Did you know there are multiple Pinterest pin types? And better yet, did you know that you should be using ALL of them in your Pinterest marketing strategy?
Gone are the days of only using a standard image pin. Now, users are encouraged to use video, carousels, shop and Idea pins.
Similar to Instagram, where you are being rewarded in the algorithm for using Reels, Pinterest is doing the same with their different pin types so if you’re really looking for results, diversifying your pin types can give you that boost you’re looking for!
5 Pinterest Pin Types and How to Use them
Wanna watch and learn? Click below for the full video!
How To Use Standard Pinterest Pins
To start, we’ve got the standard pin. This is what we’re all used to right? Just an image, usually with text telling us what the pin is about.
The key thing to remember when using a standard pin is per Pinterest best practices, they should always be vertical with a 2:3 aspect ratio.
Standard pins are easily the most used pin type – they’re the OG when it comes to Pinterest and, I think it’s safe to say, it’s what users are most accustomed to engaging with.
You can use standard pin images for any scenario in your strategy – product, blog post or content, courses, recipes – the options are endless.
How to Use Pinterest Carousel Pin
The second pin type we’re going to talk about is the carousel pin. Think Instagram carousel post but better!
For the Pinterest carousel pins, you can use up to 5 images, and the best part is that you can link each carousel image to a different page on your website!
So how do we do this? The idea here is that we can group similar content/products together into one post for a bigger bang for your buck essentially!
There are literally 100’s of ways you can use this depending on what kind of business you have. For instance an ecommerce product seller may do a carousel pin for the launch of their spring line – each pin can link to a different product. Or, if you’re an online service provider, each pin can link to a different service! I love the ways you can get creative with this one.
How to Use Pinterest Video Pin
The 3rd pin type is the video pin. Now, it’s no lie, video is all the rage. Short form video is truly becoming how we like to consume our content. Just think of IG reels and TikTok – Pinterest is no different.
The video pin was created to allow just that – a pin where we can share your content in a short video form for users to consume while also increasing engagement.
Also, when it comes to video pins, there’s no reason to recreate the wheel here. For instance, if you create a lot of Instagram stories or reels, repurpose those for a video pin on Pinterest! And if you’re familiar with Canva, you can also use the animation tools there to animate your standard pin images, essentially creating a video.
How to Use Pinterest Shop Pin
The 4th pin type on Pinterest is the shop pin. When you upload an image for a standard pin, you have the option to tag products. This is a GREAT pin type if you are a product seller.
Now of course, you can create pins and send the traffic to your product page, but what I love about shop pins is that you can tag several products within an image.
So for example. If you sell women’s clothing, you may have an image of a model wearing several different items. Within the shop pin, you can tag each one of those products.
And bonus here for all of you affiliate sellers, you can tag affiliate links!! Not ALL affiliate links work, so you’ll have to test each one, but if you do get them to work, it’s a great way to make affiliate income inside your business.
How to Use Pinterest Idea Pin
The last and finally pin type? Idea pins. Now, I’ve saved the newest for last. The Idea pin is the new kid on the block here, but similar to other platforms who reward you for using their new features, the same thing is happening on Pinterest with Idea Pins. Think of Idea Pins in a similar way to Instagram Stories, however, the best part, they don’t disappear after 24 hours! They are intended to inspire action so they remain available and searchable forever!
When Idea Pins first launched, even though you were being rewarded for sharing them in the algorithm, not many people were happy creating them and that’s because Idea Pins did not have the ability for you to add a link to drive people to your website.
WHAT?! Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose?
Well, good news for those of you watching this video because in late 2022 Pinterest announced that links were in fact coming to Idea Pins in 2023! And as of April 2023, they’ve begun rolling out the link option to accounts. Check yours today to see if you have it yet!
BONUS NOTE ON IDEA PINS
From working with multiple clients inside my Pinterest marketing agency, I can say that Idea pins are largely driving growth and engagement right now on the platform. There are just so many ways to use them and now that they’re going to have links, the possibilities are nearly endless.
A few ways to add them to your Pinterest strategy, if you’re a service provider, you could have a title slide for 4 different ways to work with you and then each additional slide talks about each service separately. If you’re a product seller, maybe you sell gift boxes, you could do an Idea pin for 5 different teacher gift box ideas.
If you want to learn more about Idea Pins and how they’re working on Pinterest right now, check out this post all about Idea Pins.
Wrap up
To reiterate, there are 5 pin types on Pinterest:
- Standard in
- Carousel Pin
- Video Pin
- Shop Pin
- Idea Pin
And all of them have a place within your strategy!
Questions? Drop me a line.
Until next time, happy pinning!
