How To Post Videos on Pinterest

Haley Durkee

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Posted On

August 9, 2023

Updated On

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Video content is quickly gaining steam as a top-tier medium for digital advertising. Pinterest's popularity centers around its use as a static visual discovery platform, but it is evolving. With a Pinterest Business Account, brands can add videos to boards to optimize reach and conversions. The significance of incorporating video into the mix of the visual search engine cannot be understated.

In this blog, we explore:

Why brands should add videos to Pinterest.
What brands should know about Pinterest Video Pins.
How to upload videos to Pinterest.
Why optimizing video on Pinterest matters.
How to promote ads on Pinterest with video.

Why Add Videos to Pinterest?

Seeing a product in action makes it easy for consumers to imagine a product in real life — and the more they can picture it, the more inclined pinners are to make a purchase. Alternatively, a quick video is an effective way for brands to tease content and build interest in new products. The effectiveness of video is even higher on a channel like Pinterest because most content in the main feed is static. Movement draws the eye toward it and, therefore, your potential customer's attention.

The Basics of Pinterest Video Pins

Pinterest Video Pins are a feature that allows users to share and discover videos within the Pinterest feed. While anyone can pin from other sources, only verified accounts can add native video content to the feed. Unlike regular static image pins, Video Pins provide users with an interactive and dynamic visual experience. if you want your content to appear in the feed as envisioned, your specs should be a combination of the following:

Format: Pinterest Video Pins are short-form videos that autoplay within the user's feed as they scroll. They can be between 4 seconds to 15 minutes, although shorter videos will result in higher engagement, and the recommended length by Pinterest for video ads is 6 to 15 seconds.
Aspect Ratio: These ratio guidelines provided by Pinterest for creating your Video Pins ensure that the video takes up a significant portion of the screen, effectively capturing the user's attention.
The ideal recommended aspect ratio for standard Pinterest Video Pins is 1:1 (square) or 2:3, 4:5 or 9:16 (vertical).

The required aspect ratio of Video Pins is:

Taller than 1.91:1 and shorter than 1:2.
Maximum video width of 1:1 (square) or 16.9 (widescreen) for paid promotion use.‍
File Type and Size: Various file types are acceptable for site upload. These include .mp4, .mov and .m4v; the max file size is 2GB.

Along with the creative video specs, there are a few other characteristics of Video Pins that you should consider when creating and uploading videos to Pinterest.

Autoplay: Video Pins on Pinterest have an autoplay feature, meaning they start playing automatically as the user scrolls. This feature helps to capture attention and encourages users to engage with the video content.
Sound: By default, Pinterest Video Pins play without sound. Users can tap on the video to enable sound to listen to the audio. Therefore, ensuring that the video content can be understood and enjoyed without relying heavily on audio cues is essential.
Thumbnail: Each Video Pin has a thumbnail image that serves as the initial visual representation of the video. The thumbnail should be visually compelling, enticing users to click and watch the video.
Captions and Text Overlays: To make videos more accessible and engaging, adding captions or text overlays is recommended. Captions help convey important information, key messages, or calls to action, even when the sound is off.
Mobile-Friendly: As most users access Pinterest via the app on mobile devices, it is crucial to create video content that is mobile-friendly and visually appealing on smaller screens. The caption text should be legible and have clear and vibrant visuals.
Engagement Options: Pinterest Video Pins provide various engagement options for users. They can save the video to their own boards, like, comment, and even click through to the linked website or landing page associated with the video pin.

By understanding the specs and characteristics of Pinterest Video Pins, content creators can optimize their videos to align with the platform's unique user experience and maximize engagement with their audience. Optimizing your content, video or otherwise, is extremely important on Pinterest. Pay attention to the caption and other text options to ensure you use keywords in order for your target audience to find you when they search. Implementing Pinterest SEO (search engine optimization) is crucial for the success of your Video Pins.

