Pinterest idea pins are the latest tool available to content creators for telling a compelling story. During a time when video content is king, idea pins should be essential to your Pinterest marketing strategy. Formally called “story pins”, idea pins are one of the best new features on Pinterest to increase followers and engagement with your content.
With Gen Z and Millennials visiting Pinterest in record numbers, Pinterest has seen its monthly active users grow beyond 470 million.
The platform has also seen an increase in engagement and demand for video content from this new generation of young pinners.
What’s more, Gen Z pinners tend to be more engaged than older users, evidence that idea pins and video content should be essential in your business’s Pinterest marketing strategy.
Pinterest wants to be the best place to discover actionable content that inspires their users and idea pins are a huge push to make that endeavor happen.
What are idea pins on Pinterest?
If you have a Pinterest business account, you can use a mix of video, text overlays, static images, and animated stickers to make actionable idea pins that help inspire pinners.
Idea pins support 20 1080px by 1920px pages (they’re the same size as Instagram stories and are 9:16 aspect ratio) of content to showcase your idea on the platform. Once published, they’ll be featured at the top of your Created tab on your Pinterest profile.
Idea pins are perfect for simple step-by-step guides, projects, and recipes!
Unlike Instagram stories where you’re giving a behind-the-scenes look at your business or brand, a glimpse into your life, or other content that is purely entertainment, idea pins are only for…. ideas!
Can you add a link to Pinterest idea pins?
Unfortunately, at this time, Pinterest doesn’t allow anywhere to place a link back to your website.
This content creation tool is made for ideas and not self-promotion.
Wait — Before you give up on idea pins altogether, hear me out. Just because pinners can’t click through to your website, doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the effort.
Give the user a reason to follow you on Pinterest, leave a comment, or save your pin to one of their boards.
What you don’t want to do is add a link to your pin description or in a CTA at the end of your idea. In fact, Pinterest has recently advised against this and has said they may hinder the distribution of the pin because of it.
UPDATE: You can now tag products in your idea pins when publishing an idea using the iOS and Android app!
UPDATE 10/20/21: You can now tag Amazon affiliate links in your Pinterest idea pins.
Benefits of idea pins
If you can’t add a link to your website, what benefit are idea pins?
To increase followers on Pinterest — Pinterest is looking to engage with their users longer by keeping them on the platform. In return, they’ll help you gain followers.
However, new followers come at a price and you’ll have to put the work in. It’s time to get creative with your Pinterest idea pin strategy and design! By coming up with a clever idea, using high-quality video, and images, entice the pinner to want to learn more about your brand.
Like I mentioned previously, idea pins don’t allow you to click through to a website, however, they do direct you to follow the profile of the creator with a CTA at the end of the idea.
To reach more pinners outside of your target audience — Another benefit of creating idea pins is that Pinterest is more likely to show them to pinners outside of your target audience.
Beyond Pinterest SEO, when you create a Pinterest idea pin you’ll have the option to add up to 10 tags that are relevant to the engaging content you are publishing.
Pinterest analytics for idea pins
Pinterest has a new engagement-based system in place for deciding how to distribute your idea pins, so followers, comments, and saves now play a significant part in extending your reach on the platform.
One of their latest updates to analytics has been to Pinterest idea pins stats.
You can view not only impressions, pin clicks, and saves, but also follows and profile visits. Evidence that Pinterest is putting more emphasis on followers.
I personally love this new feature and think it’ll be super helpful for content creators who want to see conversions for all their hard work making Pinterest idea pins.
You’ll also have the ability to see where your audience is saving your idea pins, which is a great way to find inspiration for future content creation.
How to create the best Pinterest idea pins
There are many, many options these days in terms of video editing programs, so I’ll narrow it down to my favorite and most popular creation tools for Pinterest idea pins.
Canva Pro — The web-based Canva platform is my go-to for everything pin creation. It’s easy to use, user-friendly, and super intuitive for beginners just getting started in graphic design. For that reason, this makes Canva my favorite choice for creating outstanding, engaging Pinterest idea pins.
Using a few easy keyboard shortcuts and the best Canva elements keywords list for aesthetic illustrations you’ll be able to craft idea pins like a pro.
Best of all, you’re not limited to making idea pins either. You can repurpose your engaging content as Google Web Stories and more.
Pinterest Idea Pin Builder — Another popular option is to simply create your idea pin entirely on Pinterest. You can add text overlay, choose the layout for your idea pin, and customize the background and font colors.
Pinterest idea pin best practices
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s not a good idea to add a link in your pin description or to a page in your idea pin.
However, there are a few ways you can increase your chances of your pin being distributed to a wider audience.
- Use 5 or more frames in your idea pins — Pinners love having the ability to swipe to the next page of your idea if they wish.
- End your idea pin with a question — Try asking an open-ended question at the end of your idea pin to prompt the pinner to leave a comment (more comments = more engagement & distribution).
- Make your idea pin easy to read — This probably goes without saying, but always use fonts that are easy to read.
- Use high-quality images — Blurry, pixelated images are no fun. Be sure to always use high-quality images that properly showcase your idea.
- Tell a compelling story — This is your chance to show and tell pinners a compelling story that entices them to take action! Put thought into it and get creative!
Where to find Pinterest idea pin examples
Not really sure how to get started making Pinterest idea pins?
Start by first checking out Pinterest’s best practices for creating all types of pins.
You’ll also find tons of inspiration and idea pin examples at the following places:
- Here are 3 free Pinterest idea pin templates I made with you in mind!
- Pay a visit to Pinterest Today tab to glean inspiration for your next idea pin creation.
- Check out the Pinterest Idea Pin Inspiration Board on the platform to discover how other content creators are making their idea pins and to get an idea of popular aesthetics their using.
- Take note of what you like or dislike about the idea pins of other creators. I keep a secret board on Pinterest with pin design ideas I like, not to copy, but to pull certain aspects I like about them into my own designs.
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