DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links through which I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
Over the past couple of years Pinterest has quickly grown into one of the largest social media sites in the world and it shows no signs of slowing down.
Pinterest is a great place to share inspiring images, recipes, events, products, and more. And with 322 million active users, Pinterest is a marketers dream.
Although these numbers pale in comparison to Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest is still a powerful and dependable channel to source traffic that is full of opportunities.
Let’s take a look at some of the numbers.
According to Oberlo, 40% of Pinners generate household revenue of $100,000 or more. And 82 percent of weekly active users say that they make buying decisions based on Pinterest content.
So, if you are looking to generate income online via Affiliate Marketing, Pinterest can be a great place to begin.
This ultimate guide will show you everything you need to know about Pinterest Affiliate Marketing, how it works, and how to get started.
Table of Contents
What is Pinterest Affiliate Marketing?
Pinterest affiliate marketing is pretty much like every other form of affiliate marketing. Simply put, it’s a process of recommending products to your target audience to purchase.
When your followers buy the products you recommend (by clicking on your affiliate link), you will receive a commission from the company you partnered with.
It won’t cost you or your follower anything extra when they make a purchase using your link. Rather, it will benefit both parties as your viewer will get something they want, and you receive a commission for their purchase.
And the good news is that many visitors already come to Pinterest with the intention to shop on the platform.
This is good news for affiliate marketers.
According to a report by eMarketer, 48% of Pinterest users say that they use the platform for the sole intent of shopping.
Simply stated, almost half the users come on the platform with their minds already made up – the rest depends on your content and the product you’re recommending.
How to Promote an Affiliate Product Via Pinterest?
There are two popular methods to use affiliate links on Pinterest. The first method involves sharing a link to a blog post or content with an affiliate link. The second method involves pinning the affiliate link itself.
Whichever method you use, it’s important that you create an attractive graphic that will catch the readers eye while scrolling.
Make sure you optimize the graphic to Pinterest’s ideal ratio (2:3). And the images you use should be high-resolution and engaging.
In case you are promoting a blog post, add your blog’s branding and colors in the graphic as well as in the name of the post.
If you are posting a specific product and affiliate link, you can add a simple, close-up image.
Get Started With Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
To get started with Pinterest Affiliate Marketing, you just have to follow a few steps.
- Create a Pinterest account.
- Identify your niche.
- Create pins with affiliate links.
- Optimize your content and pins.
This is simply a brief overview of how it works. Naturally, the actual process contains many more steps and entails a lot more work.
Now, let’s have a look at these steps in more detail.
1. Create a Pinterest Account.
Signing up with Pinterest is relatively simple.
You just have to enter details like your email, age, create a password, and you’re good to go.
You can also create a business account for free. With Pinterest business, you get access to advanced features like Pinterest create, business hub, advertising, and Analytics.
You can also sell products directly from Pinterest if you have a business account. But if you think you don’t need any of these features, then the regular account should be sufficient.
Once you’re logged in, set up your profile by adding your username, URL, adding a banner, etc.
Here are some quick tips you might want to consider while setting up your Pinterest account:
- Log in with a business account to gain access to advanced features and gain more traffic.
- Find relevant keywords related to your niche and add them to your profile name and description.
- Add your real photo to your profile to connect with your target audience.
- Add an attractive banner related to your niche.
2. Identify Your Niche
Before you actually start with affiliate marketing on Pinterest, it’s essential to identify your niche.
You need to hit a sweet spot between your passion and profit.
While it’s natural to want to sell something you’re most passionate about, it’s important that you also consider what’s profitable.
Some of the niches that perform the best include:
- Home Decor
- Education
- Entertainment
- DIY and Crafts
- Art
- Women’s Fashion
- Food and Drink
- Beauty
- Event Planning
- Gardening
In fact, all niches that are visual/design-oriented perform very well on Pinterest.
Start by doing intensive research and evaluate the number of pins and their quality for certain domain areas.
In cases where you find a lot of low-quality pins and not many related searches, it implies that your topic is in the process of growth. You don’t need to spend too much time or money trying to make it work.
Most importantly, focus on finding services and products in your niche that will benefit your readers. And get to know the product or service well prior to promoting them.
