Brace yourselves, Pinterest ads are coming.
Well, sort of. In a blog post published on Thursday, Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann gave readers a sneak peek at the future of Pinterest in the form of promoted pins. In an effort to assure skeptical users, Silbermann promised that the promoted pins would be…
—Tasteful. No flashy banners or pop-up ads.
—Transparent. We’ll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it.
—Relevant. These pins should be about stuff you’re actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that’s your style.
—Improved based on your feedback. Keep letting us know what you think, and we’ll keep working to make things better.
The team plans on rolling out some test pins soon to test their functionality and to gather user feedback. Although details are pretty vague at this point, we can assume that the promoted pins will either show up at the top or near the top of a category feed or search results page. We can also assume that they’ll be labeled as ‘sponsored’ or ‘promoted’ much like Facebook and Twitter posts. Since the brand will also undoubtedly open up the feature to a select number of brands at first, it could be a while before it’s opened up to the public in general.
What are your thoughts? Are you excited to add promoted pins to your social media strategy, or is it a form of advertising that you’re not interested in? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
