How do you use Pinterest for affiliate marketing? Here’s your guide!
As an affiliate marketer, you are probably always looking for ways to increase the traffic to your affiliate links, whether that’s through your blog or social media marketing. Have you considered affiliate marketing on Pinterest? Pinterest is a visual search engine, making it a powerful tool to reach MORE of the audience you’re trying to reach. This post will share some of our favorite affiliate marketing tips!
Why should you use Pinterest affiliate marketing?
There are lots of reasons to use Pinterest for affiliate marketing, but I think my favorite reason is that Pinterest is a search engine. This means pinners have strong intent, they are there to buy and find ideas. They have an idea of what they are looking for and just need help finding it, that’s where you come in! This provides a great opportunity for you to reach your ideal audience right in the decision phase of their buying journey.
Here are some facts I just love about Pinterest for business:
- The average Pinterest user makes over $75,000 a year. The most popular income bracket on Instagram is under $30,000 a year.
- Studies also show that Pinterest users spend 30% more than Facebook users.
- Pinners tend to be women who are more educated and affluent with a desire to spend!
- 90% of weekly users use Pinterest to make purchase decisions.
- Pinterest users spend 29% more while shopping than non-users
- Pinterest reaches 83% of US women.
As you can see Pinterest is an amazing tool for affiliate marketing strategy. You just have to get started! Here’s our guide to affiliate marketing on Pinterest in 2023!
How do you pin your affiliate links on Pinterest?
1. Sign up for a Pinterest Business Account.
First things first, make sure you have your Pinterest account set-up for success. You’ll need to have a Pinterest business account (not a personal account), ensure your website is verified, you have keyword optimized boards and that your profile is optimized.
This is a crucial first step! Don’t skip it.
PS- We can help you get your Pinterest Business account set-up!
2. Create graphics for your affiliate content.
After you have your affiliate link, you will want to create a Pinterest optimized graphic for whatever you’re trying to promote. The ideal shape will be 3:4. Check out our Pinterest Graphic Design Guide for more info on the specifications for pin design. Pinterest is a very different platform than Instagram or Facebook, so you won’t be able to reuse the same graphics on all the platforms as they are. Pinterest is a visual search engine, so your graphics are very important to the overall success of your Pinterest marketing strategy. We recommend spending a few minutes scrolling through Pinterest to see how similar businesses are pinning.
Here are some examples of high performing pins:
3. Upload your graphic to Pinterest.
The next step is to upload your new graphic to Pinterest and link it to your affiliate product. While you can link directly to a product, we find a lot of success in linking to a blog post or landing page. You can also create multiple pins for your affiliate products, this works especially well if you have access to an affiliate program.
This client has a blog and a LTK where we link her pins.
4. Optimize your pin with Pinterest keywords.
Because Pinterest is a search engine, your keywords are one of the most vital parts of your marketing strategy. This is where you want to spend a lot of time researching how people are searching for the product you are promoting. You will want to put keywords in your pin title and pin description. Usually the title is more of a list of key phrases and the description is a keyworded paragraph.
Another place to look for keywords is in the Pinterest Trends tool. This will show you what terms are trending right now and how people might be searching for your niche.
PS- Check out our guide for How to Find the Pinterest keywords that Will bring You the Most Traffic.
5. Pin your Graphic to the Most Relevant Board First
To help Pinterest understand what your pin is and how it should come up in searches, pin it to the most relevent board first. For example, if you’re pinning a list of your favorite moisturizers, you would want to put that in a “Skincare” board first. You can then schedule the pin through TailWind into other related boards.
6. Boost Your Pin.
If you want to get even more traction on your pin or fast track your traffic, you can try boosting your affiliate link pins. You can target specific keywords and locations to make sure you’re reaching the right audience. For example if you’re promoting an affiliate post with all your favorite denim, you could target keywords like “skinny jeans”, “casual jeans outfits”, etc and have your pin come up for those searches towards the top. It’s a good way to get the ball rolling faster!
7. Create an Idea Pin for your brand.
Idea Pins increase your brand awareness on Pinterest. Create a short Idea Pin highlighting the product or products you’d like to promote. Currently, Idea pins don’t link (although we are told this will change soon!) but it will drive your target audience to your profile where they can buy.
FAQs about Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest
Can I do affiliate marketing on Pinterest without a blog?
Yes! You can share affiliate links directly to the affiliate site you want to promote. We recommend our affiliate clients have a blog because it helps give context to your affiliate links and helps the pinner know why you love the product, but it’s not necessary.
Are there any rules about affiliate links on Pinterest?
Yes, just like Instagram and other platforms there are rules about affiliate links on Pinterest.
- Disclose affiliate links in your pin description.
- Do not pin the same link over and over again in the same time period. This may cause your account to be flagged as spam.
- Don’t use URL shorteners like Bit.ly on Pinterest to “cloak” your link.
- You are not allowed to set up more than one account. Your account should be your presence on Pinterest.
How to get started affiliate marketing on Pinterest?
To use Pinterest well and with success, you need to make sure your Pinterest business account is set-up correctly and that you create relevant boards for your content (we offer Pinterest account set-up!).
Once that is complete, then you can just create a graphic and start pinning your links! Pinterest marketing is a long term strategy, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away. Stay consistent with your pinning and watch results through Pinterest analytics.
Need help figuring out this Pinterest thing? We would love to help!
We offer services in:
Reach out if you have any questions!
