Today, Pinterest CEO and co-founder Ben Silbermann announced the company has begun testing promoted pins. It marks Pinterest’s first foray into paid advertising in its nearly four year existence.
In a post titled “Planning for the Future” on the Pinterest blog, Silbermann sets the tone for the type of monetization the business is envisioning, i.e. no banner ads. In the vein of other social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, Pinterest is going the native ad route. Here are the criteria Silbermann lays out for the promoted pins:
—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 first promoted pins will appear in search results and category feeds. As an example, a search for “halloween” and might display a promoted pin for a “Darth Vader” costume.
Pinterest is clearly treading lightly here, cautious of scaring off the site’s growing user base or floating an ad product that won’t succeed. Silbermann writes that no money has changed hands, yet, during the experimentation phase with “select businesses” as the company gauges user reaction and ad performance.
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