nd is suitable for activating the full funnel on Pinterest, first look at your target audience, then consider your vertical. Also consider that the Pinterest audience tends to be affluent and female-skewed. If you’re playing in that space and looking to speak to that audience, here’s how to make the most of the opportunity. Test, learn and lean into trends As with any platform, before you invest in paid media, it pays to build your organic presence. Set up your account and get verified on the platform. Then it’s time to run different styles of content and imagery to see what engages Pinterest users. Often, brands find that the audience engaging with their content on Pinterest can be a little different from who they normally define as their target audience, or who typically engages with their brand on Meta and other social platforms. The reason, again, is the incremental reach and the different types of audience that use Pinterest. One of the real strengths of Pinterest is the ability to tailor your creative and copy based on trending and surging keywords identified by the keyword planning tool. The “Pinterest Predicts” forecasting report, released at the beginning of each year, is also incredibly helpful for engaging with trends and audiences. Given that Pinterest is a visual discovery platform and sits somewhere between social and search, these tools can help you gain insights into existing and growing trends, predict demand and adapt your creative and targeting strategy accordingly. Doing this will inform the platform which users to serve your ads to based on their browsing and search activity, and you’re likely to see increased engagement because you’re speaking directly to your audience’s interests. Don’t treat Pinterest like Facebook or Instagram It’s important to note that Pinterest doesn’t define itself as a social media platform; it’s more of a place where customers go to plan for a future event or a big moment. As such, it is less of a disruptive advertising platform. Users rarely go on Instagram with the intention of making a product purchase. They go there to see what their friends are posting or to engage through the messaging app. Pinterest users visit the platform with something in mind, and it often has purchase intent. For example, they may be attending an upcoming wedding and seeking outfit inspiration, or planning to renovate a baby’s nursery. People use Pinterest to search for unbranded terms. They arrive on the platform undecided and are looking for different brands to give them the best options for their purchase. This presents a big opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses in particular. Such brands often struggle to compete in Google’s auction due to the large volumes of branded searches. Don’t let the attribution window deter you If you’re well-versed in advertising on Meta, you’ll be familiar with attribution windows. Attribution, or conversion windows, refers to the timeframe between when a customer interacts with a marketing touchpoint, such as clicking or viewing an ad, and when they actually make a purchase. Attribution identifies which marketing touchpoint is most likely responsible for the sale. Due to the nature of the platform, Pinterest’s recommended attribution window is a 30-day click, 30-day view model, which can be jarring for Meta and Google advertisers because Google typically uses last-click attribution, while Meta uses a seven-day click, one-day view window. However, given Pinterest’s role in discovery and awareness, and the fact that users on the platform often use it to plan major purchases and projects such as weddings and home renovations, 30 days isn’t unrealistic. That said, there is always the option to use a shorter attribution window. If you’re a fashion retailer, that may be preferable. Still, often, it doesn’t actually change the reporting. The number of purchases attributed to Pinterest on a seven-day click, one-day view model can sometimes be the same as that recorded under the 30-day model. The reason is that the average customer purchases within five days of clicking on an ad. There’s a clear opportunity for brands to leverage Pinterest and attract new audiences. Certainly, other paid media platforms like Meta and TikTok outperform it in terms of potential audience size, but if incremental reach and higher average order value are what you’re after, Pinterest deserves serious consideration. Get the customer experience right, and given that the platform’s audience is more affluent, the people you find there are likely to become high-lifetime-value customers. Aoife Kehoe is a performance manager at Australian marketing agency Impressive.