Pinterest is a great place for users to find inspiration and even help small businesses achieve their marketing goals. And overtime, just like other social media platforms, Pinterest ventured into advertising features.
And to help make advertising more transparent on the platform, Pinterest introduced the Pinterest Ad Library or what they call Ads Repository. But what exactly is its purpose?
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what the Pinterest Ad Library is, how it works, and how both advertisers and everyday Pinterest users can benefit from it.
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What is the Pinterest Ad Library?
The Pinterest Ad Library, or what the platform calls Ads Repository, is a new feature on Pinterest that is a searchable database of all the ads that are currently running on the platform. With this new ads tool, you can see the exact ads that brands and businesses are promoting. You can also see the top ads that are doing great on Pinterest.
It can basically be seen as an ads manager where you can see ad performance from other users.
The goal of this tool is to provide transparency so that Pinterest users can see the kinds of advertisements and Pinterest campaigns that are being shown on the platform.
It’s similar to ad libraries found on other platforms, like Facebook Ad Library, where users can look at the ads running across different regions, categories, and brands. Pinterest’s version is a bit simpler though, but it still provides valuable insight for marketers, advertisers, and Pinterest ads users alike.
What is Pinterest Ad Library for?
The main reason Pinterest created its own Ad Library is to offer transparency in advertising. Platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and Google created ad libraries to help people understand what kinds of ads and ad strategies are being run on their platforms and why.
The Pinterest Ad Library is part of the platform’s efforts to build trust with its users and to promote its advertising feature. By making this information accessible, Pinterest makes it easier for people to feel confident and at ease in the ads they see on the platform.
Benefits of Pinterest Ad Library
There are several benefits to using the Pinterest Ad Library. These advantages can help both businesses and Pinterest users better understand and engage with advertising on the platform.
1. Trust and Transparency
Just like I previously mentioned, one of the biggest benefits of the Ad Library is the transparency it provides. People want to know who is behind the ads they see online, and Pinterest’s Ad Library makes this possible.
By giving users access to a full list of ads, it helps build trust between businesses and their audiences.
2. Research Competitors’ Ads Strategy
For businesses, the Pinterest Ad Library is an excellent tool for competitive research. You can use it to see what your competitors are doing, their ad creatives, what kind of ads they’re running, and which products or services they’re promoting.
This can help you improve your own advertising strategies by learning from what’s working (or not working) for others.
3. Inspiration
Sometimes, it’s hard to come up with fresh ideas for advertising, especially for Pinterest which is a visual-focused platform.
The Pinterest Ad Library offers a lot of inspiration by showing you ads from different categories and industries. You can explore ad styles, messaging, and visual design to spark new ideas for your own ads.
4. Know about Trends
The Pinterest Ad Library allows you to spot trends in advertising. By browsing through ads in different categories, you can see what kinds of products, styles, and trends are working on Pinterest.
This can help you stay ahead of the curve in your own business and adjust your advertising strategy to match current trends.
How to Use the Pinterest Ad Library
Pinterest does not actively promote or show its Pinterest Ad Library. But you can find their ads library here which they call Ads Repository.
This page allows you to explore all active ads on Pinterest in real time. Users can search for ads by specific keywords, brands, ad categories, or time frames.
This repository provides transparency by showcasing what ads businesses are running, making it easy to monitor trends, analyze competitors’ strategies, and discover new marketing ideas for your next new campaign.
Advertisers and marketers can use this tool to gain insights into successful ad campaigns and fine-tune their own advertising approaches.
In this page, you can go through the list of ads that are currently running on Pinterest. Once you click the Details on the ad pin that caught your eye, you will see there a more in-depth detail of that type of ad.
On the details page, you will see the following details:
- Details of the product or pin being advertised
- Advertiser name
- Ad date range
- Targeted ages
- Targeted countries
- Genders
- Interests
- Keywords used
- And more!
This is a great cheat sheet for those who want to start advertising on Pinterest since you can also get ideas on which target audience you can show your ads to.
Do note that only a Pinterest Business Account can have access to Pinterest Ads. Here is how you can create a business account on Pinterest.
Types of Pinterest Ads
1. Standard Image ads
These are regular image pins that Pinterest users pay to show to more people. Users can interact with them just like any other pins and save them to boards, share them, or click on them to visit a website.
Standard image ads are great for getting your products, blog posts, or ideas in front of more people.
For this type of ad, Pinterest recommends using a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1000 x 1500 pixels. Pins with an aspect ratio greater than 2:3 might get cut off in people’s feeds.
2. Standard Video Ads
These are like image ads but with video content instead of a photograph. The video plays automatically when someone scrolls through their feed, catching more attention.
Promoted Video Pins work well for showing how something works, like a recipe tutorial or a product demo.
The accepted file types for video ads are .MP4, .MOV or .M4V. The video length can be a minimum of 4 seconds and a maximum of 15 minutes.
Pinterest recommends a length of 6 to 15 seconds for video ads.
3. Carousel Ads
Carousel Ads let Pinterest users show multiple images (up to five) in one ad. Users can swipe through the images to see different products or features.
This format is perfect if you want to promote more than one item or tell a story step by step.
4. Shopping Ads
Shopping Ads are made to drive more sales. These pins pull from a business’s product catalog and display individual items, often with the price and description shown.
These ads are ideal for online stores and online businesses because they let users discover products and easily click through to buy them.
Shopping ads follow the same format as standard image ads.
5. Collection Ads
Collection Ads are designed to highlight a range of products. The ad starts with a large image or video (called the “hero creative”) and then smaller images appear below it, showing related products.
This format is great for businesses with many products to display in a visually appealing way.
The hero creative must have either a 1:1 or 2:3 aspect ratio and can differ from the aspect ratios of the secondary creatives. All secondary creatives must have the same aspect ratio llike 1:1 (square) or 2:3 (vertical).
Pinterest recommends making your secondary creatives with a 1:1 ratio to best control how they appear in people’s feeds.
I’m Anastasia and I’m a full-time blogger, online entrepreneur, and Pinterest marketing strategist. I help digital entrepreneurs and bloggers drive targeted traffic from Pinterest either through my online courses or through Pinterest consultancy.
