Creative strategies for winning Idea ads

People come to Pinterest seeking inspiration. What if you could help to turn their aspirations into reality?

Idea ads are the newest way for you to connect with people on Pinterest. They’re the promoted version of Idea Pins, with paid media to increase distribution. With Idea ads, you can mix videos and images together in an immersive, full-screen format. You can also fill out a final detail page with helpful info such as recipe ingredients, craft supply lists or other tips that people need to bring your idea to life. Everything that people need to shop for, or try your idea is right in the Idea ad itself—so people can take action straight away.  

Strong stories make for strong Idea ads. Try to give every Idea ad a distinct beginning, middle and end. To get you started, here are four creative territories that we recommend to help jumpstart your next Idea ad campaign. 

Four proven strategies

Get personal
Bring your brand to life through the first-person perspective. You can work with brand ambassadors, creators, customers—or even your own employees. Create content that feels deeply personal, such as ‘a day in the life’ or ‘get ready with me’. 

Viktor&Rolf crushed this territory with Idea ads for their Flowerbomb Ruby Orchid fragrance. Creator Nicky Doll, best known for appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race, starred in Idea ads showing a transformation from simple clothes, to a glamorous outfit. Of course, Flowerbomb Ruby Orchid fragrance is the outfit's final stylish touch. 

Show a process
Offer practical tips and detailed instructions through a step-by-step process. Think of these as ‘how to’ guides: how to use, how to make, how to plan, etc. For example, creator Kailo Chic partnered with Scotch to create videos featuring the brand’s Scotch Magic™ Tape. The back-to-school videos showed a fun way to create marble-esque textbook covers using the brand’s tape.

Share knowledge
Educate your audience with helpful hacks, product facts or reviews. This campaign from home improvement retailer Lowe's is rich with educational content and offers useful tips to help keep beautiful blooms intact.

Build community
Host Q&As, challenges or competitions that rally your audience. Or, create behind-the-scenes content to bring people closer to your brand. We loved this partnership between H-E-B and creator Jocelyn Delk Adams of Grandbaby Cakes. The US food retailer widened their reach with Jocelyn’s readily engaged audience, and got lots of replies to their content.

A new canvas for creativity 

Idea ads produce all kinds of storytelling opportunities for your brand—and can help to produce strong results, too. In a recent study, people who saw Idea ads were 59% more likely to recall the brand, compared to people who didn’t see the ads.¹

And now you’re ready to make your own. If you need more inspo along the way, you can get inspiration from our sample ads board or chat with other brands in the Pinterest Business Community.