How to Optimize Your Video Pins on Pinterest

With the enduring popularity of TikTok, many content creators are taking that creative energy and using it to create video content on other platforms. And creating video pins on Pinterest is a great opportunity to channel your passion for video in a way that can promote your brand and grow your audience.

You may think Pinterest is just for pinning home decor and recipes. But, in the same way that TikTok transcended its origins as a platform made for dance routines, Pinterest is now one of the top creative tools for businesses and brands. The fact is, video content thrives on Pinterest and can help you skyrocket your Pinterest following. So how can you optimize your video pins on Pinterest? We’re here to show you.

How to Optimize Your Video Pins on Pinterest

1. Keep It Short

Currently, video pins are allowed to be up to 15 minutes long. But that doesn’t mean you should allow your videos to run anywhere near that long. We already know that our attention spans are short (humans typically lose concentration after 8 seconds), and Pinterest is made for scrolling. To ensure that your video is optimized for maximum effectiveness, try to keep it around 30 seconds in length.

2. Use Keywords

Much like YouTube, your video pins have a spot for a description. And this is where you want to put a clear description that includes some main keywords from your video. You can also add hashtags and take advantage of Pinterest’s auto-suggest tagging feature. The more relevant tags, hashtags, and keywords you add, the more you’ll improve the discoverability of your video pins on Pinterest. 

3. Format Vertically

If you’ve ever spent any time scrolling through Pinterest, you’ve probably noticed that most pins are vertically formatted. Vertical content tends to perform the best on Pinterest. And that’s why it’s worth taking a few minutes to reformat your video to a vertical aspect ratio (9:16) if it’s currently in a different size.

Pro Tip: If you filmed your original video vertically, you can quickly resize and crop your video to vertical using a tool like Zubtitle.com.

4. Add Captions

Pinterest is one of those platforms with an auto-play feature, which means that video pins on Pinterest start playing automatically when they’re halfway on the screen. This is great because the movement of the video is likely to catch your audience’s attention since it will often be surrounded by a screen full of static images.

But you should also know that most users scroll through Pinterest with their audio off (after all, Pinterest is not known as an audio-heavy platform). That means, even if someone notices your video pin on their feed because the movement catches their eye, if they can’t tell what’s happening with their sound off, they’re likely to continue their scrolling.

And that’s why it’s so vital to add captions to your video pins on Pinterest. If you don’t want to waste your valuable time transcribing your video and creating captions, give Zubtitle a try! It’s the first automated, on-demand social media video tool that automatically transcribes the speech in your video and converts it to captions. Zubtitle also makes it easy to edit your video for social media, including resizing your video with one click, adding your brand’s logo, inserting a progress bar animation, and more.

5. Create An Eye-Catching Title

When you’re uploading video pins on Pinterest, the platform provides a spot for you to give your video a title that your audience will see directly under your video. Like your description, you should title your video pins similarly to how you would title a YouTube video. Choose a couple of main keywords and build a descriptive, informative title around them.

But we suggest going even further than the title area Pinterest provides for you. While it’s great for SEO, a bolded title under your video isn’t necessarily going to be eye-catching for your audience. That’s why we recommend taking that same title and adding it as a headline directly on your video.

Pro tip: If you’re using Zubtitle to add captions, you can also use it to add a headline!

Want to optimize your video pins on Pinterest?

Sign up for a free Zubtitle account today to get started! With our free plan, you can create two videos per month. To create up to 10 videos per month (and remove the Zubtitle watermark), check out our standard plan.