Throughout February, I ran a consideration ad campaign on Pinterest.

The nuts and bolts of marketing outside of making a good design are somewhat foreign to me, and I wanted/needed to know who my engaged audience is. Why Pinterest? Because I've found their analytics easier to digest, they give you an account manager depending on your daily spending. That was extremely valuable, so I wasn't doing everything entirely in the dark.

The campaign could have been more successful by marketing standards (my 0.4 CTR vs. 0.75, which Pinterest considers reasonable), but I learned a lot, making the whole thing worthwhile.

Key learnings:

Ads that look organic (native to the platform) don't perform as well as ads that look like ads. What does that mean?

Include that headline, CTA, and logo. As designers, we tend to design for aesthetics, especially when it comes to personal work, but aesthetics don't mean an ad will perform well. With that said, be aware of what type of ad campaign you're running. Since I'm doing a consideration and awareness campaign, I reasoned not to add a CTA but to test and refine your ads during the campaign to see what works. A good marketing team would inform a designer of these things before starting a campaign, so the designs are as effective as possible.

Include keywords: I ran most of the campaign w/out any keywords attached; this was costly learning, but during the last week, I added another piece of creative to the campaign and included keywords, which breathed new life into the drive. Pinterest recommends at least 25 keywords.

Create multiple ads per campaign: 

It's one thing we know as designers working on campaigns in-house or at an agency; variety counts. You'll have at least 3–5 different headlines and creative in a campaign. There's a reason for it. From what I've learned, your ad goes up on a bidding block; if it wins, it gets pushed. If your ad loses a few times, it'll no longer go up for the bidding war, and now you aren't reaching your daily spending limit, and your ad isn't getting pushed. Having more creative assets w/in the campaign gives you a bigger chance to win the bidding war and get your ad in front of viewers.

More money can often yield better results: 

My budget was so small that it hindered how well my campaign performed. Although I initially thought it was just an upsell method from my Pinterest account manager, funds are needed to push a campaign to the right audience. It's a bidding war, and whoever bids the highest wins the placement.

My Pinterest audience: My audience on Pinterest is a sample of my brand audience. I'll take the information from this campaign and my Facebook/IG analytics to understand my audience better and ensure I'm tailoring my brand and creative to them. 

From what I know right now, Unlikeyou's audience is: 

• 18–44yrs old, with the majority being 18-34

• 39% male

• 50% female

• 10% other

• The most engaged audience lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Closing

I've learned much about my audience and the nuts and bolts of marketing beyond designing a good-looking ad. I urge all designers to learn about the backend of advertising; Thankfully, I've had great experiences working with awesome marketers in my career—Shoutout to Michele Thiel, Shray Joshi, and Calvin Lammers!