Snapchat and Pinterest Influencer Marketing: Smaller Platforms, Different Economics

The short answer

Snapchat and Pinterest both run active creator programs, but they're built on fundamentally different principles than Instagram, TikTok and YouTube — and they differ sharply from each other too. Snapchat shares a portion of its ad revenue directly with selected creators through its Monetization Program, while Pinterest doesn't pay creators directly — income there comes from tagged brand partnerships and affiliate links, and the content itself behaves like searchable material that can surface long after it's posted, unlike a time-limited feed post. Below: how each platform's creator economy actually works, how paid partnerships get disclosed, and what the difference means for your brief and timeline.

Comparison: Snapchat vs Pinterest for influencer marketing

Snapchat: how the Monetization Program actually works

Snapchat launched its current, unified Monetization Program on February 1, 2025, according to Snap's own newsroom announcement (newsroom.snap.com). The program placed ads within creators' Stories and — new at the time — within Spotlight videos longer than one minute, replacing the earlier, separate Spotlight Rewards Program. At launch, the program required at least 50,000 followers, at least 25 posts per month to Saved Stories or Spotlight, posting on at least 10 of the last 28 days, and one of the following in the same window: 10 million Snap views, 1 million Spotlight views, or 12,000 hours of view time.

The requirements have since been updated. According to Snapchat's current Help Center article on the Monetization Program, the ongoing baseline today is at least 50,000 followers and at least 15,000 hours of total view time over the trailing 28 days, with at least 3,000 of those hours from Spotlight — and as of May 7, 2026, the program also requires at least 100 hours of Spotlight view time over the trailing 28 days to earn maximum rewards. Other requirements: at least 18 years old, residence in an eligible country (Denmark is on Snapchat's own list of payout-eligible countries), and content that follows the platform's guidelines. The minimum payout is $100, and creators can trigger a payout themselves once they've reached it.

Snap Star is a separate, application-based verification status (the yellow star) for creators whose content Snapchat considers among the platform's best — among other things, it unlocks the ability to search for and tag a brand directly as part of a Paid Partnership. But the Paid Partnership label itself isn't restricted to Snap Stars: according to Snapchat's own Help Center, any creator with a public profile can manually add the label to a post through the "Add Paid Partnership" menu — Snap Stars can additionally search for and tag the brand directly within the posting flow itself, after which the request is sent to the brand for approval once the content is published.

Pinterest: no direct payout — and "Idea Pins" no longer exist as a separate format

Pinterest has no payment model equivalent to Snapchat's. Its earlier Creator Rewards program, which paid for content tied to monthly themes, closed on November 30, 2022, and hasn't since been replaced by an equivalent direct-payout program. A working title that assumes Pinterest still has separate "idea pin" tools for direct payment is outdated on two counts: Pinterest doesn't pay directly, and "Idea Pin" no longer exists as its own content format — Pinterest unified all pin formats into a single "Create Pin" flow in 2023, and existing Idea Pins were converted to video format. The name survives only as "Idea Ads," a paid ad product brands can use to boost an already-tagged partnership pin.

Instead, Pinterest creators earn money three ways, according to Pinterest's own creator pages: (1) the paid partnership tag — the creator creates a Pin, toggles on the paid partnership label and tags the brand, which must approve the tag, after which Pinterest isn't involved in the payment itself between creator and brand; (2) affiliate links — Pinterest also isn't a party to the affiliate agreement, so commission depends entirely on the terms set with the external network or program; (3) the Pinterest Creator Inclusion Fund, a program offering cash grants, ad credit and mentorship aimed at creators from historically underrepresented communities, with ongoing application criteria published on Pinterest's own site.

Pinterest consistently describes itself as a "visual discovery engine" rather than a social network, according to the company's own Newsroom. That positioning reflects a real product difference: because Pins are indexed and can surface in search results, a Pin can be found long after it's posted — unlike Snapchat's Stories and Spotlight, which are built around the current moment. Pinterest hasn't itself published a precise decay curve for an average Pin, so a specific number of weeks or months can't be stated here as a verified figure — but the structural difference (searchable content vs time-limited feed content) is documented in the platform's own positioning.

How paid partnerships get disclosed on each platform

Both platforms use a variant of the same mechanic: the creator tags the brand, and the brand must approve before the label appears. On Snapchat the label reads "Paid Partnership with [Brand]" and displays as a persistent overlay that, per Snap's own guidelines, cannot be removed, obscured or modified once the content is published. On Pinterest the label is switched on via a toggle when the Pin is created, and the brand's name appears on the Pin once approval is granted.

Neither platform label replaces the statutory disclosure requirement under Danish and EU law — they're the platform's own technical mechanic, not a legal substitute. See influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU for the legal requirements that apply regardless of platform.

What the difference means for your brief and timeline

IF the goal is immediate, short-lived reach with a younger audience → prioritise Snapchat. Vertical video in Stories and Spotlight is built around the current moment, and content typically performs best in the first few hours after posting.