If the product isn’t something that you would use, don’t promote it. This is a good rule of thumb that will help establish trust and authority with your audience and keep them coming back.
3. Identify Your Target Audience and Their Requirements
Affiliate marketing on Pinterest, in some ways, is similar to affiliate marketing with a regular blog. You still have to cater to your target audience and focus on solving their problems.
And since Pinterest is a search engine, make sure to familiarize yourself with your target audience and know what they’re searching for.
Start with a few broad keyword ideas to get started.
For instance, if you’re planning to promote bakery products, you start your search with something like “Cake ideas for kids.”
To get even more ideas, click on the search option and ensure to set your filter to “All Pins.”
All the search results you get will give you an overview of what your audience is searching for.
You can even search for something broader, like “recipes”. You will get everything from recipes for muffins to ingredients to your particular diet type.
You can narrow down your search results by applying more specific filters from the rightmost side of your search bar. The Pinterest search bar allows you to filter your results by People, Boards, and Videos.
Look for the boards that are performing the best and focus on the following factors:
- Assess the quality of the pins.
- What kind of titles and descriptions are they using?
- Note the keywords they’re using the most.
You can think of this step as competition research. You’re basically assessing the most popular pins in your niche and determining what’s working and what’s not.
This makes it easy to identify what’s trending and what your audience is seeking.
4. Create Pins
Creating pins and adding affiliate links to products is relatively easy and straightforward.
You just need to follow this simple step-by-step process.
Look for the ‘+’ icon in the rightmost corner of your Pinterest account.
Alternatively, you can select the Create >> Create Pin options.
Upload an image that shows the product in the best light and encourages the audience to make the final purchase.
You can save the image from your affiliate product’s website by selecting the ‘Save from a website’ option and adding the website’s URL after that. Or you can upload your own pin.
Add a title and engaging description with relevant keywords to get your pin discovered by your audience easily.
Add your affiliate link in the place of “Add a destination link” section. Every time a visitor clicks on the destination link and makes a purchase, you’ll get a commission.
Apart from that, aim to create at least ten boards and add niche keywords in the board titles and descriptions.
5. Optimize Your Content and Pins
To ensure that your content is found on Pinterest, you should start your marketing with thorough keyword research.
Creating your full profile, boards, and optimizing your product descriptions are some of the few things to cover.
All of these steps will help your users discover your content more easily when they search for popular keywords in your niche.
So, first and foremost, optimize your pins for search.
The most common way to optimize your pins for search is by using the Pinterest search bar. You’ll see plenty of suggested keywords when you enter a search term into the search bar.
Again, let’s enter something like “recipe for chocolate truffle cake.”
Here are all the long-term keywords that your audiences are searching for.
If you click on each of those suggested keywords, you will find even more related keywords. Scrolling down the search results page will help you discover even more related searches and keywords.
Another way to get Pinterest keywords is via Pinterest Ads Management Platform. It will give you the estimated search volume and help you prioritize what to target.
To start, visit Pinterest’s Ads Management platform. Once you’re there, select your campaign objectives and tap on the ‘Continue’ button.
Next, scroll down until you find the area to enter keywords and then enter your search terms:
Next, go to the Pinterest Keyword Tool and enter your search term. Luckily, Pinterest comes with a free Pinterest SEO tool that will let you do the work in a click. You’ll be able to mine several high-volume Pinterest keywords in no time.
Finally, make sure that you add all the relevant keywords you discovered in your description, title, and even your Boards.
While optimizing, don’t focus only on your pins and content description. There are other areas you should focus on, including Pin Image Name (.jpeg), Pin Title, Pin Rich Snippet, and Hashtags.
You also need to follow the best practices to promote your pins to garner maximum traffic.
For that, it’s important to understand how the Pinterest algorithm works.
How Does Pinterest Algorithm Work?
So you’ve been working day and night to create attractive pins to attract readers.
You’ve also done enough networking and are partnering with high quality and potentially profitable affiliate brands.
If you have done all of the above, it’s time to cash in on your hard work.
I can already see the dollar signs from here.
But wait…
You feel like you’re not getting enough bang for your buck?
If that’s the case, then you need to get to know a bit more about how Pinterest and its algorithm work.
