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Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest in 2024
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What Is Pinterest Affiliate Marketing?
Pinterest is a popular social media network and a visual search engine that helps people find images and videos, called Pins, for inspiration and planning. It helps people visualise their future so they can better plan their upcoming purchases.
This, in addition to the fact that half of the Pinners use Pinterest as a shopping destination, makes this social media platform a great place for affiliate or performance marketing, which entails the commission-based promotion of another person’s or company’s products or services.
In essence, Pinterest affiliate marketers use Pins to distribute their affiliate URLs and expose them to a large audience. The fact that Pinterest is a niche-specific network also helps marketers find an audience already interested in the content they offer.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work on Pinterest?
Marketers on Pinterest can use direct affiliate links or other indirect links to start earning money on this platform. Using direct affiliate links in your Pins offers you many advantages. For one, if you’re a beginner who’s just starting performance marketing on Pinterest, you can use this method to drive traffic to your offers without spending much of your money and time on this side hustle.
On the other hand, using indirect links, such as links to a blog post or YouTube video, is what most professional affiliate marketers do to gain their audience’s trust, which results in better website/channel traffic and a higher conversion rate.
Why Should You Use Pinterest for Affiliate Marketing?
Many marketers around the world consider Pinterest a great tool for performance marketing. Pinterest offers its users significant advantages that are essential in streamlining affiliate marketing and earning extra cash. Here’s a detailed list of all these advantages and how they can help you as an affiliate marketer.
- The sheer number of Pinterest’s monthly active users (498 million) makes it a land of opportunities for anybody who wishes to engage in affiliate marketing.
- Pinners have a high purchasing intent. According to statistics, 90% of weekly users use Pinterest to make purchasing decisions. Additionally, half of users use Pinterest as their shopping destination.
- The average Pinner has a high annual income.
- Pinterest also allows users to use direct affiliate links, which many other networks prohibit.
- Working with Pinterest requires no technical knowledge, and everybody can do it.
- Unlike many other social media platforms, Pins on Pinterest can stay relevant and drive traffic for a long time.
- Pinterest is a visual search engine. Therefore, users can use SEO best practices for long-term relevancy and traffic.
Aside from Pinterest’s benefits for marketers, brands also have a great incentive to have their affiliate partners promote their products and services on this social media platform. Pinterest is a great way to raise brand awareness, build trust within your target audience, and improve your customer loyalty techniques. These can all motivate brands to have their affiliates use Pinterest for affiliate marketing.
Pins Explained – Have a Powerful Visual Presence
Pins are the standard content format on Pinterest. Basically, these Pins are aesthetically pleasing images or videos that act as every creator’s window to affiliate marketing on Pinterest. There are several types of Pinterest Pins, each with its own advantages for Pinterest affiliate marketing. Let’s go through these Pin types and explain how they can help you become a better affiliate marketer.
- Static Pins
Static Pins are Pins of a single image on Pinterest. Creators can upload these images directly from their devices or use pictures from other websites to create them. Creators should use a 2:3 aspect ratio and a 1000 * 1500 pixel resolution for this Pin type.
- Video Pins
Video Pins are video clips or image compilations that you can use to promote affiliate products or services. They have more interactive options than static Pins, such as text overlays, stickers, and music. By using video Pins, you’ll increase your chances of interaction by 1200%.
According to Pinterest, the ideal length for these videos is between 6 and 15 seconds. The video can also be up to 2GB, and the format can be MP4, MOV, or M4V.
- Rich Pins
The main difference between a static or video Pin and a rich Pin is the automatic synchronisation of your website. There are three types of rich Pins you can use in your Pinterest affiliate marketing: recipe Pins, article Pins, and product Pins.
You can use your direct links in the recipe, article, or roduct page you’re trying to promote. Then, you’ll get a snippet of a link that turns your Pins into rich Pins. Depending on the type of rich Pin you use, these Pins showcase information including pricing, availability, serving sizes, cook time, article title, author, etc.
Using these Pins is a great Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy because it gives Pinners a context for the product you’re trying to promote, increasing your conversion rates. Additionally, all the rules for static and video Pins also apply to rich ones.
