’Tis the Season to Test Pinterest Search

Pinterest Search Ads help place engaging content in front of an eager audience—a merry prospect for brands and holiday shoppers alike.
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Search continues to expand beyond its original concept to include more intricately layered algorithms and content types (such as video, imagery and text), all based on behavioral factors and searcher intent.

Amazon’s shopping engine and Google voice search exemplify this expansion. These brands have evolved their businesses by factoring in customer- and audience-specific usage and goals.

With the new-this-year Pinterest Search Ads functionality, Pinterest is joining Amazon and Google in providing retailers and brands more meaningful opportunities to use content to spark engagement and drive sales. In 2016 alone, the site recorded more than 5 billion searches and pin saves, translating to a significant opportunity for marketers.

According to Pinsights, Pinterest users especially love the holidays. They plan early and save more than 750 million holiday ideas every year, inspiring Pinterest to curate a best-of board featuring the top trending holiday ideas.

Pinterest Search Ads

More than 200 million people each month are interacting with the more than 100 billion pins on Pinterest. Over 85 percent of these searches come from mobile devices. When users search Pinterest in this discovery phase, they are open to ideas—prime time for advertisers to get their messages across.

As it stands, 97 percent of results are nonbranded. But don’t let nonbranded searches fool you: Users are quick to identify their needs, and Pinterest has been an asset in assisting the customer funnel to drive conversion. Of active pinners, 93 percent report leveraging Pinterest for purchases while 87 percent of pinners report making a purchasing decision because of Pinterest.

Pinterest Search Ads allow marketers to be there at the upper funnel and through the customer journey, when users are looking to understand products, services and brand ideas.

A New Growth Opportunity

Pinterest Search Ads are uniquely commercial. Pinners are more likely to say they use Pinterest to shop than users on other social platforms, according to investment firm KPCB. Pinners also waste no time planning, sometimes searching for ideas up to three months before an event or holiday, which is why brands like Barilla, eBay, Home Depot, Garnier, Target, Walgreens, Carnival Cruise Line and Wayfair have shifted marketing efforts toward the platform.

The 2017 holiday season is upon us, and now is the time when pinners become buyers.

Our recommendation? Use this time to gather a statistically valid set of data to make your future marketing decisions.