With over 200 million users and an astounding 100 billion pins, Pinterest has become an information discovery phenom in its own right.
[bctt tweet="#Pinterest is launching new max width video ads to marketers worldwide today. Here's what you need to know. #marketing" username="relevance"]
Brands have been attracted to the site for years for its wide audience base and visual marketing opportunities and now, the company is giving brands even more incentive to use the site as a content promotion platform.
A few months ago, Pinterest began testing new max. width promoted video ads as a way to boost audience response and engagement. Now, the company is officially rolling out the new video ad format to marketers worldwide.
As explained by Pinterest, marketers will able to choose from two formats for showcasing videos on the app; the normal standard width videos, which are the same size as regular pins, and the new max. width videos, which are 4x bigger and span across the app’s two column grid.
When it comes to promotional video content, bigger is almost always better and audiences will generally be more inclined to engage with high-impact, visually sharp video ads.
Pinterest has already seen increased engagement rates for the higher width videos, with advertisers and brands reporting higher brand awareness metrics and more marketable costs-per-view during test runs.
Pinterest included the following stats in a blog post announcement,
“UK retailer John Lewis saw a 20% increase in awareness and 33% increase in purchase intent in a campaign promoting their new nursery collection. In a recent World Cup max. width video campaign, one of adidas' videos saw a 12.6% lift in ad awareness amongst those who viewed the video.”
The company also noted that a CPG brand saw a 23% share increase in brand association for their max width video. Warner bros also saw similar success using Promoted Video at max for a campaign promoting their upcoming film, Crazy Rich Asians.
Higher width videos are definitely attention grabbers but without some inventive creativity and smart design planning, your larger promotional video can have a negative effect on ad-weary audiences. Thankfully, Pinterest provided some tips on how to keep your 4x Promoted video engaging and fun to watch.
Pinterest’s advice can be applied to nearly any video campaign you decide to roll out. Your audience should know who you are right off the bat. Don’t wait until the middle or end to show off your logo or branding, especially if the video runs longer than 10 seconds.
It can be easy to get stuck in a content saturation trap, especially if the service or product you’re pitching is a little more complex.
It’s true that it may be slightly easier for a soft drink company to create a video ad promoting their new drink compared to an SEO company promoting their new AI solution however, your message needs to be as short as possible regardless.
If you think of one central idea, message, or even logline and stay focused on it for the duration of the content creation process, then your ad will perform much better in the content promotion stages.
In a nutshell, don’t over-complicate your messages and you’ll see the responses you’re looking for.
New technology and tools like Pinterest’s Promoted video at max. width are wonderful but without a strong idea or message, the time spent learning and adapting to the tool or feature is wasted.
Pinterest has been reporting incredible results for its expanded video width so it’s definitely worth checking out, so long as you take the time to pre-plan your campaigns and develop a strong branded message before you leap into the deep end.
Will you try out Pinterest's new video ad option? Let us know why or why not in the comments!