- Idea Pins
Idea Pins are probably one of the greatest ways to improve your Pinterest affiliate marketing game. These kinds of affiliate Pins are Pinterest’s recreation of TikToks and reels. They are designed to enable creators to “show something to their audience, rather than telling them.”
There are 6 ways you can use idea Pins to increase your performance marketing revenue. To make money online, you can promote any product or service in these videos and add a destination link in the Pin description. You can utilise the following video types as your idea Pin’s structure: instructional, quick tips, comparison, storytelling, conversation, and showcasing videos.
- Product Pins
Product Pins focus more heavily on the business side of marketing on Pinterest. They are basically Pins that directly promote a product or service. The destination link of these Pins usually lands on a merchant’s website. However, many product Pins enable Pinners to shop directly from merchants without exiting Pinterest.
There are three types of product Pins: Try On Pins, Carousel Pins, and Collections Pins. Try On Pins are one of the most effective Pin types on Pinterest, enabling mobile users of certain regions to try on the products using Pinterest Lens. Moreover, Carousel Pins include multiple images to describe different aspects of the same product or to give further information on relevant products from the merchant. Conversely, Collections Pins are a compilation of Pins and pictures designed to inform Pinners of relevant and complementary products.
How to Start Using Pinterest for Affiliate Marketing
So far, we have introduced performance marketing on Pinterest and explained why so many people leverage Pinterest for their performance marketing strategies. On top of that, we have gone through all the benefits of using Pinterest for performance marketing and how you can improve your performance marketing strategy as a content creator on Pinterest. Now, it’s time to learn from the very start how you can incorporate this search engine into your performance marketing tactics.
Set up a Pinterest Business Account
The first step in using Pinterest for affiliate marketing is to create an account. You might already have a personal Pinterest account that you want to turn into a business account. To do so, you should head over to your personal Pinterest account. Then, go to “settings” and find the “convert to business account” option. By selecting this option, your personal account will be converted into a business account where you can run affiliate marketing campaigns.
Optimise Your Account
The next step is to optimise your Pinterest account. To do so, you should complete your profile with a description that contains important keywords. After doing your research on keywords, you can start optimising your Pinterest business profile and your overall Pinterest strategy. Use important keywords from your niche and add your areas of expertise for the best results.
Create a Pin
Once you’re done with your profile, it’s time to create eye-catching Pins. To create your Pinterest Pin images, you can use the tools mentioned above (Canva or Adobe Photoshop), or you can hire a freelance or long-term graphic designer to create visually appealing Pins that will stand out. It’s important to keep in mind that Pinterest image and video format recommendations depending on the type of Pin you’re creating. For example, for a Pinterest image Pin, the perfect aspect ratio is 2:3, and the best resolution is 1000 * 1500 pixels.
Add Details to the New Pin
Once your visuals are ready, you can get to adding details to your new Pin. You should use more specific keywords that you have found in your keyword research in your Pin details. This section is the make or break part that gives your Pinterest audience context to take further action, such as visiting your affiliate website or purchasing the product or service. Your Pin description should also be concise and informative. Remember that Pinterest is full of evergreen content, and to succeed as a Pinterest creator, you should be able to create the same type of content.
Add an Affiliate Link
This is the most important step for anyone who’s in an affiliate partnership. In this step, you should share your affiliate links in the Pin details. These links can directly take your Pinterest audience to affiliate sites, or they can lead to other forms of content where you can add affiliate links and drive affiliate sales. As mentioned before, avoiding cloaking and changing the links is important. You should avoid using link-shortening tools like Bitly. It’s also important not to spam the same link too much.
Publish with Stunning Visual
The last step is to check everything one more time and then publish the Pin you just created. If you have paid attention to all the tips in this article, you should be able to get reasonable Pinterest traffic and user engagement, which in turn will help you gain more affiliate revenue. You can also use different types of Pinterest boards to publish your content, which is a great way to distribute and share affiliate links even more. And just like that, you have successfully begun running a performance marketing campaign on Pinterest!
11 Tips to Increase Your Revenue with Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
Pinterest is a powerful platform to reach millions of potential customers for affiliate marketers. Here, we will explore the key strategies that will help you increase your revenue with Pinterest affiliate marketing. Dive into our 11 tips and turn your pins into profit!