When you share a new piece of content, the Pinterest algorithm will distribute your pin to your readers. The more engagement it gets from your users, the more exposure it will get.
Since Pinterest works like a search engine, you can effectively gain traffic by making use of relevant keywords.
But this alone won’t be enough.
Remember that Pinterest is primarily a visual platform, so it’s equally important to focus on how your pins look.
Ranking on Pinterest largely depends on four main factors:
- Domain Quality
- Pin Quality
- Pinner Quality
- Topic Relevance
Now, let’s have a look at each of them.
1. Domain Quality
Domain quality refers to the website’s quality you’ll be linking to your pins. Pinterest will evaluate how many items you pinned from each website and calculate the domain quality accordingly.
Follow these tips for better Domain Quality:
- Use Pinterest’s business account.
- Make sure to pin consistently.
- Claim your website to show you’re a legitimate brand.
- Enable rich pins on your account.
- Create high-quality images and content for better engagement.
2. Pin Quality
Pin quality refers to the engagement level and popularity of your pins evaluated by Pinterest. While calculating engagement and popularity, Pinterest takes everything into account, including the number of times someone clicked, saved, zoomed, commented, among others.
Naturally, the engagement levels would be directly correlated with how attractive your images are.
Follow these tips for better Pin Quality:
- Use attractive and eye-catching images.
- Make your pins mobile-friendly.
- Create an engaging title with relevant keywords.
- Source images from sites like Unsplash and Pexels for high-quality images.
- Keep the aspect ratio of your image to 2:3 or 1:2.1. The ideal dimension is 1000 x 1500 for high-quality, unblurred Pinterest Pins.
3. Pinner Quality
How frequently you create and add pins to Pinterest will determine your pinner quality. The more consistent you are, the more Pinterest will rank your content.
You can improve your Pinner Quality with these steps:
- Try to pin daily or create a consistent schedule to add pins to your account.
- Pin popular content that your target audience is searching for the most.
- Use Pinterest analytics to determine “trending” pins.
4. Topic Relevance
The keywords you use consistently will tell Pinterest what your pins are about. Pinterest will then accordingly compare your keywords with your target audience’s preference, interest, and search history.
This way, the algorithm automatically determines how relevant your content is to your target audience.
To make your pins more relevant, make sure to follow these tips:
- Perform keyword research (as already shown above).
- Determine your target audiences’ interests and search terms.
- Add keywords everywhere you can – in your bio, pin descriptions, title, boards, etc.
You can also use Pinterest Analytics to track performance and find out the content type that resonates with your audience.
Best Practices to Follow For Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
Here are some best practices to follow while creating pins and adding affiliate links to your pins.
1. Optimize Your Pinterest Board
Prior to adding pins, make sure that your Pinterest boards look branded, as it will represent your business.
Then, add a description relevant to your Pinterest profile. You should ensure that the name of each board should be relevant to your brand or business.
Aside from this, implement a strong SEO strategy (more on this later), which includes optimizing your board title and description to let your profile appear in the search bar.
Also, adding more pins to boards that your audience wants will help you create a Pinterest profile with the best tips for your followers. Start adding affiliate links once you have enough attractive pins and followers.
2. Use Engaging And High-Quality Images
Being that Pinterest is a visual discovery engine, it is a given that you should use engaging and high-quality images.
Here are some best practices to create click-worthy pin images:
- Make use of only high-quality, high-resolution images. You can either take your own photos or look for free high-resolution stock photos from Unsplash or Pexels.
- Your pin graphic should be vertically placed. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 ratio.
- Add text overlays. A benefit-driven title on your image top is a great idea. It should be short with a clear font and easily readable on smaller screens.
- Add your logo or your site URL on the pins you publish.
- In case you are offering a free downloadable giveaway along with your article, utilize a small cover image on your pin. It will give your users a quick preview of the content inside, enticing them to click on it.
- Add a link to your website or blog to some of your pins to prove your subject authority. Also, double-check it to see if it’s working and make sure the page loads quickly.
3. Consider Creating a Board Dedicated Specifically to Affiliate Links
Having an affiliate-specific board will be beneficial in many ways. For one, it might encourage interested people to look at it. And most importantly, it allows you to disclose beforehand that the pin contains affiliate links.
