Why isn’t my promoted pin running?!
Lately we’ve noticed a lot of people asking about why their promoted pins aren’t taking off, or suddenly stop running. Angie and I have asked this ourselves many, many times. In this episode, we talk about some of the reasons we’ve discovered that promoted pins don’t perform.
We only run traffic campaigns in our businesses, so this advice is focused on those promoted pin types only.
Possibility #1: Bid is too low
When we first started running promoted pins, you had to bid at least $0.10/click. However, recently we’ve noticed there are two low categories for bids: “too low” and “low bid”. We typically set ours for $0.01-$0.10 higher than “too low”. We do not spend what they as for a “good bid”, unless it’s magically under $0.25 (this is rare).
If you have an established pin that stops running, go to your ad group page and click “Edit Ad Group”. Scroll to the bottom to see if your bid is indicated as “too low”. Change it to a low bid amount, and if you want it to do even better, add a few extra cents.
One main takeaway from our chat was that popular keywords = more competition = higher bid. Angie had an issue with a St. Patrick’s day pin’s bid because the keywords were super popular across the board.
Possibility #2: People aren’t searching your keywords
Promoted pins are great because you can just let them run for a long time. However, we highly recommend that you have a strategy when it comes to seasonal products.
The example that I gave on the podcast was interactive notebooks. My INB pins just weren’t running well, or having good conversions (always track your promoted pins with UTM links to make sure you’re making a profit!) in March.
If your promoted pin doesn’t take off, it may be that people aren’t searching for those keywords yet. That’s ok if you’re promoting something that will do well in the next 6-8 weeks. You actually want to start pins well before the time of the year where they will be popular. So if they’re not running super well, but you’re still weeks away from the season the resource covers, then just keep an eye on it.
A cool tip is that you can find which keywords are doing the best on your pins on the ad set page. Just choose the targeting dropdown and select “keyword”. This can give you data that will help you add new keywords to your pin to help it deliver better.
Adding Keywords
To add a keyword, navigate to the ad group page. Click the gray Keywords tab on the right of Pin Promotions.
Click “Create Keywords” to add keywords.
Possibility #3: People aren’t clicking your pin
It’s possible that people are seeing your pin, but they’re not clicking it. It’s hard to think that there may be an issue with something we worked so hard to create, but if it’s not keywords or bid, we need to look at the pin we’re trying to promote.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Does my pin give specific information about the resource?
- Is my pin a long pin?
- Is my pin eye-catching? (action shots do well)
- Do people want this resource enough to click it right now?
If you navigate to an individual pin, check the CTR (click-through rate). A good CTR rate is 0.2% or higher, but I expect for mine to be at 0.6% or higher. My best promoted pin is 1% CTR, because it’s a very popular product that people click… a lot.
It’s important to think about your own behavior on Pinterest when evaluating your pins. If you see a pin that’s not very specific as to what it is, will you click it? Probably not. Make sure you use text on your images to tell people what they’re clicking for. Most of my pins go straight to a product on Teachers Pay Teachers, and convert at 8-10% from promoted pins. I make sure the pins have a large bold title, clear action shots of the resource, and list the grade level and standards that they cover. The same goes for the pin description. Be detailed!
New Promoted Pins
If you’re setting up a new promoted pin, and your graph is stagnant, then check the CPC bid, keywords, and the image (all 3 tips above). Try to run your pin for at least 5 days before making any major decisions. Below is a screenshot of a promoted pin that is taking off at a successful rate, spending close the the $5/day budget by day 5.
