Pinterest’s Expanded Retargeting Helps eCommerce Retailers Maximize The Value Of User Engagement
Pinterest has always been one of the most eCommerce-friendly social networks — at least in theory. The image-based sharing services allows retailers to engage with relevant audiences, many of whom use Pinterest to find their next purchase. Pinterest is well-aware of its value to retailers, and over the last few years has been steadily rolling out new features to help retailers make contact with the right audience.
Earlier this year, the company introduced a number of targeting options for Promoted Pins. These included list targeting, which allows retailers to promote content to their existing customer base; lookalike retargeting, which helps target audiences similar to retailer’s current audience; and visitor targeting, which targets previous visitors to a retailer’s store.
In October, Pinterest further expanded its range of targeting tools and introduced new options for retargeting potential buyers.
The changes to targeting are relatively minor — lookalikes have been renamed actalikes because the company believes relevant audiences don’t just appear to be similar — they act in similar ways too.
But it’s the new retargeting features that are of particular interest. Retargeting is all about re-engaging with users who have previously shown an interest in a product or promotion. Let’s say a Pinterest user saved a pin shared by your company that included a picture and details of a product you sell. Because the user expressed a specific interest, there’s a greater likelihood that they have an intention to buy than a visitor targeted for other reasons — that they follow the same Pinners as a “typical customer” for example.
Pinterest’s spin on retargeting allows retailer to build engagement audiences based on a series of different interactions with a brand’s Pinterest presence and website.
Retailers can target users based on a set of five actions:
- Clicks
- Comments
- Saves
- Likes
- Closeups
If a user clicks on or saves a pin related to a previous campaign, you might choose to retarget them in the future with a specific campaign of related products.
Usefully, Pinterest also offers website retargeting. If you include Pinterest’s tag (a JavaScript snippet) on your web pages, you’ll be able to retarget visitors to your store with Promoted Pins.
According to Pinterest, users who have clicked on Pin are 4.4 times more likely to take action on a Pin than other users. Pinterest doesn’t specify how often that action is a purchase, but retargeting has proven a useful tool for many retailers — retargeting tends to produce more accurate results than targeting based on interest or category.
Have you had positive experiences with Pinterest retargeting on your eCommerce store? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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