What are Idea Pins? and What Happened to them?!

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If you’re here to figure out What Idea Pins are or why they’re not quite hitting the mark for you? Don’t worry, I got you covered. Let me spill on everything that went down with the latest algorithm update. You won’t believe which type of pin is the new winner!

Here is a tiny break down of what we are going to talk about in this post.

• What are Idea Pins?
• What changed with Idea Pins?
• How to Improve Engagement Levels Now?
• Conclusion

So if you are an active Pinterest marketer, you will definitely have heard of idea pins on Pinterest. There was a huge increase in engagement levels for users who began posting idea pins and the algorithm automatically sent a lot more traffic to these pages. 

“But WHAT HAPPENED???”

All of a sudden Pinterest stopped allowing certain users to post idea pins and some users were still able to post them. There was a lot of confusion at the start about this and everyone was overwhelmed by it. But don’t worry, your Pinterest most definitely isn’t broken. I’ve figured it out. So let me explain it to you step by step. 

What are Idea Pins?

So first, for those of you who are not aware, idea pins are basically a tool that Pinterest introduced a while ago to help improve engagement levels on Pinterest. There were huge increases in monthly views and followers for Pinners that used idea pins and there was such a huge hype about it. Any and every big Pinterest user would have recommended you to post these than imagepins because that was the best way to optimize our accounts based on the Pinterest algorithm at the time. Although Idea pins didn’t allow us to add a link to each pin, they were still tremendously helpful in improving engagement levels.

However, all this changed in mid 2023 when Pinterest decided to change its Algorithm- yet again!

“Idea pins were no longer what I could rely on for engagement to grow my traffic anymore.”

Ovini

Let me explain..

What Changed with Idea Pins?

So Pinterest made it a weirdly distributed update. Instead of making it a standardized update for all Pinterest accounts, they split the changes. Some users could still post ideapins. And what’s even better was, you could even add a link to each of your ideapins as well! That made a huge difference since it meant the idea pins could now attract traffic as well instead of just engagement. The other half of users got a completely different update. Idea pins completely disappeared for them. And the previously posted idea pins were turned into video pins instead. 

The only difference between idea pins and video pins at this point were how ideapins can have multiple slides while a video pin was just 1 full video. So to be more straightforward about it, users who still had the idea pin function should stop posting ideapins and just opt for videopins. Because they were basically the same thing at this point. The fact that Pinterest was making this change also sort of indicated that ideapins would eventually lose its boost in engagement. So video pins were definitely the way to go.

How to Improve Engagement Levels Now ?

Idea pins Vs Video Pins

With ideapins out the window, I’m sure you’re curious as to how on earth you’re supposed to up your engagement levels fast. Worry not! I’ve got you covered, videopins can still save you all that time. As these still attract a lot of engagement to your account.

But remember, just as important as engagement levels are, attracting traffic is the main goal. And without engagement, traffic is slow. So ensure you do both. You can do this by posting both video and imagepins simultaneously. This will give your page the boost it needs without the use of ideapins. My advice is to stick to video pins rather than idea pins starting today.

Conclusion

So there you have it! That is exactly what happened to idea pins and it’s a little too soon to tell but Pinterest could be hosting an experiment guessing from the way they split this update among its users. But whatever it is, just know that your Pinterest definitely isn’t broken. Your Pinterest is perfectly fine and you can start adjusting to this new update in their algorithm as soon as possible and still experience amazing engagement and traffic.

If you’re too caught up with everything that’s going on and have no time to focus on your Pinterest, let me. I manage the Pinterest accounts of multiple established businesses and drive traffic from it directly to their websites, stores or landing pages. If you want to know what it might be like to work with me, drop me an email at hello@smartiac.org. I’ll send you a custom proposal! Happy pinning!

Got More Pinterest questions? I’ve got you! Check out these articles! Hope they help! Ba-Bye!

• “Why can’t I see my Pinterest analytics anymore?”
• How to Boost Your Traffic: Pinterest Trends Tool Guide
• Pinterest Ads Guide: Your Simple Guide to Pinterest Success