Niche
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Engagement
PROSPECT
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← Phase 4 — Production cycles

Step 4.2 · Design & copy

0 / 10 done
What happens
Record the grid analysis for this cycle, generate the design brief, create four visually distinct designs plus three micro-crops each, run design QC, generate copy per design, and pass the hard validators.
Where
Design work happens in Canva or your design tool. Brief, QC and copy validation happen here.
Owner
AI drafts → media buyer approves
Done when
Sixteen approved assets and four validated copy sets, one per design.

What step 4.2 involves — 10 tasks

These run per cycle rather than once per store, so they appear as work the moment a cycle starts. Nothing here is actionable yet; it is what you will be doing.

  1. 1
    EXTERNALP4.2.1

    Grid analysis before designing

    Mandatory step. What is Pinterest rewarding right now for this keyword? Fitting in beats standing out: neon pink in a beige grid fails.

    Tool: Pinterest

    Hands back

    The grid finding per keyword: what Pinterest is rewarding right now, and what that means for the designs.

  2. 2
    IN DASHBOARDP4.2.2

    Determine route

    Design directly if the client has lifestyle material, otherwise the AI route.

    Hands back

    DIRECT or AI, and one line on why. Direct where the client has usable lifestyle material, AI where they do not — the design brief and the image prompt both branch on this.

  3. 3
    AUTOP4.2.3

    Generate design brief

    Per URL: keywords, dominant colours, format, overlay or no overlay, and the split between save and click.

    Hands back

    Nothing to hand back — the brief is generated from the grid, the brand book, the taste graph and what has already won. Read it before designing; it names any research that was missing.

  4. 4
    EXTERNALP4.2.4

    Create four designs

    Four visually distinct designs. Eighty percent save pins: 2:3, lifestyle, no text. Twenty percent click pins: 9:16, text, CTA. AI-MODIFIED BYPASS: apply a 1% transparent frame around every AI-generated image before export — this strips the C2PA metadata that Pinterest reads to auto-flag AI content. NEVER enable the "Mark as AI-Modified" toggle in the Pin Builder either; both signals suppress distribution.

    Tool: Canva

    Hands back

    The four designs, attached, plus which route produced them.

  5. 5
    EXTERNALP4.2.5

    Generate fresh copies

    Micro-crop on copies B, C and D. Image is the heaviest freshness signal after the URL, so this keeps you at 64 to 77 percent distribution. AI-MODIFIED BYPASS: apply a 1% transparent frame around every AI-generated image before export — this strips the C2PA metadata that Pinterest reads to auto-flag AI content. NEVER enable the "Mark as AI-Modified" toggle in the Pin Builder either; both signals suppress distribution.

    Hands back

    Three micro-crops per design, twelve in total, attached. The image is the heaviest freshness signal after the URL, so the crops are what keep the sixteen pins from reading as one pin repeated.

  6. 6
    AUTOP4.2.6

    File names

    Lowercase, hyphens, keyword included. A hidden SEO signal.

    Hands back

    Nothing to hand back — file names are generated lowercase, hyphenated and keyword-bearing. Check they survived the export; design tools rename on download.

  7. 7
    IN DASHBOARDP4.2.7

    Design QC

    Colours correct, overlay rule respected, four genuinely different designs, file name right. QC ADDITIONS: sans-serif fonts only — Pinterest OCR fails on cursive and script, which drops the pin's topical signal. Respect the safe zones in the top-left and top-right corners of the pin canvas: Pinterest overlays Save / More buttons there and any content behind them is invisible on mobile.

    Hands back

    What the QC caught, and what was sent back. A clean pass is worth recording too.

  8. 8
    AI DRAFTP4.2.8

    Generate copy

    Four sets per URL, one per design. The four crops share their text: image weighs more than text.

    Hands back

    Four copy sets, drafted from the brand book and the account's own research, then approved by you. A regenerate resets approval, so approve last.

  9. 9
    AUTOP4.2.9

    Run validators

    Title maximum 100 characters with a keyword at the front, description 250 to 300, no em dash, no exclamation mark, no hashtag.

    Hands back

    Nothing to hand back — the validator enforces title length and keyword position, description 250 to 300, no exclamation marks, hashtags or dashes, and the brand book's banned words. A fail names the rule.

  10. 10
    IN DASHBOARDP4.2.10

    Copy-QC

    Only what the validator cannot judge: does it sound like the brand, does it match the image, does the landing page deliver what the copy promises.

    Hands back

    The copy the validator cannot judge: does it sound like the brand, does it match the image, does the landing page deliver it.