Do you think Pinterest is just a mood board for brides-to-be or for girls who are dreaming of a room makeover?
Well, it’s actually much bigger than that. And depending on the characteristics of your audience, you’ll be happy to know how useful it can be for your business.
Why is Pinterest ideal for your business
Every month, 444 million people visit Pinterest to get inspiration for their next purchase.
About 60% of these are women, but the platform also has a growing male audience. And Gen Z is the fastest-growing user base.
So, if your target audience falls under this umbrella, then it’s a great place to run ads and generate traffic for your website.
Not convinced about Pinterest? Here are some more facts:
- 97% of top searches on Pinterest are unbranded. This also means that Pinterest users are open to finding and trying new businesses.
- Around 90% of weekly pinners use Pinterest to make purchase decisions. Get into the audience’s mind by finding out what’s trending on the platform.
- Run targeted campaigns based on your audience’s interest.
- Your content stays relevant for a long time after you upload, unlike on other social media.
- The platform has great organic reach, so your videos will have a good chance of getting discovered by people who don’t even follow you.
Although Pinterest started out as an image-sharing site, it now supports animations, GIFs, and video.
Pinterest video basics
Types of video pins
1. Standard video pin
There was no video option on the explore page until November of 2016 when it was first introduced to let users watch native videos.
Because of the popularity of this function, Pinterest introduced promotional video pins in August of 2017, allowing businesses to advertise their brands with promoted ads.
2. Idea pin/Story pin
The platform introduced the story pin in 2021. Idea pins or story pins are small video segments put together that were initially tested for 8 months.
Idea pin was introduced for users to speak their minds just like TikTok. But now it is being used by businesses and all kinds of creators widely.
The video in the pins can be up to 60 seconds long per page, with up to 20 total pages per pin.
3. Collection pin
Other than video pins and story pins, Pinterest also has a feature called collection pins.
Ads that combine one large pin with three (or more, up to 24) smaller pins to form a collection are called collection pins.
A hero creative is the larger, major pin, while smaller pins are called subordinate creatives.
Pinterest video marketing
Before we dive into it, make sure you have a business account on Pinterest. Business accounts are free and give you access to some valuable features.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin.
Read more: How to Use Video Marketing to Boost Ecommerce Sales
Organic video marketing
If Instagram is all about sharing, then Pinterest is all about discovering, so organic content does well on the platform.
Be sure to get creative with your videos so it’s less sell-sy. As a result, you’ll have people following you for your content rather than the ads.
So, the question is how can you make organic video marketing effective on Pinterest? We will discuss some of the ways to do it.
2 ways to use Pinterest video organically
i. Uploading directly to Pinterest
It is recommended if your video’s length is less than one minute.
Use texts at the start of the video to give viewers an idea about the topic of the video.
ii. Sending the pinner to a video on your website/YouTube
The simplest method to do this requires embedding your video in a post on Pinterest. Your job is to convince viewers to click on it.
Pinterest SEO
Pinterest SEO is similar to that of Google’s. Keywords do the magic! And headlines matter. Make sure you use the right keyword wherever it is necessary.
Don’t forget to optimize your profile with whatever you are selling.
Text overlays and aesthetics
Text overlays can help your content stand out. When you upload a video, you are asked to choose a thumbnail from the video.
You will need to add text overlay somewhere in the video, preferably, at the start.
There’s no doubt that Pinterest is one of the most visually-driven platforms. To succeed on it, you must make your content eye-pleasing and click-worthy.
Trending content
Do some research and figure out what really is trending on Pinterest.
Create your video relevant to the trends to make it more discoverable. Another way is to create content during holidays and events such as Christmas and Halloween.
Keep videos short and engaging
As per Pinterest’s recommendations, keep the length of organic videos between 15 seconds to 1 minute.
Take full advantage of the first few seconds and start strong! Focus on making the start engaging since you only have a few seconds to grab attention.
Titles, hashtags, and descriptions
Adding relevant titles and descriptions is essential because it will help your content appear in searches.
Titles and descriptions should be clear and readable for the search algorithm to find your content. Similarly, hashtags are important to categorize your content.
Add captions
Most pinners scroll through Pinterest without clicking on the videos and they play without audio in the feed by default. So it’s really important to add captions.
How to schedule Pinterest video pins
You can schedule pins for the future on desktop or iOS with a business account. In your current time zone, you can plan up to two weeks in advance and have up to 100 pins scheduled, but you can only post one at a certain time.
You can still make changes to your pins after they’ve been scheduled. These changes include choosing to publish them immediately or deleting them.