How to Upload Videos to Pinterest

Now comes the easy part, posting your videos on Pinterest. Once you’ve signed into your business account, follow these simple steps:

Navigate top left to the ‘Create’ drop-down menu
Click on ‘Create Pin’. On this screen, drag and drop or click the grey area to upload your video.
Select the video you want to upload; you may need to edit it if it exceeds Pinterest's maximum duration. Make any necessary adjustments and confirm.
Add an eye-catching title and video description with any relevant key terms.
Add music — this can be a royalty-free or licensed selection from their library.
Don’t skip adding in the video alt text. This description is for accessibility purposes and will be read aloud by screen readers or displayed if the video does not display. You have 500 characters here to describe your video.
Select the board or create a new one to organize the video into whatever category you want.
Lastly, enter a link for pinners to visit when they click on your video. Hit publish, and voila — it’s live.

Additionally, it's worth noting that you can also upload Ideal Pins, which can include video clips. Adding video content via Ideal Pins is a useful workaround for users who don't have a business account or aren't advertisers but still want to upload videos to Pinterest.

Optimizing Videos on Pinterest for Search

The text you include with your videos on Pinterest can impact performance significantly. Since Pinterest functions primarily as a search engine, incorporating relevant keywords into your title and description can help pinners discover your videos organically. Remember that there is a character count limit (100 characters for the title and 500 for the description). Still, since most people only see the first 40 characters in their feed depending on the device, making those characters count is essential.

The audio is a technical detail to remember when posting a video. People Pin whenever inspiration hits, which could be in situations where having the sound on isn’t an option. Therefore, it's wise to focus on visually-driven content. However, if audio is an essential element of your video, adding captions for any dialogue can effectively capture pinners' attention and make your message more accessible to them.

Other checklist considerations for optimizing video content for search include:

Relevant hashtags: These can be used in the video's title, description and tags to increase discoverability.
Clear call-to-action: Encourage engagement through calls-to-action in the video description. What do you want your audience to do once they find and watch your content?
Board categorization: Pin your video on the most relevant board. Proper organization of content will help with visibility.

Promoting Pinterest Video Content With Ads

When your Pinterest video resonates with your audience, boosting it to an even larger one is an opportunity to optimize for ROI. Similar to the process for promoting content on other social channels, promoting a video on Pinterest is as easy as clicking a button. What separates it from the others is that promoted content can be sized bigger, reaching more feeds and standing out more significantly. When utilizing Pinterest advertising to promote your content, it's important to note that paid ads can have a unique aspect ratio of 16:9 (widescreen), which differs from the standard video size — always keep a backup of your videos for this reason. Thinking ahead can save you time and effort when implementing your advertising campaigns on Pinterest.

Pinterest provides much flexibility for brands to customize how a video is promoted, so your content can be used for anything from awareness to conversion campaigns. You can choose if it appears in search results, in-feed, or in a related pin's ‘more like this’ section. Select a specific audience, keyword or interest to associate with to narrow your target even further. These options give marketers the easiest route to the people they genuinely want to reach to maximize conversions.

Measuring Pinterest Success With Dash Hudson

Tracking video performance using in platform Pinterest Analytics is simple, but if you want to do more than track performance, Dash Hudson’s Pinterest Insights is the solution. Dash Hudson’s Pinterest Insights tool allows you to report on performance and easily identify, optimize and curate content that will drive conversions and traffic using AI-powered predictions.

For reporting and strategy planning, segment and filter your Pin data to quickly find trends and insights by date range, boards, categories, clicks and more. Monitor key Pinterest metrics such as engagements, views and click-through rates of images and videos to help you identify what’s working and what’s not. Discovering what truly resonates with your audience is the key to knowing how to optimize future videos for success.

FAQs

How do I upload a video from my phone to Pinterest?

To upload a video from your phone to Pinterest, follow these steps:

Open the Pinterest app on your phone and locate the ‘+’ sign to create a new Pin.
Select the video file you want to upload.
Once you've filled in all the necessary description details with a link, call-to-action and hashtags, tap the ‘Publish’ or ‘Save’ button (depending on your device) to upload your video to Pinterest.

Why can't I add videos to Pinterest?

If you’re experiencing problems adding videos to Pinterest, it could be for several reasons. Common issues include unsupported file formats, exceeding file size limitations, account restrictions, technical issues, or geographical restrictions. Check the file format, size and if your account type allows the feature. Contact Pinterest support for assistance if you still can't figure it out.