform, they built it and they can run it any way they want. But, they have always positioned themselves differently than their predecessors (ie: Facebook) first as a search and discovery platform. Secondly with a transparency of best practices. 

Just like how Google announces its core algorithm updates in order for marketers to adjust their SEO strategy accordingly, Pinterest does something similar. 

Marketing in general is moving towards content creation that supports enriching the consumer experience. By putting the customer first with empathetic and purposeful content by adding value.

By understanding this, you can almost predict what changes may be coming on the horizon. 😊📌

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11 Replies
foodiehomechef
Jack-of-all-trades

Hi there @andrealidesigns Welcome to the community & thanks so much for your very detailed post! I agree that Pinterest almost demands that you stay agile with all the changes & new things they implement.

I have to say though, that my only "beef" is that we never know what they're planning... what's coming 
down the pike" & there's no sort  of "heads up" from Pinterest so that we can all plan & comply with any changes.

1 Kudo
andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@foodiehomechef Thank you! 

Yes, what you say is true indeed, however, Pinterest doesn't owe it to their creators to give them a heads up before they make changes. It's their platform, they built it and they can run it any way they want. But, they have always positioned themselves differently than their predecessors (ie: Facebook) first as a search and discovery platform. Secondly with a transparency of best practices. 

Just like how Google announces its core algorithm updates in order for marketers to adjust their SEO strategy accordingly, Pinterest does something similar. 

Marketing in general is moving towards content creation that supports enriching the consumer experience. By putting the customer first with empathetic and purposeful content by adding value.

By understanding this, you can almost predict what changes may be coming on the horizon. 😊📌

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PinterestGabby
Community Manager
Community Manager

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 @andrealidesigns 

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andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@PinterestGabby 😊😊😊😊😊😊

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andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@foodiehomechef Thank you! 

Yes, what you say is true indeed, however, Pinterest doesn't owe it to their creators to give them a heads up before they make changes. It's their platform, they built it and they can run it any way they want. But, they have always positioned themselves differently than their predecessors (ie: Facebook) first as a search and discovery platform. Secondly with a transparency of best practices. 

Just like how Google announces its core algorithm updates in order for marketers to adjust their SEO strategy accordingly, Pinterest does something similar. 

Marketing in general is moving towards content creation that supports enriching the consumer experience. By putting the customer first with empathetic and purposeful content by adding value.

By understanding this, you can almost predict what changes may be coming on the horizon. 😊📌

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therealsouthamerica
Jack-of-all-trades

@andrealidesigns Hi there - I read your post and I do agree with much of what you have said but there are a couple of points that have been missed:

- Story Pins are not available to everyone | everywhere & that goes for the VMP 

- Video Pins are amazing but there are many Pinners who are not using Video, don't understand how to use Video and/or cannot spend the money to use a solid Video Service.

- While much of what you wrote is completely true - we must also remember that there are many Pinners who don't understand a lot about the tech they are using and how it operates "under the hood" or how to utilize URL Trackers et al. Hence many of the complaints here on the PBC re dramatic number drops etc. If you have looked around often you will see those who ask for assistance in creating a board or more recently changing a board cover and the list goes on. There are also a number of users here on Pinterest using much older tech and that tech will not do what the latest and greatest can do especially when it comes to social media.

When using words and other industry oriented words like for example UTM for many people its an ultro lingua.

I do agree with your strategies but for many users not having the traffic and watching their numbers fall can be heartbreaking and I really feel for them because there are many who work hard on their pins and who already subscribe to your suggestions but are still having issues.

Just wanted to share my thoughts 🙂

Lisa😁

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andrealidesigns
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@therealsouthamerica You have valid points indeed. Nothing is guaranteed in marketing and following best practices doesn't necessarily yield results. 

The post I wrote reflects my musing at the time after reading a bunch of posts and its intention was to be helpful. True, I didn't stop to pause to consider if my messaging was digestible to all levels of Pinterest marketers or if you have access to new features. It was implied that if you do have access, you should be utilizing them including video (lots of creators have chosen to boycott the use of story pins because they don't link out).

As for the technical talk, it should inspire pinners who aren't familiar to be curious (which is why I included a link to a blog post that explains what UTM's are) on how to take their current set of skills and leveling them up to improve their chances for success.

In the end, the post was supposed to enable users with ideas and give them actionable tips to help them move forward. 

Thanks for your feedback! 😊

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therealsouthamerica
Jack-of-all-trades

@andrealidesigns Hi there 👋thanks for your response.

As I mentioned I think that your post was really good and had many valid points which we have all used, and I agree with your reference to the posts I had responded to one post over the weekend regarding how people were attacking the community managers over the VMP Requirements Re: Verified Merchant Program Rejection (again)  - I don't necessarily feel that many who visit the PBC really understand the purpose of the PBC and often use it as a sounding board or a place to get an immediate answer to a problem that unfortunately in many cases they have already gotten an answer to - this is just my thought and I am not speaking for anyone else. 

I have read some of your other posts and they are extremely helpful and insightful and I have actually referenced them to others who are seeking help especially with Squarespace integration re Pinterest Tag. I appreciate your thoughts and contributions on the community and I hope you will continue to share them. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Lisa😁

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thespoiledhome
Just visiting

Just wanted to share my stats. We keep over and over that people are struggling with their stats. Several of us have mentioned engagement going up on Story Pins and the old strategies aren't working. My story pins are through the roof, video, then standard. Another thing I've noticed is if I tag products my videos & standard pins will have more engagement too. That being said, it has gotten to the point that I'm not using Tailwind at all because I can't    tag my products and schedule mv videos, or story pins. What is working for me is doing everything on Pinterest directly!!! CF3F675A-5167-4D9E-8C92-1271C2BE8F8F.png
A472D1B0-0072-4F12-85DC-4EC0900B61D2.png

 

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