Pinterest Ads for Dropshipping: A Beginner’s Guide for 2023

When dropshipping, most people advertise their stores on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

But have you ever taken a look at the possibility of using Pinterest ads for dropshipping?

If you don't get it right here, things can go very wrong very quickly.

You can advertise your dropshipping store on Pinterest using paid Pinterest Ads. You can see it as a way to boost your pins and show them as ads. These Promoted Pins will then appear in someone else's Pinterest feed and search results!

In this article, you will acquire all information you need to start promoting your dropshipping store using Pinterest Ads.

Let’s get started!

Why do people use Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social platform built on beautiful and shareable imagery.

The main reason why people use Pinterest is to find inspiration and ideas for their interests and hobbies.

When people have an idea they would like to share, they can make a Pin (image) that can be searched for and found by other users.

Once immersed in Pinterest, people are drawn deeper and deeper into the world of fascinating photography, leading to even more ideas and inspiration.

At the start of 2022, Pinterest had 433 million active monthly users worldwide: 

Pinterest is growing fast, but you should also keep in mind it doesn’t come close to the number of monthly users on Facebook or Instagram.

This is why it is important to look at the audience on Pinterest. That way, you can analyze which dropshipping niches will work best to advertise your dropshipping store on Pinterest!

Tip: Don't forget that you can also use Pinterest for your product research!

What niches are best for Pinterest?

Before discussing what niches work the best with Pinterest, let's check what kind of people use Pinterest. 

It turns out that 71% of global Pinterest users are female. And in the US, Pinterest reaches 83% of women aged 25-54.

This is the same group that makes 80% of buying decisions for US households. They use Pinterest to absorb ideas from others, visualize their future, and potentially make a purchase to realize that future!

When looking at these stats, it’s tempting to only use Pinterest if you have a female audience. But, Pinterest reports that 40% of US dads also use Pinterest! They are mainly looking to shop for their fatherhood, such as DIY project ideas to do with their kids.

Not only is Pinterest popular with older females or dads, 34% of people aged 18-29 use Pinterest as well. These social-savvy millennials use Pinterest to look for new ideas and are increasingly more likely to make a purchase through Pinterest.

When looking at spending power, a Pinterest survey revealed that 93% of Pinterest users plan to purchase through the platform, and 45% of Pinterest users have a household income of $100k+.

93% of Pinterest users plan to purchase through the platform, and 40% of Pinterest users have a household income of $100k+.

Source: Pinterest

For some businesses, this audience is a gold mine. You’ve got a huge amount of users ready, willing, and able to spend money on your product.

You will have the most chance at success if you’re in a niche that is searched for a lot on Pinterest.

These are the most popular interests on Pinterest:

• Fashion/beauty
• Food
• Auto
• Home decor
• Travel
• Antiques & collectibles, which is a major industry dominated by Pinterest (see picture below)
• For more Pinterest categories, check out this article from Tailwind

But, don’t think only businesses in these niches will see great results on Pinterest. If your business falls outside these interests, it may require some extra fine-tuning or creative angles to achieve your desired results. For example, we’ve seen great ads from businesses in the photography or education niche.

How do you market your dropshipping store using Pinterest Ads?

Just like with most other social media platforms, you can buy paid advertisements on Pinterest to advertise your dropshipping store.

Paid advertisements on Pinterest are also known as Promoted Pins. These work on an auction/bid system, like many other pay-per-click systems.

The setup of paid advertisements on Pinterest looks a lot like setting up Facebook ads, so if you are familiar with that, you will grasp Pinterest’s ad system in no time!

In the next sections, we will show you where your Promoted Pins will appear, walk you through the process of creating a Promoted Pin, and what strategies you should apply for the best results!

Where do Promoted Pins appear on Pinterest?

First of all, you should know that Promoted Pins appear in two different places on Pinterest:

1. Pinterest feed

The Pinterest feed is like Instagram’s explore page. Pinterest will show you pictures based on your past behavior on the platform and which Pins you saved.

Here is an example of a Promoted Pin on the Pinterest feed:

2. Search results

The other place where your Promoted Pin may appear is the Pinterest search results.

Here, the ad will show up when you search for a certain topic on Pinterest. In this case, we searched for ‘Electronic Gadgets,' and this Promoted Pin came up:

How do you create a Promoted Pin and advertise your dropshipping store?

To create a Promoted Pin on Pinterest, you must first have a Pinterest business account, which you can create for free here.

When you have a business account, go to the main Pinterest homepage. From there, go to the ‘Ads' dropdown menu and click on ‘Create Ad' to get started!

The first step is to choose your business goal. Here are your options:

• Brand awareness: Pinterest will try to show your ad to as many people as possible. You are charged per 1.000 impressions.
• Video views: Closely related to Brand Awareness business goal, but with Videos.
• Traffic: Pinterest will try to drive the most amount of traffic to your website. You are charged per click.
• Conversions: Pinterest will show your ad to people who are most likely to make a certain action on your website, often this action is a purchase.
• Catalog sales: Closely related to Conversions, the goal is to promote your product inventory with shopping ads.