Adhere to the Rules
The first and most important Pinterest affiliate marketing tip is to follow the rules. Take a comprehensive look at Pinterest’s policies and try to remember them by heart. For instance, one of the most important rules you should know about affiliate (performance) marketing is abiding by the FTC’s rules and regulations about affiliate products. According to the FTC, one must disclose affiliate links and content using one of the following tags: “affiliated,” “sponsored,” “paid partnership,” “ad,” etc.
Additionally, Pinterest strictly prohibits cloaking, which entails delivering different content to users and search engines. So using link-shortening tools is not permitted. You should also steer clear of using more than one Pinterest business account in hopes of manipulating your content’s traffic and engagement. Failure to follow these rules can cause immediate account suspensions and other penalties.
Create Multiple Pins for Posts
A great Pinterest affiliate marketing strategy is to create multiple Pins for every direct affiliate link you get. Pinterest gets a lot of traffic from Pinners with high purchasing intent. While this turns this social media platform into an ideal destination for affiliate partners and marketers, it also means there’s serious competition for anyone who wishes to make money on Pinterest.
One helpful trick that helps businesses and their affiliate partners get noticed is creating multiple Pins for the same direct affiliate link. That way, you can get noticed by more Pinners, build brand awareness and trust within your target audience, and ultimately have a better chance of earning commissions from promoting affiliate products. There are no limits on how many affiliate Pins one can make for one link, as long as they’re not spammy and low-quality.
Avoid Spamming
While every affiliate is encouraged to turn their affiliate link into several eye-catching Pins, they should avoid creating spammy content. Instead, you should focus on relevant, helpful, and creative content.
Avoid low-quality content like the plague! Otherwise, Pinterest might flag your account as spammy, which is the worst nightmare for anyone involved in performance marketing on Pinterest. Instead, focus on your audience’s pain points and search intents to create Pins that are not only helpful to them but are also optimised to stay relevant for a long time.
Create Visually Appealing Pins
A lot of people use their Pinterest accounts to find inspiration for their upcoming projects. This is because of the visual nature of this social media platform, which provides tonnes of inspiring, aesthetically pleasing ideas for Pinners around the world.
Because of this feature alone, marketers must take extra care to make sure their Pins are aesthetically pleasing. Affiliate partners can use graphic design software such as Canva and Adobe Photoshop to achieve this. Additionally, they can opt for options such as hiring a graphic designer.
Join Group Boards
Aside from mood boards, Pinterest offers group boards, which consist of several creators of a single niche group posting their Pins on a more general, mutual board. Joining such boards usually requires action, such as following the creator of the group board. Furthermore, every group board has its own set of rules and regulations that each group board member should follow. There are guidelines for posting on these boards as well.
Using group boards in Pinterest marketing can benefit marketers in several ways. For instance, by interacting with other content creators in your niche, you can gain the attention and trust of your potential target audience. These boards usually provide you with better exposure to a wide variety of Pinners, many of whom may interact with your affiliate content, leading to higher commissions.
Schedule Pins
Although performance marketing on Pinterest can seem extremely easy and less time-consuming than other types of performance marketing, there are two main problems that Pinterest performance marketers face regarding their time and efforts. These problems are creating the Pins and posting them at a time when they will catch the most engagement from Pinterest users.
Some tools help affiliate marketers easily schedule their Pins. Tailwind and Pally are the most popular. Both apps are social media scheduling programs that help people post their content at the right time without stressing about missing a deadline or forgetting to post a Pin.
Utilise Rich Pins
Rich Pins are one of the greatest ways to do performance marketing on Pinterest. There are several types of these Pins, including Product Pins, Article Pins, and Recipe Pins. Product Pins share real-time, synchronised information regarding the product price and availability. Additionally, Pinterest users can use this type of rich Pin to shop directly from Pinterest without ever exiting the app. These Pins usually act as direct affiliate links that lead users to the merchant’s website.
On the other hand, we have article Pins, which are rich Pins that include information such as the article’s title and author’s name. Article Pins can be used in affiliate marketing as they may lead the audience to an article where one or several affiliate products and services are being promoted. By choosing to purchase any of these products or services, Pinterest users help performance marketers earn money online. Recipe Pins can take Pinners to a blog post, website, or YouTube video that contains several URLs for the products used in the recipe.
