Holiday Guide Part 9: Quick Tips for Pinterest & Snapchat
Contributor
Laine Crowder, Senior Manager of Media Services
November 22nd, 2023
Pins for Your Holiday 2023 Board
As an agency, we’ve found many compelling use cases for advertising on Pinterest. In fact, nearly a quarter of our clients are active on the platform. In a recent Digiday article, New Engen VP of Performance Marketing, Adam Telian, summed up Pinterest nicely - “It’s not a place to doom scroll. You go there for a specific reason. And the campaigns that we’re planning are driven by a need for creative inspiration.”
Pinterest is leveling up its advertising platform with new formats that expand its ad space and reach consumers through relevant, high-impact content. These upgrades simultaneously empower brands to create richer, more interactive content (at a low lift) and enable Pinners to discover new products in a fun and seamless way. In this guide, we walk through the most valuable tools & formats to take advantage of this season, plus advice from New Engen experts to help you build a winning Pinterest strategy for Holiday 2023.
Pinterest Spans the Full Funnel
Pinterest is a unique channel because it reaches audiences across the customer journey. And while users come to Pinterest with an idea already in mind, they aren’t likely to be searching for a specific brand - in fact, Pinterest estimates that 97% of in-platform searches are unbranded. Advertisers should embrace a full-funnel approach to Pinterest in order to capture users at various touchpoints on their path to purchase. Pinterest reports that advertisers who can reach audiences with awareness, consideration, and conversion-based ads are rewarded with 3X conversion rates.
Unlocking a strong full-funnel strategy on Pinterest this holiday season means having a robust testing plan across ad formats, with a mix of Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion campaigns.
We want to call out three ad formats in particular: Premiere Spotlight Ads, Quiz Ads, and Showcase Ads. For more info, check out Pinterest’s guides on ad formats and campaign objectives.
- Premiere Spotlight ads enable brands to own the in-app Search tab with a prominent video placement that takes up half of the real estate on the page. Placements are secured for 24 hours, making this format ideal for seasonal campaigns, product launches, or other promotional events.
- Quiz ads are an effective tool for driving engagement with your brand and, in turn, position you to have greater influence over a consumer’s purchase decision.
- Showcase ads allow advertisers to display multiple Pins with individual site links. This is a great way to highlight different products or offerings and simultaneously direct users to multiple destinations.
Finally, Laine Crowder, Senior Manager of Media Services at New Engen, offers a hot tip: “Pinterest recognizes that its organic consumer journey has, at times, prevented users from going directly to an advertiser’s site - mainly because there are too many clicks required to get there from the discovery phase. In response, Pinterest has introduced a new feature for mobile users, available for marketers under the “Direct to Site” tool, which allows for mobile deep links and embedded CTAs.”
New & Noteworthy
Snapchat Ads in Spotlight are now available - the format is a “TikTok copycat” on the Snapchat platform. It is also bringing a premium ad product to its disappearing stories - brands who pay for First Story Packages will be able to ensure that their ad is the first one consumers see when they watch their friends’ stories.
In a year where Snapchat reported +200% YoY growth in total time spent watching content in the placement, now is the perfect time to get started with Spotlight ads.
Snapchat Holiday 2023 Checklist
We made a list and checked it twice - here are the key things to remember during peak season:
- Start early and ensure an always-on presence.
- Diversify format allocation across Video and AR to mitigate rising costs throughout the season.
- Large spenders on the platform have the ability to drive topline cost shifts across certain placements if they choose to dig in. With that in mind, it's worthwhile to keep an eye on how performance varies across placements on the platform, especially during such a highly competitive period.
- Drive mass reach, awareness, and lift with Total Takeovers.
- Keep ad creative seasonally relevant.
- 💡 Thanksgiving-themed Snap Ads during the holiday season had the highest click rates and most efficient cost-per-click the day before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving day, and the day after.
- 💡 Black Friday mentions pick up the week of Thanksgiving, peak on Friday, and continue through early December.
Finally, while BFCM is a highly impactful period, users will still be purchasing up until the last minute for Holiday Gifts. In a time where both maximizing efficiency & educating consumers via storytelling is important, Snapchat’s highly customizable Dynamic Ads are the perfect solution.
With everything from pre-made templates to highly-unique frame & image overlays, Snapchat makes it possible to leverage the performance benefits of catalog ads, while not having to sacrifice your unique brand voice. Now available across all major formats (Snap, Story, & Collection), the potential is limitless.
Check out more Holiday 2023 resources below, and stay informed on all things digital marketing by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on LinkedIn.