Pinterest is one of the best platforms for affiliate marketing thanks to its highly visual nature and intent-driven audience. In fact, over 475 million people use Pinterest every month to discover new products and get recommendations.
But where do you even start with affiliate marketing on Pinterest? What works and what doesn’t? This complete guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from setting up your account to optimizing your affiliate link pins for maximum conversions.
Why Choose Pinterest for Affiliate Marketing
There are a few key reasons why Pinterest stands out for affiliate marketers:
- Pinners have high buyer intent – 46% discover a new product or brand every week.
- The visual nature allows you to showcase products attractively.
- You can build authority by curating affiliate-friendly content.
- Detailed analytics help inform your content strategy.
- It’s easier to stand out from the crowd as a niche expert.
People come to Pinterest for inspiration and recommendations within their areas of interest. If you can position yourself as a knowledgeable expert providing helpful advice, you’ll gain an engaged audience.
Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started
Here’s an actionable step-by-step process to start affiliate marketing on Pinterest:
1. Set Up a Pinterest Business Account
You need a business account to access key features like analytics, ads and audience insights.
You can easily convert a regular Pinterest profile into a business one from the account settings. This allows you to keep your existing boards/followers while upgrading.
2. Carefully Choose Your Niche
Picking the right niche is crucial for success with affiliate marketing. You need an area with high buyer demand and intent.
Conduct keyword research to identify profitable niches and gaps in the market. Think about your own interests and expertise too. Promoting products you genuinely like and know well will come across as more authentic.
Some popular affiliate marketing niches on Pinterest include:
- Fashion/beauty
- Home decor/furnishings
- Craft supplies
- Kitchen/cooking items
- Baby products
- Pet supplies
Ensure your niche has enough buyer demand and products suitable for the highly visual Pinterest format.
3. Find Relevant Affiliate Programs
Once you’ve picked a niche, find affiliate programs that match. These allow you to earn commissions from leading brands when site visitors click through your links and make purchases.
Great options to consider include:
- Amazon Associates – wide range of products, high commissions
- ShareASale – over 6,000 merchant programs across many niches
- FlexOffers – flexible options for monetizing content
- CJ Affiliate – work directly with brands in your niche
Make sure to read up on each program’s specific terms and conditions.
4. Optimize Your Pinterest Profile
Profile customization is vital for building credibility with your audience. Ensure you complete all the available profile fields for maximum visibility:
- Profile picture – use a professional headshot
- Descriptive bio stating your niche/expertise
- Location
- Website
- Preferred pronouns
This information clearly communicates who you are and what value you offer to visitors.
5. Curate Stunning Affiliate Content
Creating eye-catching pins is crucial to standing out on image-focused Pinterest.
When promoting affiliate products, use enticing imagery alongside punchy captions. Ensure you follow Pinterest’s recommended 2:3 vertical image ratio for the best fit.
Share affiliate links openly within your pins – cloaking techniques like link shorteners violate Pinterest’s terms. Adding a disclosure that you’re an affiliate is optional but encouraged.
Leveraging Pinterest Analytics
One of the best ways to track your Pinterest affiliate marketing performance is by leveraging the platform‘s powerful analytics.
Pinterest provides insightful metrics on your content and profile under the "Analytics" section.
Key Metrics to Track
Here are some top metrics every Pinterest affiliate marketer should be monitoring consistently:
- Impressions – How many times your pins have been seen.
- Saves – When people save your pin to their own boards.
- Clicks – The number of clicks on your affiliate links.
- Closeups – When people click to zoom in on your pins for a closer look.
- Engagement rate – Percentage of impressions that resulted in some type of engagement.
- Earned media value – Estimate of the money spent to achieve similar engagement through paid ads.
Tracking these metrics over time shows what content resonates with your audience and strategies are working. Aim for steady growth month over month.
Set Achievable Benchmarks
Determine reasonable benchmarks based on your current follower count and engagement levels.
For example, if you have 2,000 followers, a good click rate benchmark could be 2-5%. Scale this as your follower count grows over time.
Comparing your metrics to industry averages for Pinterest affiliate marketing can also inform suitable goals. Adjust based on what makes sense for your niche, pins types, etc.
Optimization Tips
Leverage your Pinterest analytics data to actively optimize your affiliate marketing approach.
If certain pins drive lots of traffic but low conversions, tweak your call-to-action messaging in those pins.
See if landscape oriented images or brighter colors boost your clickthrough rates.
Promote your top-performing content more aggressively. Double down on what works!
Consistent tracking provides the insights needed to level up your results.
Expert Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Tips
Drawing from over a decade of experience in the social media marketing and affiliate space, here are my top pro tips:
Redirect Link Formatting
When using redirect links for affiliate offers, use a {username} parameter structure.
For example:
www.site.com/go/?{username}
This allows the merchant to identify traffic you drove specifically and credit your account accordingly.
Optimize Pin Titles
Incorporate target keywords naturally in your pin titles. But keep them short and compelling – truncation happens at 85 characters.
