How Wattpad turned a steamy Pinterest trend into website traffic

When it comes to romance, Wattpad knows a thing or two. The platform where people can share and read original stories has long been a go-to site for romance reads of all kinds. So when searches for swoon-worthy stories started trending on Pinterest, it was Wattpad’s time to shine. 

Wattpad partnered with Pinterest to create a special board themed around a ‘romance novel aesthetic’ as part of a campaign timed to take advantage of the rising trend. And the multi-channel strategy led to their Pinterest presence and platform being set aflutter. 

The goal

With a catalogue of page-turning content and a large following on Pinterest, Wattpad was ready to take things to the next level. Leaning into timely, trending content would allow them to engage their existing community, generate awareness and reach new audiences on Pinterest and drive more traffic to their website in the process.

Central to their strategy was a special themed board, created and promoted in collaboration with Pinterest. Combining new and existing Pins in the collection allowed Wattpad to repurpose their content in a fresh, engaging way, and get new eyes on their previously created content.  

To expand their content’s reach, Wattpad’s promotional plan included spotlights and features across their social media channels. Leveraging both on-platform and cross-platform promotion allowed the publisher to drive traffic to the targeted content. And by adding links on the content, Wattpad could direct an engaged audience to where they could find more of the romance content that they were looking for—Wattpad’s own site.

The strategy

When ‘romantic reads’ began popping up in Pinterest Trends, Pinterest knew that Wattpad was the perfect partner. To capitalise on the rising topic, Pinterest got in touch with Wattpad to create a special board with a ‘romance novel aesthetic’, timed with Pinterest’s Romance Novel Week. 

The curated collection of Pins was featured on the Pinterest search landing page carousel for seven days in sixteen countries around the world. The content included a brief introduction and themed Pins across popular romance novel subcategories: rom-coms, sport romance, romantasy, spicy romance and paranormal. The Pins covered a range of formats from photos to videos, and featured a variety of content, including quotes, illustrations and book recommendation lists.

To capture the mood and aesthetic of some of the books that they were featuring, Wattpad also created Collage Pins. They included engaging image styles that previously resonated with their audience and that best represented the subgenres highlighted in the ‘romance novel aesthetic’ collection.

Wattpad also promoted the collection across multiple channels. They supported the content with additional boards on their Pinterest profile for Romance Novel Week. To mirror the set-up of ‘romance novel aesthetic’, each board was dedicated to a romance subgenre and featured Wattpad’s top book titles with links to themed reading lists on Wattpad’s site. And Wattpad featured the campaign on other social media channels to build more buzz around the content.

The result

During the week that Pinterest spotlighted the ‘romance novel aesthetic’, visits to the featured stories increased by 39%. Collage Pins were particularly successful, making up seven of the 10 top-performing Pins of the campaign. The campaign also drove results off-platform, with a 51% increase in new Wattpad user sign-ups from Pinterest during the campaign period.

Tips to try

Get more out of your Pinterest content with these best practices.

Sync up with emerging trends
Pinterest trends are a peek behind the curtain at what audiences are starting to search for. By engaging with popular searches and timely or seasonal moments that align with your brand, you can meet your audience where they already are and engage new audiences.

Think cross-platform
Just like bringing your content from other platforms to Pinterest can be a winning strategy (looking at you, Instagram account claiming), sharing your inspiring Pins and boards to other platforms can help to grow your audience and get more eyes on your creative campaigns. Not sure how to start? Take a look at our new board sharing feature. 

Experiment with collages
The collage feature lets you visualise a specific aesthetic or idea, bringing together multiple image cutouts combined into one Pin. Get creative and see how your imagery can come together with this immersive format.