Acquisition Channel Opportunities: Instagram Keyword Search, FB Ads Targeting, Pinterest Ranking on Google

Need to get more paying users? Here are the newest acquisition channel opportunities I've discovered this week that can help you do just that:

• Learn how you can use Instagram's newest keyword search feature to find potential leads.

• Failing with Facebook Ads? According to an internal Facebook document, targeting could be the reason. Learn what you can do about this.

• Want to rank faster in Google's Text Search results? Try Pinterest Boards.

Let's go into more detail on each of them below.

1. Instagram Keyword Search = A New Source of Leads For Founders?

Many founders are successfully using social networks' search boxes to find new leads. That's what I found in my Zero to Users research on acquisition channels. Take Twitter search, for example, and how Referral Rock ($70k/mo) used it to get new users:

Q: How have you attracted users and grown Referral Rock?

A: I was… active on Twitter where I reached out to marketers or anyone that mentioned "referral programs." I would comment or favorite tweets from the Referral Rock Twitter account which listed a free referral program. Throughout the year-long beta I had over 500 individuals kicking the tires on the free referral program before I started charging.

Until recently, you could only use Instagram to search for posts by hashtags. One month ago, Instagram announced you could also search for posts by keywords. This is opening a whole set of new opportunities.

What this means for you: More potential leads. If you tried to use Instagram previously to find new leads, you were limited only to hashtag searches. That's no longer the case. In the past, if you did a search for #bakingrecipes, you'd get around 30k search results. With keyword search, that number is now much higher, bringing people a much higher number of potential leads.

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2. Failing With Facebook Ads? According to an Internal Facebook Document, Targeting Could Be the Reason.

"FACEBOOK MANAGERS TRASH THEIR OWN AD TARGETING IN UNSEALED REMARKS." This was the scathing title of a recent Intercept article featuring internal communications between Facebook employees. Here are some of the things they said:

“[I]nterest precision in the US is only 41%—that means that more than half the time we’re showing ads to someone other than the advertisers’ intended audience. And it is even worse internationally. … We don’t feel we’re meeting advertisers’ interest accuracy expectations today.”

One Facebook engineer also mentioned this:

One engineer celebrated that detailed targeting accounted for “18% of total ads revenue,” and $14.8 million on June 17th alone. Using a smiley emoticon, an engineering manager responded, “Love this chart! Although if the most popular option is to combine interest and behavior, and we know for a fact our behavior is almost all crap, does this mean we are misleading advertiser [sic] a bit? :)” That manager proceeded to suggest further examination of top targeting criteria to “see if we are giving advertiser [sic] false hope.”

What this means for you: If you use interest & behavior targeting and not getting results - it may not be your fault. Your ad could be just showing to the wrong people. Is there anything you can do to fix this?

Lookalike audiences. In my founder analysis on things that work with Facebook Ads, I found a lot mentioning lookalike audiences as something that's consistently working for them. So, if interest/behavior targeting is not working for you, you might want to try this type of targeting instead.

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3. You Can Use Pinterest to Rank on Google's Text Search Results.

There was a recent HackerNews thread titled: "Why does Pinterest dominate Google text search results?" The person who opened the thread was not the only one to notice this phenomenon. There were hundreds of others who commented, also noticing the same thing. Which means one thing: Pinterest is increasingly ranking in Google's text search results.

What kind of results, though? I found many of the keywords to be collection-based keywords, like "woodworking ideas for Christmas".

What this means for you: If you have a collection-based post, consider creating a Pinterest board and spend some time promoting it. For some reason, Google loves Pinterest and we see that as an opportunity.

Which acquisition channels do I need to cover more?

Pinterest? Facebook? Google? Let me know in the comments below.

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