Posted by Pinterest announced the launch of its first paid advertising form on September 19, 2013. Promoted pins give the social network access to a new monetization opportunity, similar to the one developed by Facebook and Twitter.
Promoted pins will give advertisers a chance to reach a bigger audience than the one they were capable of reaching through traditional Pinterest activity. Pinterest is one of the most visually attractive networks and as such, it appeals to a big number of companies that are trying to communicate with a target audience and discover prospects.
The new functionality is currently limited for testing purposes. Promoted pins are soon expected to become generally available.
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann explained that the promoted pins will be fully tasteful and transparent. There will be no popup ads or flashy banners that will interfere with the experience of the social network’s members.
All of the promoted pins will be labeled as such. There will be no confusion concerning the type of content that the Pinterest audience is currently viewing, Silbermann announced.
Promoted pins will be contextual and relevant. They will appear on top of the entries in the Pinterest categories and in the search results. Previous announcements of promoted pins appearing on user homepages were refuted. Advertisers will pay for a particular number of promoted pin views.
This is not the first Pinterest monetization attempt but promoted pins are being launched at a moment when the social network is experiencing incredible popularity. USA Today statistics show that Pinterest is currently reaching more than 46 million people in the US.
Since the beginning of 2013, Pinterest has been investing in ecommerce innovations. In March, the company announced the launch of the Pinterest web analytics. Pinterest analytics tools allow companies to see how many people view each image, how many times it has been repined and which content tends to be most popular among the target audience.
The fate of promoted pins is to be determined in the near future. This development was logical and the perfect timing could lead to the success of this advertising functionality in one of the most visual and most commercial social networks.
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net, author: nokhoog_buchachon