Pinterest analytics tool
Pinterest analytics is a free tool available for business accounts. It provides statistics on who visits your page and pins.
This information can help you understand your audience demographics, the devices they use, and your most popular pins.
You also get access to total daily viewers, impressions, and average monthly viewers.
Cross-promote your videos
One of the most effective ways to increase traffic to your Pinterest account is to cross-promote your video pins on your other social media accounts. It is an easy no-cost way to drive more traffic to your account. here’s how to do it:
- Embedding video pins on your blog or website
- Sending video pins to your Facebook feed
- Sharing video pins on your Instagram stories with a link
Related: B2B Videos That’ll Transform Your Social Media Game
Paid video marketing
Why should you consider Pinterest video ads?
Pinterest ads can boost brand awareness. They can also drive sales and increase conversions.
The keyword layering on Pinterest is evidence of strong intent.
Pinterest video ads can be used at any level of your campaign, whether it’s awareness, consideration, or conversion.
One of the most important features of Pinterest ads is that you can target individuals who have specifically searched for what you sell.
Pinterest works in a similar way to Google and Bing ads, which means it will display your ads based on the search terms and keywords that users enter in the search bar.
Pinterest offers ads for all of your goals. These include app install, carousel, rich pins, standard pins, shopping pins, video pins, etc.
Pinterest Video ads are a great way for your business to be discovered by more people and grow your business. Let’s discuss!
How do Pinterest video ads work?
The kind of video you make and how much you spend depends on your campaign goals and budget. You can choose it through Pinterest Ad manager.
If you’ve uploaded a video on Pinterest, giving it a promo boost can increase its visibility and bring in more traffic.
However, before you decide to promote your video make sure it’s on your business account and saved to a public board. Preferably, read Pinterest Advertising Guidelines before you proceed with video ads.
Now, the question is how does Pinterest decide which ad to show its users? The answer is simple: it depends on the user’s activity.
For instance, if a user searches for a different type of outfit and clothes a lot, they will get video ads of the same topic on their feed.
Pinterest ads are like regular pins but they’ve been sponsored to receive extra exposure and be more relevant in search results.
Pinterest tags and analytics tool
Pinterest tags can help you know exactly how many individuals are contributing to your goals, whether you want to lead customers to checkout pages, special deals, or sign-up forms.
There are two components of Pinterest tag:
- Base code (has to be placed on every page of your website)
- Event code (needs to be placed on pages where you want to track specific conversions, taken by people on your website)
In Pinterest Analytics tool, there is a separate section for paid video ads. This section has information such as average play time and the number of 10-second plays for your video ads.
By using Pinterest Analytics Tool, you’ll get an idea of what’s working and where should you spend your money.
Understanding different Pinterest video ad formats
1. Standard video pin ad
Standard video pin is the same in format as any other regular pin on Pinterest feed. Standard video pins play in the feed without the sound. But, viewers can choose to click on it and watch it in a larger frame.
2. Max width video ad
Max width video ad is exclusive to and compatible with mobile phones. It is spread across the feed between a two-column grid.
This format of video ad is a great attention grabber as it minimizes distractions. Maximum size helps brands reach the maximum audience. Max width video ad can help your business greatly during the awareness stage.
A max-width video ad is more expensive compared to a standard video ad.
Conversion insights
Conversion Insights is a reporting feature that allows you to track the complete impact of both your organic and paid Pinterest success in a single dashboard. It’s open to all advertisers who use healthy Pinterest tags.
Pinterest conversion insights can keep track of 3 types of audience
Organic conversion: Pinners that interacted with your organic Pins
Paid unassisted: Pinners that interacted with your ads
Paid assisted: Pinners that interacted with both paid and organic content
You can further filter your data, ranging from date, attribution action to claimed accounts, etc.
Best practices for Pinterest video ads
- Consider your cover image, it should be impactful
- Add a URL and make sure it’s working
- Keep the creative simple and clear
- Use high quality and attention-grabbing images
- Make the ads interactive
- Be consistent with uploading content
- Carefully plan your boards
- Also, remember to shoot your videos vertically to fit Pinterest’s recommended dimensions! (unless you are recording a max-width ad. In that case, consider recommended dimensions)
Read more: Video Ads vs. Image Ads: A Multi-Platform Comparison
That’s a wrap
So, what do you think? Is it time to give Pinterest videos a go?
If you’d like to start but don’t have the resources to create video content, then don’t sweat it. Our video production experts are happy to help. Get in touch to brainstorm ideas and hopefully, we’ll see your business on Pinterest soon!