Build a Pinterest Mailing List
Affiliate marketing on Pinterest is also a great way for marketers to create email subscription services, where they can run various campaigns leading to purchases and commissions.
When an affiliate link leads Pinners to a credible website with more context on the product or service, they may trust you enough to fill out the email subscription section at the bottom of your page. By doing this, not only can you earn the trust of your potential customers, but you can also tailor your mailing list(s) based on your specific niche or your audience’s pain points.
Follow the Trends in Your Niche
Every affiliate marketer on Pinterest should be well aware of the trends in their specific niche. That way, they can create affiliate Pins that are more relevant to their audience, which helps them raise brand awareness and cultivate a sense of closeness between them and their target audience.
Aside from the micro-trends that we follow on a daily basis, a good affiliate marketer should also be aware of changes in Pinterest’s algorithms, what works there and what doesn’t. For instance, one of the mainstream tools that every affiliate is well-familiarised with is hashtags. Although effective on other platforms, hashtags simply cannot drive traffic on Pinterest like they used to. Instead, having this information in mind and focusing on creating relevant affiliate Pins optimised using SEO is one of the best Pinterest marketing practices now.
Optimise Pins Using SEO Best Practices
Pinterest is also a search engine, just like Google or Bing. And just like you can use SEO best practices to rank higher on those search engines, SEO principles can also be used to promote affiliate Pins on Pinterest. You can benefit from professional SEO services or for simple SEO keyword optimisation needs, use a free keyword generator like Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator or Moz Free Keyword Research Tool to find relevant keywords for the products and services you’re trying to promote. Then you can use them in your Pinterest profile, board description, and Pin description.
While optimising these sections on Pinterest, consider using broader keywords like “Beauty and Health” in your profile description, while using more specific keywords like “Best Liquid Blushes of 2024” for board descriptions. You should use the most specific keywords in your Pin description. Following our example, you can use terms such as “Rare Beauty Liquid Blush” or “Juvia’s Place Liquid Blush.”
Analyse Your Campaign Performance
One of the most important elements of every successful performance marketing strategy is to measure and analyse your campaign’s success and flaws. To do so, you’ll need to set a measurable goal for yourself. What is your final aim? Then, you’ll need to set up some milestones for yourself. How do you know if you’re moving in the right direction?
When you have these metrics in mind, you’ll have an easier time using analytic tools such as Pinterest Analytics or Google Analytics to better measure your success. What Pins generate the most traffic, which Pins have the highest conversion rates, and what Pins can you improve?
Benefit from Affiliate Networks
Joining an affiliate network is one of the smartest decisions affiliate advertisers can make in 2024. An affiliate network acts as a middleman between affiliates and brands to help them have a more streamlined process of creating and sharing affiliate links and earning affiliate revenue.
Joining an affiliate program is a great way to get in touch with more brands and possibly become affiliates of brands you love yourself. These networks provide their affiliates with an account manager that helps them find their next best deals and streamlines their payments. There are many advantages to joining an affiliate program, many of which you can find in our comprehensive blog about affiliate networks and how they operate.
Check Your Affiliate Program’s Policies
If you’re a member of an affiliate program and use Pinterest for affiliate marketing, you should definitely check your program’s policies as well. They play a crucial role in the content you put out. One of the good things about joining affiliate programs is the fact that their policies include brand policies as well, so every affiliate should only go through two sets of rules and regulations.
Affiliates should be aware of things like the network’s policies on linking and sharing pictures from the original website, aside from other relevant domains. Additionally, they may be given pre-made Pins or Pinterest affiliate links.
Wrap-Up: Is Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Worth It?
Pinterest, as a visual search engine that helps people find inspiration and make purchasing decisions, has become one of the most popular social media platforms nowadays. Advantages like high traffic levels and great purchasing intent, along with the long lifespan of Pins and the ability of direct linking, make Pinterest an ideal option for performance marketers.
We’ve used our years of experience in marketing to create a comprehensive guide on how you can start your affiliate marketing strategy on Pinterest from scratch. Check out Revpanda’s professional digital marketing services and contact our experts for a free consultation to improve the results of your affiliate marketing campaigns.
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