Starting this month, Pinterest has made ‘Promoted Pins’ available to its US business users, which allow them to pay Pinterest for advertising space. The introduction of Promoted Pins could be just the beginning, as Pinterest looks to embrace paid advertising as a way to generate revenue in the same way as other social media giants such as Facebook.
Pinterest already has a strong reputation for directing its users to external sites, and generates the most ‘revenue per click’ of any social network. Promoted Pins are just a continuation of this, and one which really allows brands to make the most of the marketing opportunities Pinterest provides.
Using the ‘Promoted Pin’ system, brands can pay to create a pin which users can interact with in the usual way, liking or pinning it to their own boards. With promoted pins however, businesses are able to target their pin at a specific audience, filtering by gender, location and the topics users have shown an interest in.
During the test stage, companies paid for their campaigns on a ‘cost per click’ basis, paying a small amount to Pinterest every time their pin was shared. From January 1st, Pinterest will also be introducing another system allowing companies to pay a certain amount once their Pin has reached a set number of views or repins.
Pinterest’s initial testing of Promoted Pins showed very positive results- with advertisers gaining a roughly 30% increase in publicity from their pins during the time set for their campaign. Adding to that, the brands who took part in beta test campaigns found that even once the campaign had ended, their pins were still being circulated- leading to continued publicity.
Pinterest found during the trial period that the Promoted Pin system worked for a variety of different brands, from pet food suppliers, to fashion retailers. Promoted pins could be the key for many business owners to gaining the extra recognition that can push their business forward.
As yet, Promoted Pins are only available to brands based in the US, as Pinterest states they are still making changes to the service before they roll it out to all users, adding new ad formats and improving targeting. Watch this space though- Promoted Pins are going from strength to strength and there’s little doubt they’ll be made more widely available before too long.
By Moya Vaughan Evans
Kate Tyler is the founder of Shake Social and our long time social media expert. A regular speaker at events, Kate offers consultancy and training on a range of digital marketing topics, in particular safeguarding and using social media in an educational setting.