Since your goal is to advertise your dropshipping store on Pinterest and get as many sales as possible, the Conversions business goal is the best.

However, to choose it, you will first have to install a Pinterest tag into your Shopify admin.

When you live in the US or Canada, you will easily be able to do this with the help of the Shopify Pinterest app.

If you don’t live in these two countries, you will have to install the Pinterest tag into your Shopify account manually. This guide will show you how to do that, step-by-step.

Another obstacle that prevents you from choosing the Conversions goal, is the fact that you don't have any data on your Pinterest tag yet. That is why you should start with the ‘Traffic' goal, and after you get some purchases, switch to ‘Conversions.' 

Since we also didn't have any recent data on our Pinterest tag, we will show you how to set up a Traffic campaign, and at the same time, tell you how the setup of the Conversions campaign will be different!

So, go ahead and select the Traffic business goal, enter a campaign name, and click on continue!

Now, you will have to choose the Targeting option for your Promoted Pins.

The first option is a Target Audience, which works like Facebook’s custom audiences. Here, you can create ‘act-alike' audiences based on your email list, recent site activity, or users who interacted with a certain Pin.

This part is optional and more suited for advertisers who already have data from previous advertisement campaigns. If this is your first campaign, you can leave this part as it is.

Next, you will have to choose your Target Interests. You should select the interests which are most closely related to your target audience and the product you are selling. By doing this, your Promoted Pin will be shown to people that are interested in your niche!

The next step is selecting your Keywords. This is a step you should do carefully. The keywords you choose determine on which searches your Promoted Pin will show up!

When you first enter a keyword, Pinterest will show you suggestions for related keywords. This tool is great for coming up with keywords you would not necessarily come up with in the first place. 

Try to not only go for the obvious keywords but think creatively and test some keywords that are related but not literally the name/niche of your product! For example, if your product is a projector, you can try adding a keyword such as ‘Home movie night.'

Next, you can select some basic targeting criteria such as Genders, Ages, Locations, Languages, and Devices. There is no clear-cut best setting here, try experimenting, and think about what your target demographic looks like!

Next up are the advanced options for the ad targeting. This option will determine the placement of your ad on Pinterest. You can choose between ‘All,' ‘Browse,' or ‘Search.' The last two options are the ad placements, ‘Pinterest feed' and ‘Search results,' which we showed you above. We recommend keeping this setting to ‘All.‘

You are now done with the Targeting section! The next step is to add your starting budget. If you are just starting, you can begin with a budget of $10 to $20 a day.

For Optimization & Delivery, I recommend leaving the bidding on automatic.

You are almost finished now. We hope you are ready for that first Pinterest sale!

The last step is to select a pin that you want to promote. If you are dropshipping, this will probably be a picture or video of your product.

When selecting your Promoted Pin, we recommend choosing one of the best-performing pins of your products.

If you don’t have that many pins yet, you can also create a pin here!

Check out this article about 9 Awesome Facebook Ad Examples. You can use it as inspiration to create Pinterest ads as well!

Make sure that the pin you select has a title, description, and website link.

Once you are happy with all settings of your Promoted Pin, click on ‘Launch,‘ and you’re all set! Your campaign will be submitted for review. Once it’s approved, it will begin running on the scheduled start date!

Conclusion

There you have it! After reading this article, you should understand how Pinterest works and how you can utilize it to advertise your dropshipping store!

A lot of dropshippers only advertise their store on Facebook or Instagram, but why shouldn’t you try Pinterest as well?

We hope you are going to and will get great results with it! 

And don't forget that you can get free traffic from Pinterest as well. Check out our complete guide here to learn more about that!

Don’t hesitate to contact us or drop a comment down below if you have any questions, suggestions for this article, or want to share your Pinterest advertising stories!

Looking for more advertisement possibilities? Then check out these two articles:

• Should You Use Google Ads for Your Dropshipping Store?
• Should You Use Facebook Ads for Your Dropshipping Store?

If you have made it all the way here, we want to thank you so much for reading everything, and wish you great advertising success with Pinterest!

Getting Started with Dropshipping in 2023

So, are you ready to get started with dropshipping? Or maybe you have already started, but you’re looking to get some inspiration?

If so, then I suggest reading this complete Shopify dropshipping guide.

It’s a huge article, but it contains everything that you need to know to create your own Shopify dropshipping store in 2023. It’s like a dropshipping course, but then for free!

Reading this article will surely help you to get started and to stay motivated while beginning and continuing your dropshipping journey.

Just don’t forget that success takes time. Keep improving each and every day!

Shopify Dropshipping: A 20-Step Guide to Starting Your Store

And here are the articles I suggest you read next:

• 23 Awesome Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
• 10 Ways to Advertise Your Dropshipping Store (No Facebook!)
• Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money?
• How to Find Winning Dropshipping Products? (Product Research Methods)

And also, if you didn’t create a Shopify account yet (to get your dropshipping store online), then you can click here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!