After the initial success with its beta advertising program, Pinterest has announced that it will expand its chief monetisation apparatus named Promoted Pin to all advertisers, starting January 1st.
The visual based social media company has introduced the program in June, which offered advertisers the chance to run pins that are targeted to users based on age, sex, location and interests.
The initial deals with Kraft and General Mills which become the early partners in the program “have been so promising”, said Joanne Bradford, Pinterest’s head of partnerships. The company claims the average promoted pins is shared 11 times, on average, meaning advertisers got about a 30% bump in earned media for their campaigns.
“Like other Pinterest content, promoted pins also have a long tail”, said Bradford. She added that promoted Pins got a 5% increase in earned media a month after a campaign ended. In allowing for greater monetisation of its platform, which is now used by about 70 million people globally, Pinterest may begin justifying its $5 billion valuation. The company, which was founded in March 2010, has received more than $760 million in venture capital to date.
Furthermore, Pinterest competes with other social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, for the same target market. Unlike Pinterest, such competitors have formed relationships with advertisers over the past few years and have battle tested their ad programs in front of large audiences.