Pinterest is going ahead with its paid advertising strategy in Q2 of this year, according to various reports.
MarketingTech reported the move by Pinterest to roll out paid ads back in September, with CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann saying at the time the company should be “a service that will be here to stay.”
Pinterest updated its blog post on October 9 to say it was “starting to test promoting pins”, and now these promoted pins will appear on pages “in the coming months”, according to AFP.
Back in September, Silbermann laid down the law on what promoted pins would look like; there would be no flashy banners or pop-ups, as well as transparency – users would always be told when a company had paid for real estate.
The result was this (photo credit Pinterest):
According to Ad Age, Pinterest is looking for between $1m and $2m from prospective advertisers, with cost per mille set at between $30 and $40, while the Wall Street Journal reports that Pinterest’s head of advertising, Joanne Bradford, wants to create adverts that “can themselves be fashioned into works of art – akin to ads for Absolut Vodka that a young person might tear from a magazine and stick on a wall.”
Comparisons will inevitably be made with Instagram, who launched their advertising plans around the same time as Pinterest, with similar features – a big ‘sponsored’ notice where the time stamp is, and an easy ability to remove annoying ads, giving feedback to Instagram in the process to help make the user experience better.
Instagram divulged the names of the brands it was partnering with, including Adidas, Ben & Jerry’s and Burberry, while Pinterest is remaining tight-lipped. Given Instagram has Facebook behind it, one might argue monetisation is less of a problem compared to Pinterest, which has raised $564m from investors yet currently doesn’t make any revenue.