IF the product is something people research before buying — home decor, food, fashion, weddings, DIY → prioritise Pinterest. A Pin can keep surfacing in search results long after the campaign has ended, which makes Pinterest more of a long-term content asset than an immediate-reach campaign channel.

IF you want a creator to search for and tag a brand directly on Snapchat, not just manually label the post → work with a Snap Star, not an ordinary public profile.

IF you're comparing against the more established channels → see YouTube vs TikTok vs Instagram for influencer marketing and Twitch influencer marketing for how those channels' lifespan and discovery mechanics differ.

Worked example: same production budget, two different traffic curves

The numbers below are hypothetical and illustrate only why Snapchat and Pinterest content should be judged over different timeframes — they are not a claim about expected results or a documented market price, and this is not a real Make Influence customer case.

A brand pays the same illustrative fee, DKK 3,000, for two pieces of content with comparable production effort: a Snapchat Spotlight video and a Pinterest video Pin with an affiliate link. Imagine the Snapchat video generates most of its clicks within the first 48 hours and then effectively stops generating new ones (because the content scrolls out of the current feed), while the Pinterest Pin generates a smaller but sustained stream of clicks month after month because it keeps appearing in search results — the DKK 3,000 is then really two different kinds of purchase: a concentrated reach hit and a slow-compounding search asset. The point isn't the specific click counts, which aren't documented here, but that a flat "cost per click during the campaign window" comparison systematically undervalues Pinterest content, because it measures a long-lived asset on a short-term window.

Common mistakes

• Judging a Pinterest Pin on the same short timeline as a Snapchat Story. The Pin isn't "underperforming" if it doesn't peak in week one — it's a different kind of asset.
• Assuming Idea Pins are still a separate content format on Pinterest you can use for direct payment. The format is retired; the name survives only in the paid Idea Ads product.
• Assuming Snapchat's Paid Partnership label requires Snap Star status. It doesn't — any creator with a public profile can use it manually.
• Confusing the platform's technical label with the statutory disclosure requirement. The two are not the same thing, and both must be satisfied independently.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In Make Influence's experience, Snapchat and Pinterest are often overlooked in Danish campaigns, because Instagram, TikTok and YouTube cover most of the typical target audience. That's often a reasonable volume-based priority — but it also means the two platforms are rarely saturated with competing advertising, and Pinterest in particular can be an overlooked channel for brands with a product people actually plan or research before buying.

Our recommendation is to treat the two platforms as separate decisions, not a combined "other platforms" category: Snapchat competes on immediate reach in the same category as Stories and Spotlight on other platforms, while Pinterest competes on an entirely different axis — searchability over time. Whichever platform, the same principle holds as everywhere else in the Academy: track each collaboration separately, see discount codes vs tracking links, so you can separate a short-term reach hit from a slow-compounding search asset in your own numbers, instead of guessing from platform visibility alone.

FAQ

Can you just buy ads directly through Snapchat and Pinterest, without a creator?

Yes, both platforms have their own ad products (Snap Ads and Pinterest's ad formats, including Idea Ads), which are separate from creator collaborations. This article covers creator-driven partnerships specifically, not the platforms' general advertising.

Is Snapchat's Monetization Program available to creators in Denmark?

Yes, Denmark is on Snapchat's own list of countries where creators can receive a payout through the program.

Does content on Snapchat and Pinterest also need to be disclosed under Danish law?

Yes. The platforms' own labels (the Paid Partnership tag on Snapchat, the paid partnership toggle on Pinterest) are a technical feature, not a substitute for the statutory disclosure requirement. See influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU.

What does it cost to work with a Snapchat or Pinterest creator?

Neither platform publishes a rate list, and there's no documented, platform-specific pricing standard for either Snapchat or Pinterest. Price is negotiated directly between brand and creator, as on most other platforms — see how much should brands pay influencers for the four payment models that generally apply across platforms.

Is Pinterest even influencer marketing, if the platform doesn't pay creators directly?

Yes — the collaboration still happens between brand and creator, and the creator still earns money from it, just through a brand deal or affiliate commission rather than a payout from the platform itself. That makes Pinterest structurally closer to affiliate influencer marketing than to Snapchat's ad-revenue-share model — see affiliate influencer marketing: how the model works for the general mechanics.

Can the same creator work across Snapchat, Pinterest and the bigger platforms at once?

Yes, but evaluate content and following on each platform separately. A strong Pinterest profile is typically built on a very different type of content (search-optimised, evergreen Pins) than a strong Snapchat profile (frequent, current video), so the same creator isn't necessarily equally strong on both.

What about Discord?

Discord isn't a feed or a search engine either, but for a different reason than Snapchat or Pinterest — it's a private, membership-gated community platform with no public content discovery at all, so a brand reaches an audience there only by sponsoring or building a community, not by posting content that can be found. See Discord and community-based influencer marketing for how that works.