Pinterest and AR as a reader magnet.

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I haven’t been on here for some time as I’ve had my head buried in writing and marketing.

Since February I’ve been quietly using Pinterest as my main long-term discovery channel while I develop my middle-grade fantasy series. I’ve mostly focused on simple pins and visual mood-building, and recently I’ve added video ads to the mix.

At last I’ve started to see real traction, but it is paid. I’ve been experimenting with just £2 a day for the last month for a single video ad. This was almost exactly at the six-month mark from starting my Pinterest account. Impressions have risen from 19k per month to now edging toward 250k a month, and 200k of that is from one video pin.

Now the caveat here is that I’m writing middle-grade fantasy, which naturally lends itself to a strong visual aesthetic, and Pinterest is very visual by nature. So that alignment may be part of why this is working.

My current working theory is that my “Timothy” is likely Harry Potter fans who now have children of their own and early feedback from actual HP-fan parents seems to support that.

People pause for video in a way they don’t for static imagery, and I’m seeing that reflected clearly in the click-throughs. I’m getting around 90% click-through from clicks, which is remarkable.

To support this traction I’ve created a reader magnet in the form of a “junk journal” enhanced with AR.

The video ads lead to a free “Arthur’s Secret Journal” a small early doorway into my Bert the Bat project (launching 2026).

The journal uses augmented reality through Artivive.
Printed pages reveal ghosts, footprints, objects, small clues — and the effect is surprisingly engaging. It feels like a gentle way of inviting readers into the world rather than simply promoting a book.

I don’t yet know whether this approach will become a core part of my funnel, but early signs suggest it holds attention.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experimented with Pinterest + AR (or similar interactive elements). I’d be interested to hear any insights.

If anyone would like to see the journal for themselves and AR in action, ( you will need to put the Artivive app on your phone), it’s here:
BertTheBat.com
Pinterest and the video ads that are driving the traffic can be found here https://uk.pinterest.com/VincentShawAuthor/
Hopefully this is useful. Vincent.

Btw, for interest I’ve added some screen shots of my Pinterest analytics in the replies some and commentary on how and why my account suddenly gained traction.