Just make sure it’s relevant to your niche. For instance, if you’re promoting something related to food, you can create a board linking to some signature dish.
Again, don’t forget to add keywords to the name of the board and description – just don’t be spammy about it.
4. Use Videos to Engage Your Followers
You don’t have to limit yourself to images and static graphics on Pinterest. Many people get more enticed by videos than images. What’s more, images make it easier to convince visitors to make the final purchase.
In fact, according to Pinterest statistics, there were 6x as many video views in 2019 as there were in 2018. The same study indicates that more than half of Pinterest users (67% to be exact) get more inspired by videos to take action. Thus, make sure that you leverage videos as well to make more sales and earn more affiliate commission.
5. Avoid Spamming & Follow Proper Guidelines
Pinterest is strictly against spammy behavior – and might even ban you from the platform if they suspect you of such behavior.
Follow these tips and guidelines to promote your products ethically with Pinterest:
- Follow Pinterest’s Acceptable Use Policy.
- Make sure that you read and follow all the Pinterest Brand Guidelines.
- Avoid using generic URL shorteners like bit.ly or tinyurl to avoid spam.
- Don’t try to hide your pin’s final destination and avoid practices like domain cloaking.
- Saving repetitive content and posting unsolicited comments can also get your account banned.
- Disclose affiliate links using hashtags like #affiliatelink, #sponsored, #ad, etc.
Promote Your Pins and Generate More Affiliate Sales
After you add your affiliate links to your products, the next step is to work on gaining exposure for your affiliate links and boards. Luckily, there are several ways to promote and generate affiliate sales using Pinterest.
Let’s look into some of the most crucial ones:
1. Use Call-to-Pin in Descriptions
Pin descriptions are crucial to Pin distribution. Apart from using relevant keywords near the start of the brand’s description and name in the first line of your description, you should add call-to-pins in the description. It will tell your readers what action you want them to take when they visit the page.
Keep in mind that your Call-to-Pin phrase should persuade your audience and create urgency.
You get up to 500 characters to add your Pin description. That’s enough space to add keywords naturally, include an intriguing Call-to-Pin phrase, and all the information readers need to know how your Pin and the linked content will benefit them.
Here’s an excellent example from Adlers, a home décor business:
2. Follow The Best SEO Practices
Here are some quick SEO practices you might want to consider to rank higher on Pinterest:
- A quick and easy way to boost your Pinterest SEO is to add keywords to your display name.
- Craft your bio using strategic keywords. You can either keep your bio creative or straightforward as preferred.
- Don’t forget to claim your website. It will allow you to feature your site URL on your profile, thus helping you to appear more official and driving more traffic to your site.
- Follow other accounts in your niche to increase your visibility.
- Publish video pins – they will let you share more about your brand story as compared to an image.
- Optimize your board names and descriptions to make your boards discoverable.
- Create pins with optimal ratios to ensure that your pins get displayed fully in search results.
- Research and craft strategic pin titles and descriptions.
- Use rich pins to add more detail to your Pins and bring more traffic to your site.
- Use Pinterest Ads and promote your high-performing pins or a new image or video.
- Last but not least, be consistent and stick to a fixed posting schedule.
3. Share Affiliate Pins on Other Social Media Sites
A great way to boost traffic on Pinterest boards is by sharing affiliate pins on other social media platforms.
It’s important to share and promote affiliate product links as you want to help readers discover items that they might find valuable or inspiring. Thus, focus on sharing products you think will make your readers’ lives better.
Start Promoting Your Affiliate Products on Pinterest: Wrap-Up
If you want to start making money online with affiliate marketing, then it’s time you give Pinterest a try.
It might take a little bit of hard work at first, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the platform, but it will be well worth it in the end.
After all, over 300 million people worldwide turn to Pinterest to seek inspiration before making a purchase. This is too big a number to ignore – imagine the massive size of the audience you can cater to.
The key is to create high-quality, engaging pins and maintain a consistent posting schedule. The sales and affiliate revenue will eventually follow suit.
Do you already have a Pinterest account? And what type of products are you planning to promote on Pinterest? Let me know by commenting below!
