Our ads team recently tested out Pinterest quiz ads to see whether they are worth it or not. The results were surprising. So we’re giving you a low down on what they are, who should be using them, how to recognize them in your feed, and what you need to know before testing them out for yourself.
In our experience, it seems like there are lots of questions and confusion around Pinterest ads in general. Our team has been running ads for clients and teaching hundreds of students how to execute their paid Pinterest strategy for years. Whether you want to learn how to execute ads yourself, or want to completely hand off paid Pinterest marketing to the experts, we’re here for you. Book a discovery call with our ads team to find the best place for starting.
Related: Do Pinterest Ads Have A Place In Your Organic Strategy?
What Are Quiz Ads?
Pinterest is always looking to expand their pin formats. Quiz ads are one of about ten formats now available for advertising on Pinterest. Most likely created with the idea to increase engagement on the platform, these ads are the most interactive advertising format available to marketers.
Pinterest quiz ads provide an experience that lets the user interact with ads in a more creative way. It’s a short series of questions that allows the user to discover more about a brand, or the brand’s products, and it works to create a personalized outcome for that specific user.
The biggest difference with quiz ads as compared to other advertising methods on Pinterest is personalization. These ads allow the user to respond to a few questions and depending on their answers, out pops a set result specific to that user. It working to create an increased personalized experience for the shopper.
If you are looking for a new type of foundation, a quiz ad could be a great way for you to learn about a new brand and get a feel for their makeup. Questions could include asking about your type of skin (oily, dry, or combination), how natural you like your makeup to look and feel, what shade skin you have. Based on your answers, they are able to give you a personalized recommendation for which foundation of theirs to try.
In terms of best practices for creating these types of ads, they are pretty similar to any other standard ad. Keep the 1000×1500 megapixels ratio, make sure these ads match the rest of your branding, and use imagery that is inspirational.
Related: Running Successful Ads On Pinterest
Who Should Run Quiz Ads?
The intention behind quiz ads is that they are for people who are on Pinterest early in their journey; they are open to new ideas. Most likely the pinners interacting with these kinds of ads are just beginning to dream and look for inspiration. What we found in testing is that quiz ads don’t work to drive conversions. They do work to drive better engagement and get people to a place where they can understand your brand, your business, and what you have to offer.
When thinking about quiz ads, it’s important to understand Pinterest’s objectives. This is key for determining what kind of ad to run.
The first objective is awareness. Awareness campaigns are a great place to start. This is where you could do a video campaign that inspires people and gets your brand out there so people can start to recognize it.
The second objective is consideration. You want people to consider your brand when thinking about buying. A lot of times when Pinterest introduces a new ad format, this is where they start. This is where it’s up to the brand if they want to do standard ads, video ads, quiz ads, or any other sort of format. Pretty much anyone can run a consideration ad, even just the standard blogger.
The third objective is conversion. This is the final phase in the funnel where people are choosing to make a purchase. This is where shopping catalog campaigns and conversion campaigns come into play.
Quiz ads definitely find themselves in that middle part of the funnel: consideration. So remember, this is not the type of ad that drives conversions. You shouldn’t be trying to sell something at this point. The goal is getting them to consider you when they’re ready to make a purchase.
Testing Quiz aDS
At Simple Pin, whenever there is a new pin format, ad format, or anything else new, we want to be the first to test it. We’re willing to put money behind it so we can get an idea of whether or not it’s good. We want to be able to share our findings with you, so you can make the best decision for your business. So of course we did our own testing on quiz ads!
It’s worth noting that we performed our test on a business to business account. So results may be different compared against a business to consumer account.
The Setup
We have two main ways we serve people at Simple Pin: DIY Pinterest marketing through education and done for you Pinterest marketing. Our goal with this quiz ad test was to get people into one of those two options. Not necessarily to buy into a big package, but to be familiar with what the options are.
A tip for setting up the quiz is to work backwards. Before crafting it, you want to know what your results are. From there, work to figure out what the right questions are to ask. Our questions and answers were based on pain points we know our clients have.
Our Results
When quiz ads first came out around the holidays, there were some large brands using them. We saw quiz ads from Lego and Merci Chocolate. During our test with quiz ads there was not a single quiz ad to be found. That makes us wonder if maybe the advertisers who were experimenting with them in the beginning got the same results we did…
We saw a very low click through rate. Ideally in a consideration campaign you want to see around a 2% click through rate. With quiz ads we saw .38%. Keep in mind, these are not new products we were advertising. We have done a variety of ads for both products we were advertising in this campaign.
What was interesting to us was to see that we did get pretty good outbound clicks to our website. We got them at a pretty decent cost too. For B2B, anything from $.75 to a dollar would be considered pretty good. We were getting about $.30 clicks to our website, but we got no conversions, and not one lead into our free offer. However, out of 400 clicks to the website, only one person completed our quiz. Keep in mind it was a two question quiz – pretty easy to participate in.
Overall our team wasn’t super impressed. Obviously, there are factors like duration and budget that could have played a role. What could be happening here is simply that people don’t know how to take the quiz. The pin itself saw a lot of clicks, which means the copy on it did it’s job – people were intrigued. BUT they didn’t know how to take the quiz, they just went straight to our website. It could take some time, just as it did for video pins, for pinners to actually learn how to interact with these kinds of ads.
We don’t necessarily think you shouldn’t give quiz ads a try for your business. Testing the different formats to find what works best for you is always a great idea. After all, there are 10 different formats to advertise with on Pinterest! However, if you’re someone who is wading into the waters of advertising and you’re feeling overwhelmed by quiz ads or any of the other formats, a standard static image ad is great for leading to a website.
We do believe there is a place for quiz ads on Pinterest. This type of advertising could be super helpful for someone needing more interaction with their audience or to build their brand awareness. We are excited to see who this does work for!
Get Help RUnning Ads on Pinterest
If you find yourself curious about how ads can work for you, we would love to help! Book a discovery call today to find out how we can partner with you in running ads on Pinterest, or join our Simple Pin Ads Society to get education and resources for running your own ads.
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