Shopping Spotlight
Introducing Shopping Spotlight, a shoppable feature that brings your on-trend and seasonal content to one of the most trafficked surfaces on Pinterest.
Your shoppable ideas and products, showcased as Pins, appear on the search landing page for people on Pinterest to not only discover new ideas but to act seamlessly on them as well. It’s a place that captures the joy of the full shopping experience, from tutorials and how-tos to product roundups and picks, created in partnership with you.
Share your product-linked Pins on a board for consideration.
How it works
The steps for kicking off your own Shopping Spotlight.
The criteria
Creators and brands first need to ensure that your content meets the following criteria.
✔️ Your topic is a highly-searched term during the desired amplification period.
✔️ You are willing to select Pinterest content, namely Product Pins and image Pins, to be featured in the Spotlight.
The pitch
6-8 weeks out from proposed live day
Submit your board with product-linked Pins for consideration.
Pinterest approval
6 weeks out
Once your pitch is approved, the Pinterest team will reach out to confirm interest and to schedule a kickoff meeting.
Content development
3 weeks out
Based on the concepts agreed on in the kickoff meeting, you prepare and produce your content.
Final prep
1 week out
The Pinterest team creates the Shopping Spotlight, schedules it to launch one week before the live date, then shares the link with you.
Showtime
Launch day
Your Shopping Spotlight is live!
Tips for shoppable videos that perform
Essentials for creating and optimizing your videos. Hint: product tags* required.
Creating your content
Start off strong
The first 10 seconds are really important to hook and engage your audience. Try catchy images or a final product reveal rather than a to-camera intro. And keep the content succinct overall, aiming for 45 to 90 seconds in length.
Provide context
If shoppable content is your goal, remember to include context for your audience to keep them interested. So beyond straight-up inspiration, make sure your content is also useful and worth saving.
Think golden (video) ratio
Videos with vertical and square orientation tend to get better engagement on mobile than videos shot horizontally. The latter also displays smaller in feeds, so best to go for a vertical or square aspect ratio.
Editing your content
Add text
Some viewers play videos with the sound off. Make sure they can still understand your videos without voiceover or audio by adding text overlay and captions.
*Tag products
Product tagging enables you to tag individual shoppable products within a Pin, to help your audience be one tap away in moving from inspiration to action. (Please note product tagging is only available in-app.)
You’ll need to have an existing partnership with an affiliate program to monetize with product tags. Your commission will depend on the terms you’ve set up with external merchants or programs.
Pro tip: If your video includes multiple product tags, consider also creating individual product Pins as a way to benefit from additional promotional opportunities—and affiliate commission.
Optimizing your content
Put your best frame forward
Not all video Pins autoplay on the feed page, so selecting a helpful, visually appealing cover photo that conveys what the video is about will help your Pin stand out from the crowd.
Write a strategic title
The best titles are short, clear and actionable. There’s no need to get overly creative or to beat around the bush with them. Think about what the key takeaway of your content is, then work backwards to understand what people might search for to find it.
Some title formats to try: “Best/top of…” “3 ways of…”“How to...” “Surprising/unexpected tips from…”
Fill in the blanks
All the details about a Pin provides more context so that people can better discover your content. Take advantage of the available fields for titles, details and descriptions on Pins, in addition to topic tags, board titles and board descriptions. And save your Pin to a relevant board. After all, the more info you add (or associate your Pin to), the better.
More resources
Align your content planning with upcoming themes and moments by checking out our content calendar.
Make use of the trends tool to get inspiration for trending keywords. Apply your learnings to your content to help increase engagement.
Discover what people on Pinterest are looking for by typing keywords in the search bar—then see the results in the search box. Leverage the organic buzz around those topics.
Dig into the interests of your existing and potential followers by looking at the data in your Audience Insights dashboard, available only on desktop.