This week, Erin Harding is stepping in for Kate to bring you all of the best tips and golden nuggets of information you’ll need to learn how to advertise on Pinterest for the holiday season.

Erin is the Director of Promoted Pins Management and the Simple Pin Ads Society at Simple Pin Media. The Simple Pin Ads Society is sponsoring this episode since it’s all about how to use promoted pins to generate holiday sales.

Our guest today is Alex Kopytov, founder and president of Kingpin Services (a Pinterest Advertising Agency for eCommerce). He is also part of the team here at Simple Pin Media. 

We’re so excited about this episode! We are going to talk all about:

* how and when to start your holiday advertising on Pinterest* who shops during the holidays* campaign-specific tips. 

Before we dive in, I do want to tell you about our Simple Pin Ads Society. It’s our membership community that’s designed to guide you through the ins and outs of how to advertise on Pinterest.

Through live coaching calls, workshops, and an exclusive membership forum, you will have all the tools you need at your fingertips to build, start, and run Pinterest ad campaigns for you or your clients. 

Now let’s get into our conversation with Alex about holiday advertising on Pinterest with a brief overview of what we already know. 

Pinterest is a platform where people go to discover new ideas and find inspiration. Holiday times are no exception. Alex says Pinterest is the first place holiday shoppers go for gift-giving ideas — and they show up early for that holiday inspiration!

Recent studies show it’s a great idea to promote your product or offer early on Pinterest during the holidays. Brands that start their holiday campaign earlier in the season get better results: 

* There are 4.7x more conversions when people are exposed to Pinterest ads earlier in the holiday season* Brands advertising early see an average 6% increase in sales 

Alex believes the most important thing to understand about holiday advertising on Pinterest is proper timing. It may come as a surprise to you how early your advertising needs to start.

Pinterest has reported that by Cyber Monday (November 29th in 2021), 60% of holiday gift sales will have already been made. 

That being said, Alex says the most effective holiday campaigns start in September with additional phases added later.

So now is the time to begin your holiday marketing on Pinterest!

If you haven’t launched your campaign yet don’t worry. The first step is awareness-based marketing. You still have time to double up during the higher converting months that are ahead.

Alex sees the time from September to October as a period for inspiration. According to Pinterest’s best practices, it’s the most effective time to launch a campaign for the holidays. Therefore, awareness and consideration campaigns should be at the forefront of your ad strategy. 

As for ad imagery, Alex says you can begin using holiday themes now but it’s not necessary yet. Just having your regular pin images appear regularly in the feed is sufficient at this point.

By November, shoppers are beginning to make purchases.