Have you ever wondered what steps you need to take before diving into Pinterest ads? Not just the technical details, but the planning, the mindset, the prep work and education. Is advertising on Pinterest even worth it?
Today on the podcast, I’m chatting with Amanda McKinney. Amanda is a marketing coach for yoga teachers. If you just thought to yourself “WHOA, that’s super niched down and specific”, she says she hears that all the time. But she loves it because that’s one of the marketing elements she teaches!
Her goal is to “help yoga teachers find the tools and confidence within themselves to grow a thriving yoga business”. Her ideal person has gone through yoga teacher training, but is having a hard time wrapping their head around growing their business.
In yoga teacher training, you’re taught how to teach yoga (good!), but not how to market your business, do accounting, or sell your “product”.
Amanda wants her yoga teachers to understand that marketing doesn’t have to be salesy, that it can be fun! Both she and I have seen over and over that marketing can often get shoved to the bottom of the list for many business owners. And Amanda wants that to change!
IS ADVERTISING ON PINTEREST WORTH IT?
In this episode, we talk about how Amanda plans by quarter, why it matters how you’re wired, and how it plays out when you’re investing in ads.
WHAT TYPE OF PRODUCT?
Her main product right now is her paid membership for yoga teachers. When she started her membership, she had zero content. The membership didn’t even have a name! She asked for some founding members to join her and help her create a membership that THEY needed, not what she thought they would need.
She hoped for 5 founding members, and she wound up with 37!
“I had an idea, but I wanted to make it theirs, not mine”.
— Amanda McKinney
She originally thought the membership would be a hub for content and videos they could watch. But she quickly realized along the way that yoga teachers were lonely in growing their business and the community of the membership has become the biggest part. A digital course just doesn’t provide that community element.
HOW AMANDA GOT STARTED ON PINTEREST
Amanda first started by hiring a virtual assistant who ended up having some experience with Pinterest. Her VA suggested doing some basic pins for her blog post, and she was so grateful because as a business owner, she was juggling so many things. After her VA left, Amanda quit keeping up with Pinterest. But even with that, she found that people were still finding her website from old pins month over month.
She started thinking that maybe she should put her time and energy into running ads, instead of trying to figure out an organic Pinterest strategy. She mentioned that she really resonated with how we teach at Simple Pin, so signed up for the Ads Society membership to start learning about ads.
where and how to learn pinterest ads
Amanda felt like she really needed to spend some time to learn ads, to feel comfortable with what she wanted to promote, to ask herself whether she was ready to commit the time to pay attention to the stats and the results of her ads.
She joined the Ads Society with an annual membership, because she knew she wanted to spend some good time learning before she started ads. But after several months, she realized she wasn’t taking action and couldn’t figure out why.
She reached out to our Promoted Pins Director Erin, to ask if she could hop on a call to get some actionable items to hold herself accountable. She realized that something was holding her back, but she needed an extra push to get started.
know your comfort level before spending money
This is where it’s so important to know your personality! Some people might jump in with both feet and are totally fine making mistakes and learning on the way. While it is important to know yourself, it’s also important to know what motivates you to take action. Amanda gathered her information, double checked with Erin that she had things set up correctly, and then felt comfortable getting started.
She knew if she jumped in just because she knew she should, she would have felt uncomfortable spending the money. Now that she took the time she needed, she’s comfortable and curious. She loves the support of the community inside the Ads Society as a back-up.
She’s excited to see how her ads play out, what the conversion looks like, is she getting the right fit person on her email list.
how to know if pinterest ads are worth it for you
I asked Amanda what she would say to someone who is wrestling over whether or not to start running Pinterest ads. She said for her, it helped to think through all the possibilities around how she could get the result she wanted. For you, this could be growing your email list, increasing your sales, etc.
If Pinterest ads is ONE of the things you’re excited about, go for it. If it’s not the thing on your list that grabs your eye, try something else and then come back to Pinterest ads after trying it for awhile. Whatever it is you’re working on, it helps to learn from people who have gone before you. That’s why Amanda joined the Ads Society, so she didn’t have to do it on her own.
It also helps to ask the questions:
- Can I invest, both from a budget and an energy standpoint, for at least six months to a year?
- Am I willing to invest for a good amount of time to see what is working and what isn’t?
- Do I have the time to commit to analyzing my results?
I loved Amanda’s thoughtful approach to trying something new (aka Pinterest ads), to learning what types of email subscribers she wanted to come through her virtual door, and how she learned to work with her personality before diving into something she didn’t feel quite ready to tackle.
If you want to learn more about Amanda and her business, check out her website here, her membership here, or follow Amanda McKinney on Instagram.
For further reading/listening:
- Kolbe Index test
- Pinterest Ads in 2022: What you need to know (podcast/show notes)
- Pinterest Marketing Advice is like Dieting Advice (podcast/show notes)
- {FREE DOWNLOAD!} Pinterest Ads Campaign Checklist
