Not surprisingly, ads — aka “promoted pins” — are coming to Pinterest

It was only a matter of time before Pinterest added advertising, and that time has come: Pinterest cofounder and CEO Ben Silbermann announced in a blog post Thursday that the image-based social network will “start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.”

Silbermann offered a few more details on how the program will work:

“For our first test, we’ll promote a few pins in search results and category feeds. For example, a pin for a Darth Vader outfit from a costume shop might be promoted in a search for ‘halloween.’ Nobody’s paying for anything yet—we want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • Frenemy mine: The pros and cons of social partnerships for online media companies
  • Content monetization: News licensing and syndication still need marketplaces and infrastructure
  • Best practices in optimizing content for social engagement


GigaOM