You may not want to do it, you may not want to even think about it, given the broader concerns in the economy/government/world.
But right now is the time to start planning your holiday marketing strategy, in order to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your efforts, and meeting those increasingly early shoppers.
And Pinterest is looking to help marketers with a new collection of Pin marketing tips.
As per Pinterest:
“Economic uncertainty, changing consumer habits and looming impact from US tariffs. When times get tough, marketing decisions can feel impossible. It may seem tempting to cut budgets, but research shows that brands see better long-term results if they keep campaigns running during downturns.”
Yeah, I mean, a company that generates its income from ad revenue would say that, but one way or another, you will need to continue to promote your brand and products, in order to maximize your sales performance in Q3 and Q4.
Pinterest offers four tips to assist on this front:
1. Keep awareness campaigns running
Pinterest says that keeping your brand top of mind is crucial, and as such, you need to maintain a focus on awareness.
“Highlight authentic storytelling to build emotional resonance and relevance. Premiere Spotlight video takeovers make it possible to reach people in the places that matter most: in search or the home feed.”
Maximizing brand association could play a key role in hooking holiday shoppers, many of whom will begin planning for the season from next month, in order to get in on early sales opportunities.
As such, simply maintaining awareness could end up playing a key role in your holiday success.
2. Find the high-intent shoppers
Pinterest says that based on what it’s learned from previous downturns and economic impacts, its users will continue both planning and shopping via their activity in the app.
That’s likely because Pinterest users tend to be more affluent, and are therefore more resistant to such impacts. Though at the same time, maybe Pin planning also offers a means of escapism and fantasy, which can also help to build brand recognition and alignment.
On this front, Pinterest advises that its performance marketing solutions and shopping formats can help to maximize interest.
“These tools help you to reach the people who are most likely to act, so you might even see performance lifts from clicks and conversions.”
3. Highlight value and deals
Shoppers are always on the lookout for deals and offers, and in tougher times, this becomes even more relevant.
Pinterest advises that brands should look to show that they understand the concerns of their target consumers by offering products and packages that fit into people’s changing budgets.
“Our promotions and deal features make it easy to spotlight special pricing or limited-time offers. You can also try value-based messaging to promote high-quality or durable products. Make people feel confident that spending on your brand is the right decision.”
4. Use AI and automation to enhance performance
Finally, Pinterest highlights its evolving Performance+ AI-powered shopping promotions as another key opportunity.
“Whether it’s expanded targeting or better ROAS, Pinterest Performance+ optimizes your campaign settings to help you get the most out of Pinterest campaigns. Just start a new campaign in Ads Manager and our tools will guide you to the right features for your goals.”
AI-powered ad options are increasingly driving better results on most platforms, which makes sense, because AI tools are designed to assess large amounts of data, and establish key trends and commonalities, in order to understand and/or simulate human activity.
That makes them perfect for assessing the likely response to ad campaigns, and for providing recommendations on how to maximize your promotions, because these systems have been trained on data related to ad response and activity.
As such, they may be worth looking into on Pinterest and elsewhere.
Some handy pointers for your campaigns, and now to maximize your Pin promotion efforts.
