Pinterest Idea Pins and Standard Pins represent two distinct ways to share content on the platform, each serving different stages of the user discovery journey. Choosing between them depends on whether your goal is to drive immediate traffic to an external website or to build deeper engagement through multi-page storytelling. While standard pins function as traditional bookmarks for products or blog posts, Idea Pins act as immersive, native experiences designed to capture attention directly within the app.
What are the core differences in format?
Standard pins function as a digital bridge between the Pinterest environment and your website or landing page. When a user interacts with a standard pin, the interface is designed to facilitate a click-through, making it the primary tool for e-commerce conversion or blog traffic generation. You create these using a single image or video, attaching a direct link that leads the user away from the app to a destination of your choosing. This makes them the standard workhorse for any brand looking to increase domain authority and direct sales volume.
Idea Pins serve an entirely different purpose by prioritizing the consumption of content within the Pinterest ecosystem. They allow for multi-page video and image publishing, enabling creators to build a narrative sequence that users swipe through without ever leaving the platform. This format uses native editing tools within Pinterest, such as text overlays, music, and interactive elements, to keep users engaged for longer periods. Because these pins are designed to be consumed in-feed, they focus on educating or entertaining the user, which often leads to higher save and engagement rates rather than immediate outbound clicks.
How do you choose between Idea Pins and Standard Pins?
The decision to use one over the other should align with your specific marketing objective for a given campaign. If your current focus is bottom-of-funnel activity, such as driving customers to a product page for a checkout, standard pins are the better choice. They remove friction for the user by presenting a clear path to your storefront. For example, a Shopify store selling home decor might use standard pins to showcase high-quality photos of items that link directly to specific product purchase pages.
If your goal is top-of-funnel brand awareness or community building, Idea Pins are superior. By providing educational content, tutorials, or behind-the-scenes glimpses, you establish authority in your niche. A typical account might use Idea Pins to share a five-page tutorial on how to style a living room, which encourages viewers to follow the account for more inspiration. This builds a loyal audience that is more likely to engage with your future content, even if they do not purchase immediately.
Which format delivers better visibility?
Visibility on Pinterest is often tied to how well your content aligns with user intent. Standard pins are highly searchable because they are frequently tied to specific keywords and categories that users browse when they have a clear goal in mind. When someone searches for a specific item, such as a mid-century modern coffee table, a well-optimized standard pin is likely to appear in the search results. This makes them essential for long-term discovery as they remain searchable long after they are posted.
Idea Pins tend to get a significant boost in feed visibility shortly after publishing because the platform prioritizes native, immersive content. Because they allow for multi-page storytelling, the algorithm can track engagement signals like completion rates and saves across the entire pin set. While they might not be as evergreen as a classic search-optimized pin, they are excellent for reaching new audiences who are browsing their home feed rather than searching for specific terms.
How to optimize your content strategy
- Use standard pins for direct product links and driving traffic to your blog or e-commerce store.
- Utilize Idea Pins for tutorials, quick tips, and brand storytelling that keeps users on the platform.
- Ensure your images for standard pins are high-resolution and include clear text overlays if the visual needs context.
- Take advantage of native editing tools in Idea Pins to add music and transitions that make the content feel more personal and dynamic.
- Always maintain a balance of both formats to capture different audience segments throughout their decision-making process.
How Alien Road applies these formats
At Alien Road, we approach every Pinterest campaign by first auditing the client’s current content library and business goals. In a typical engagement, we segment content into two streams: one for traffic generation and one for audience education. For a client focusing on lead generation, we prioritize standard pins that lead to high-converting landing pages, ensuring every pin has a clear call to action and a corresponding keyword-optimized title and description.
Simultaneously, we design an Idea Pin strategy that mirrors the brand’s messaging but in a non-salesy, value-first format. For example, we might repurpose a long-form blog post into a five-page Idea Pin that provides quick, actionable takeaways. This multi-layered approach ensures that the brand remains visible both to people actively searching for solutions and to those casually browsing the platform. We constantly review the engagement metrics to see which format is performing better for specific categories.
Are there specific technical requirements to consider?
Technical specifications play a major role in how your content is displayed to users. Standard pins perform best when they follow the platform’s recommended aspect ratio, typically 2:3, to ensure they look clean in the vertical feed. You should also ensure that your website has the necessary metadata enabled so that when a user clicks through, the landing page is mobile-optimized and loads quickly.
Idea Pins require a bit more attention to detail because of their multi-page nature. Since they allow for both video and static images, you need to make sure the transition between pages is smooth. Using the native editing tools within Pinterest is often recommended because it ensures the content is optimized for the platform’s current interface. Keeping the file sizes manageable is also important to prevent lag during the user’s swipe experience.
Checklist for your next upload
- Verify the goal: Are you looking for a click or for engagement and saves?
- Select the format: Standard pin for traffic, Idea Pin for brand storytelling.
- Optimize the visuals: Use vertical 2:3 ratios for the best visual experience on mobile devices.
- Add relevant keywords: Ensure your title and description include terms your target audience is searching for.
- Review engagement: Check your analytics to see which format is driving the metrics that matter most to your current business objectives.
Where to start this week?
Start your week by reviewing your top five performing pins from the last month in your Pinterest analytics dashboard. Identify whether these were standard or Idea pins and look for patterns in the type of content that resonated with your audience. Once you have this baseline, pick one product or topic and create one of each format to compare their performance over the next seven days. This simple A/B test will give you immediate insight into which format your specific audience prefers, allowing you to refine your content calendar for the rest of the quarter.
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