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Are you using Idea Pins? Formerly Story Pins, Idea Pins are similar to Facebook or Instagram Stories – they are there to showcase behind the scenes moments, ideas behind pins, or really whatever you’d like to showcase as an Idea Pin. It is an organic piece of content that can feature multiple pages or video and image content, meant to tell a story and inspire Pinners. The latest news about Idea Pins is that they can now be run as ads, or a creator can tag a brand partner if they are working with a brand through a paid partnership. Sound cool? It is! It’s always fun when Pinterest rolls out extra features. Read on to learn more about Idea Pins & paid partnerships.
Idea Pin Ads
When a business may want to share an Idea Pin content beyond its followers, they can then promote the content as an Idea ad to a specific target audience. Since it is an ad, you can then measure its performance on Pinterest’s ad platform. Idea ads are designed to help encourage an action – they can include images, videos, a URL destination and you can also click to follow a business account through the ad.
There are two ways that Idea ads work. You can create one for your business and promote it, or they can be posted by a creator and promoted by a business via a paid partnership. You’ve likely seen these types of ads run on Instagram or Facebook as well.
You can create Idea ads a few different ways – you can use the Pin Builder on the Pinterest mobile app, or use the Ads Manager on Desktop. See the steps below, pulled directly from this article here on Pinterest, on how to create the ads.
Pin Builder Steps:
- Create and publish an Idea Pin on the Pinterest mobile app
- Log into your Pinterest business account on desktop
- Click Create in the top navigation menu, then select Create ad
- Create your campaign in Ads Manager
- Click Select Pins for your ad, filter by format type and select Idea. Select your Idea Pin
- Add a Destination URL, Pin title, and preview the ad
- Click Publish
Ads Manager Steps:
- Log into your Pinterest business account on desktop
- Click Create in the top navigation menu, then click Create ad
- Create your campaign
- Select Create Idea Pin, follow the steps to create an Idea Pin.
- Add a Destination URL, Pin title, and preview the ad
- Click Publish
Wondering about Idea ad specs? The aspect ratio is rendered 9:16, but Pinterest doesn’t have any restrictions for image or video. You can include up to 100 characters on the Idea ad, and if you’re creating a video, it should be between 1-60 seconds.
Idea Pin Paid Partnerships
If you want to create an Idea ad with a paid partnership, that is possible as well. Creators can tag a business in the Idea pin, and the business can then promote this Idea pin to create an Idea ad. Idea ads can be great, because it means the content can be seen by a much larger audience rather than just the creator’s following. When Pinners see a paid partnership Idea ad, they can follow the creator, save the Pin, and visit the URL in the ad. Once the creator has posted the Idea pin and tagged the brand as a business partner, the brand can then promote the Idea pin as an ad through the Ads Manager or the Ads API.
What do you think about this new feature? Do you plan on utilizing Idea pins as ads? If you have any questions on this or need help with your Pinterest marketing strategy, I’m always here to help!