Emojis can help pins stand out but use sparingly. Test including prices and sales info.
Integrate Smart Feeds
Curate affiliate content into Smart Feeds based around topics, brands or product categories.
This allows Pinterest to better index and surface your pins to matched audiences.
Go Live on Pinterest
Leverage Pinterest‘s built-in live broadcasting feature to engage your audience in real-time.
Offer exclusive affiliate coupons during your livestreams or product recommendations.
Promote Your Blog Content
Link out to long-form reviews or tutorials on your own blog within pins.
This positions you as an authority and allows collecting email addresses/marketing directly.
Use Click Tracking Software
Integrate link tracking software like ClickMeter to gather data beyond the analytics Pinterest provides.
This gives additional visibility into your most popular pins/posts driving conversions.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Succeeding with affiliate marketing on Pinterest requires avoiding some key pitfalls:
No Conversion Strategy
Creating eye-catching pins alone isn’t enough. You need a conversion plan to guide visitors to take action.
This means prominently displaying affiliate links or strong calls-to-action in your pins descriptions.
Aggressive Self-Promotion
While promoting your own content is encouraged, too much outright self-promotion looks off-putting.
Aim for about 1 self-promotional pin out of every 7, with the rest focused on value-added curation.
Link Over-Optimization
Cramming links and affiliate code into pinned images themselves frequently backfires.
This triggers Pinterest’s spam filters, resulting in rejected pins or bans for excessive link usage.
Deceptive Pins
Creating pins seemingly packed with value that mainly funnel users towards unrelated affiliate links will foster distrust.
Be upfront when pins have affiliate purposes – don’t mislead pinners.
Cloaking Affiliate Links
While common elsewhere, shortening or hiding affiliate links using redirects is prohibited on Pinterest.
Use direct affiliate links or otherwise indicate when you may earn commissions transparently.
Advanced Optimization Strategies
Ready to take your Pinterest affiliate approach to the next level? Employ these pro-level tactics:
Profile Link Customization
Beyond just having a link in your profile, use descriptive anchor text and visual cues to encourage clicks.
For example include “See my latest beauty recommendations →” with a relevant icon.
Collaborative Boards
Jointly curating content alongside other influencers enables tapping into each other‘s audiences more effectively through cross-promotion.
Rotate pinning duties across members to keep boards active.
Recurring Affiliate Pins
Adapt top-performing pins into evergreen templates you re-pin frequently after making slight edits or swapping creative assets.
New pinners discover your content while maintaining relevance.
Target Audience Expansion Ads
Create Pinterest ad campaigns using the engagement objective specifically focused on extending your reach to untapped matching audiences.
Get your affiliate pins surfaced to more potential customers.
Shop Spotlights for New Products
As an official affiliate partner, request access to shopable product catalogues from leading merchants to integrate directly into Pinterest.
Early access allows promoting the latest items instantly to eager buyers.
Pinterest Affiliate Marketing Case Studies
To make this strategic advice more concrete, here are real-world examples of affiliate marketers successfully applying these best practices on Pinterest:
Case Study 1: Fashion Blogger @stylesmithstories
Niche: Women’s fashion and lifestyle
Approach:
- Curates shoppable fashion and beauty inspiration boards tied to rewardStyle affiliate links
- Leverages influencer status and existing audience from blog
- Frequently shares YouTube haul videos natively in Pinterest
- Runs targeted traffic campaigns to own blog posts with related affiliate product info
Results:
- 500k monthly Pinterest page views
- 5% average click through rate benchmark on affiliate pins
- $15k+ in monthly Pinterest affiliate commissions
Takeaway: Tap into existing personal brand and content channels to maximize reach on affiliate pins.
Case Study 2: DIY Crafter @craftsbycourtney
Niche: Home decor craft tutorials
Approach:
- Produces step-by-step craft video tutorials optimized for Pinterest format
- Integrates affiliate links to exact product supplies needed for each project
- Uses click tracking URLs with UTM campaign tags to monitor performance
- Repins evergreen high-converting tutorials frequently with seasonal variations
Results:
- 185k Pinterest monthly viewers
- 720k impressions on seasonal decorative wreath tutorial pin
- 8.3% engagement rate benchmark across affiliate pins
Takeaway: Tailor content strategy specifically to leverage Pinterest’s avid craft community for conversions.
These examples reinforce key lessons around playing to platform strengths and innovating on top affiliate marketing fundamentals.
Power Up Your Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
As one of the hottest social platforms, Pinterest offers immense affiliate potential thanks to an active userbase filled with buying intent.
By following the comprehensive advice in this guide, you have all the tools needed to succeed.
The key is applying an optimized step-by-step process – from identifying the right niche to curating engaging pins that convert. Advance your approach over time as you build expertise and an audience.
Leverage thebuilt-in analytics to track performance closely. Double down on what content resonates best with the Pinterest ecosystem.
Stay ahead of the curve with new features and test innovative tactics to scale affiliate earnings.
With strategic effort, Pinterest can drive transformative results and income. Let the pinning commence!
