In today’s episode, we are talking about something that has been such a huge topic of conversation: creating Pinterest video pins. We’re diving into how to create them, how to get views and clicks, and current best practices.
Ready to dive in?
At SPM, we’ve been working behind-the-scenes for a couple of months on a beta program for video pin creation. The first question we wanted to answer was:
Do video pins actually drive traffic?
While a pin can be really beautiful, and people can enjoy it and maybe even save it for later, the main goal is to get those conversions. That’s what leads to eyes on your products and content.
So, to answer all your questions about video pin creation, I’m chatting with our former creative director, Tina, who’s been running the beta program. She’s going to share all that she’s learned up to this point.
Stick around, because she’ll also be sharing three keys for creating your own video pins that convert.
Before we dig into today’s content…if you have not downloaded the Simple Pin Pinterest Marketing Planner, do it! It’s over 20 pages of monthly trends, stats tracking, checklists, tips, and so much more.
Simple Pin’s Image Team
The image department at SPM has exploded in the last year.
Pinterest has said that they are prioritizing new images as fresh content, so it makes sense that our company is seeing an increase in the number of clients seeking out image creation services. It’s so exciting to be taking on more image clients!
The department is still relatively small. It consists of three designers (Quincy, Megan and Katie), and the rock star administrative assistant (Amber).
A Passion for Analytics Data
Diving into video pins was a whole new beast for this team to take on.
Tina is as much of an analytics girl as she is a creative wiz. She believes that when creatives and analytics work together, it “creates magic”.
Our team wanted to have hardcore analytics data in place from the video pin beta program before the service officially launched. The ultimate goal for the service is for the team to create and design data-driven video pin creatives for our clients.
Related: Why Analytics Should be Defining Your Pinterest Strategy
Awhile back, I recorded a podcast episode with Jennifer Grayeb where we talked all about analytics. Something Jennifer said in that episode really stuck with Tina:
Data is objective, it’s not emotional.
It’s so easy to get hung up on what we THINK is best for our audience, but we have to focus on what the numbers are telling us in order to actually KNOW.
If we’re not using analytics to inform our image creation strategy, then we’re missing the opportunity to hand-deliver to our audience exactly what they want more of. — Tina
Creating Pinterest Video Pins that Convert
Our Video Pin Creation Service Beta Program
The team opened the beta program to a handful of SPM clients. They tested the following variables:
- video pin sizes
- audio vs. no audio
- video length
- design techniques
Tina has been a little frustrated with video since it launched on Pinterest. Unlike best practices for standard Pinterest images, Pinterest’s Best Practices for video pins are much less specific.
This meant that the Creative Team had to test many variables to determine what works best.
Beta Testing Results
Image Size
Once they tested the different variables, the biggest shock for Tina was the finding that square videos perform well. She didn’t think they would, since Pinterest loves vertical images.
When she investigated further, Tina noticed that video pins look different on desktop than they do on mobile devices. Whenever there was a square video on mobile, it was taking up the spot of two vertical pins, so it was front and center on the app. So it makes sense that square videos would lead to more engagement and clicks.
The team also noted that there weren’t many clicks on horizontal videos. These are the type of videos you see when people import Youtube videos on Pinterest.
Related: Explode YouTube Traffic with Pinterest
When they tested various sizes out across different industries and niches, square videos and 9×16 (a little longer than typical vertical pins) worked best across the board but varied as to which size worked for which niche.
Bottom line: There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to which size performs best. This is why testing is so important.
Video Length
Your videos need to be 40 seconds or less. Our team found that anything longer simply doesn’t work on Pinterest, regardless of industry. The sweet spot was a video length between 30 and 40 seconds.
Tina recommends that you keep your videos between 15 and 40 seconds. This allows you to paint a complete story with your video without giving away too little or too much.
If you have longer videos that you feel will be helpful for your audience, you can embed them on your website post/page. Share a shorter snippet on Pinterest.
A bonus of going shorter is that it will take less time to upload your video to Pinterest!
Sound
When audio was included on a pin, it resulted in decreased clicks across the board. The pinners don’t want it. It wasn’t of any value and took too much time away from the creator to add it to the video.
CTA
Anything you say to encourage and inspire the audience to take action is a call to action (CTA).
Having a call to action always resulted in higher-performing pins. “Shop Now,” “Start Cooking,” and “Download This” are all great calls to action to include on your video pins.
Clicks will be higher on video pins that include CTAs.
Clicks Vs. Saves
Going into this, Tina felt like clicks might be lower on these video pins because of the information that videos can give away without requiring a click.
Clicks on video pins were lower than standard pins as a whole. But there’s a caveat: saves were higher on video pins. This justifies including video pins as a part of the Pinterest marketer’s toolbox. They build brand awareness and credibility.
Pinners don’t always take action right away. That’s why Pinterest is a slow burn. These saves likely lead to more clicks down the line.
Related: Reporting Pinterest Statistics to Brands
Tools for Creating Video Pins
The team tested a lot of different pin creation tools throughout the process.
Adobe Premiere is Tina’s favorite program to create video pins. Canva enables users to create animated pins. But just because a pin “moves”, that doesn’t mean it’s serving your client and audience well.
Adobe can feel very overwhelming to most people. But there are a lot of tutorials on how to create a video within Adobe. Once you get the hang of it, you’re able to create and save your templates, which makes pin creation go much faster.
Canva also has a paid version with tons more options and features. They offer a 30-day free trial here!
Creating Pinterest Video Pins: Our 3 Top Tips
Tina encourages you to dot three things when you’re ready to create video pins on Pinterest:
- test your sizes. You always want to do what’s best for your business, and testing is the only way to know that;
- always have a strong call to action;
- avoid audio.
Bonus Tip: Create specifically for the mobile experience. Take a moment and upload your pin to your phone before promoting it with your audience. Look at the image quality and your text overlay. If image quality is poor and/or the text is difficult to read, it will work against you.
We hope these tips have been helpful to you. The launch date for our video pin creation was March 30th!
You can utilize these services by going to our Video Pin Design Services page. You can also reach out for help with standard image creation here. We’re always glad to talk with you and figure out exactly what you need.
For Further Listening/Reading:
Hi Kate, This was a great podcast and very helpful. I have a question about CTA. Should this be actual text on your pin, or embedded in the video? If it’s embedded in the video should it be in the beginning or at the end of the 40 second video? Thanks for your help!!
Great question! The CTA can be either be right on the pin or embedded at the end of the video. It’s not so much an issue of where it’s placed but that it’s included. As far as where to place it we would suggest at the end of the video. The reason for this is that the video acts to “warm” your audience and they’re more likely to convert after they’ve seen the value of your service/product vs. before they have the context.
Hello!
I’ve been trying out the square videos as suggested, however when I go to the homepage on Pinterest, the square vdeos occupy much less space than any other format. It doesn’t take the space of 2 pins like suggested above.
Any information on this? Has Pinterest maybe updated this feature on mobile?
Thanks! 🙂
Yes, only square promoted pins will be granted the extra “real estate” (i.e. 2-columns) on Pinterest. So the ones you are looking at on the feed haven’t been promoted 🙂
Hi Kate, great article. I have a question about the file size/quality of videos for Pinterest. How do you manage to get the file size under 2mb but not lose quality? I am editing in Kinemaster. Thanks Gen
Gen, I am not familiar with Kinemaster so can’t advise you. You might reach out to their support for help.