What is a carousel pin?

This format can present a product’s numerous features, drive additional purchases by showing multiple items in a pin or increase awareness with a multi-image brand story.

 

What's the benefit of carousel pins to pinners?

The Carousel pin gives you the opportunity to show Pinners other colors that your products are available in.

 

What are some examples of what it looks like?

 

NEW! Introducing Promoted (Ad) Carousel on Pinterest for All Businesses!

Have you heard about Pinterest’s newest pin called a Carousel Pin? I noticed this feature when I was uploading an image to a Pinterest account we were managing. You may have seen it yourself as well; shown in the image below.

Pinterest hadn’t formally announced anything about it yet but I thought this looked cool and immediately my brain was deciphering different ways that businesses can use it. This morning I checked Pinterest’s blog and bingo! I saw an official announcement.

Here’s what Pinterest released:

People on Pinterest are uniquely open to inspiration and discovery, so Promoted Carousel  ads allow businesses to tap into that mindset with immersive experiences that create excitement for their products and services.

Why I love the Carousel pins!

As you know images on Pinterest that are longer than 1,260 pixels get truncated meaning they get cut off. What that means is Pinterest users have to click on the image to see the full image. According to Pinterest they prefer that your pins aren’t longer than 1,260 because they think they will perform better.

My Pinterest expert experience has taught me that pins that show multiple products within a pin or a step by step tutorial within a pin always gets more saves. It’s been a real challenge to be able to create multi-product shots and step by step tutorials in a pin that is sized 1,260. But because of the Carousel pins this problem is now solved. Let me explain to you what I mean…just keep reading.

Pinterest Lets Businesses Promote Multiple Products in a Single Ad

Another reason I love the Carousel pins is that you’ll get more bang for your buck if you choose to apply them to Promoted Pins (ads). Instead of just promoting one image you now have the opportunity to showcase up to five of your products and services, and pay the same price! So if you decide to invest in Pinterest ads make sure you’re promoting your Carousel pins and not just your standards pins or videos.

How does it work?

• It is available for all business accounts in each of Pinterest’s ad markets.
• You can use it in your Promoted Pins campaigns.
• You can put up to 5 images within a single pin.
• Pinterest expert observation: you have to add your board title and pin description in the first image. You cannot use a different title and a different pin descriptions to every image.
• You cannot edit the Carousel pin once it has been saved on Pinterest.
• Pinners see a Carousel pin in their feed just like any other pin.
• On mobile devices users can swipe through the Carousel cards directly from their feed.
• Users can also tap the Carousel to see the image and landing page.
• One of the downside is that when you schedule your Carousel pins only the first image will get published…bummer:(

Examples and Success Stories about How Brands Are Using Carousel Pins

Here are some examples from brands that have used the new feature before it was released to the general public.

The Carousel pins give you the opportunity to show features of your product up-close that Pinners may not see in a single image.

Away https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/501095896035440831/

The Carousel pin gives you the opportunity to show Pinners other colors that your products are available in. I think Away could have a done a better job by adding text overlay on some of the image to highlight what makes their luggage special. 

Everlane https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/209628557641933468/

Everlane’s Carousel campaign for their authentic stretch jeans also drove 300% more engagement compared to their normal pins.

The Carousel pin gives you the opportunity to show all sides of your products. Here you can see the jeans on different body shapes, how they looks from the front, side, and back.

Cheerios https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/131800726580548502/

Cheerios’ Promoted Carousel campaign centered on kindness led to an 11.4 point lift in ad awareness and an 8.6 point lift in message association.

Carousel pins are an opportunity to show the different ways to use your products. As a Pinterest expert I like the helpfulness approach here.

REI https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/197665871132410487/

According to Jaclyn Ruckle Social Media Manager, REI “Pinterest and REI both inspire people to try new experiences. Promoted Carousel allows us to serve up multiple products and experiences in one place to engage the planning mindset of Pinterest’s audience. Our Carousel campaign showed strong engagement and boosted our click-through-rate by 32%”.

Carousel pins gives you an opportunity to create inspiration. However, I think in this case REI could have done a better job. Their first image in the Carousel pin doesn’t show people on the ski lift. At a glance it just looks like skis. They should have used the second image as the first and added text overlay.

COVERGIRL https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/486318459757567356/

COVERGIRL saw an opportunity to highlight every shade of their new TruBlend foundation with Promoted Carousel, and it paid off with a 3.8 point lift in brand awareness and a 6.1 point lift in ad awareness.

Carousel pins give you the opportunity to show the benefits of using your products.

What are the different ways to create Carousel Pins?

I mentioned earlier that it can get really challenging to show a step by step tutorial or show multiple products in a pin because of the size limitations Pinterest recommends. Here’s how we created this step by step tutorial.

Step 1: Go to the top right corner and click “CREATE CAROUSEL”

Step 2: Upload your images. The first image you upload must be the main image you want to showcase.

Step 3: Go back to your main image (first image you uploaded) and fill in the title, pin description, add website URL, and board you want to save it to. 

See how we created a step by step DIY craft tutorial https://www.pinterest.com/pin/582653270518216790/

See how we created a recipe Carousel pins https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/94646029655612569/

Pinterest Expert Actionable Tips:

Since you can only add one pin description it’s prudent that you add text overlay on the individual images. This is especially important when showing multi-product shots and of course with step by step tutorials.

Step 4:

• Add the rest of your images.
• Add the website URL on the second image.
• Click “SAVE”.

There are several possibilities with Carousel pins! Bottom line Carousel pins are going to be a hit. I believe they will get more clicks and engagement compared to regular pins. They do take some time to create but remember that on Pinterest quality is better than quantity.

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