Pinterest to open Promoted Pins to all advertisers

Steven Loeb · December 29, 2014 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3b14

The company will have webinars for businesses, called "Pinstitutes" to learn to use the feature

Almost stealthily, Pinterest went and took up the mantle as the go-to social network for advertisers to turn clicks into actual sales. Both Facebook and Twitter have been trying their best in this department, and have also had some success, but none, it seems, have been as successful as Pinterest.

So it's no surprise that the company's Promoted Pins, which it has been testing out for over a year now, have worked out well enough that are soon going to be available to all advertisers.

Starting on January 1st of 2015, which is this coming Thursday (can you believe that? Seriously, where did 2014 go?) "will be open to all partners," the company revealed in a blog post on Sunday.

Pinterest also revealed some of the data brought in from the beta test, which began in earnest in May of this year. That included a 30% increased in “earned media," a.k.a. the number people who save a Promoted Pin to one of their boards, for advertisers. The benefits for Promoted Pins even lasted beyond the campaign itself. As Pinterest notes, "Pins are evergreen and last forever," so they typically saw another 5% bump in earned media in the month following the end of a campaign.

"The bottom line: Pinterest is a place where helpful, inspirational creative can lead you to big, measurable results," the company said.

Pinterest first announced that it would be starting its first monetization effort with Promoted Pins in October 2013, then revealed a number of partners in May of this year, including ABC Family, Banana Republic, Expedia.com, Gap, General Mills, Kraft, lululemon athletica, Nestle (which includes Purina, Dreyer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream and Nespresso), Old Navy, Target, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Ziploc.

Promoted Pins can be found on Pinterest's search and category feeds. They work the same as any other type of pin, except they have a label at the bottom that denoted that they are "promoted." It also contains a link to learn more about what that means.

In addition to opening up the feature to all advertisers, Pinterest is also going to educate them on how to  use Promoted Pins with the launch of what is known as "The Pinstitute," which is a program for businesses to learn how to connect with Pinners, and how to see a better return.

There will be two tracks for The Pinstitute creative and measurement, and advertisers will learn what kind of Pins perform best, what Pinners care about and how Pinterest is thinking about its products in the future.

Advertisers are also encouraged to give feedback on what they would like to see Pinterest do "so we can help you get even better results from Pinterest." Only a select group of brands and agencies are being invited to attend at the moment these workshops. The first one will occur in March.

Pinterest also announced plans for webinars and other online learning tools for small businesses.

(Image source: blog.pinterest.com)

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