Pinterest Is Testing A Multi-Image Ad Unit

Digiday has reported a new ad unit offering from Pinterest, featuring a “multi-pin carousel” that allows marketers to place several images in a single Promoted Pin. The company is said to be pitching the ad type to agencies, although it’s still unclear when the offering will become available to the general market.

“We are always exploring ways to make Pins more useful, including Promoted Pins,” Pinterest spokesman Mike Mayzel told Digiday. “A multi-pin format is one example of the many things we are testing.”

The new ad type is one aspect of Pinterest’s aggressive monetization push, coming amid the company’s effort to raise $400 million in venture capital funding at a $11 billion valuation, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Additionally, the company officially launched its CPM-based Promoted Pin ad product on January 1, and later made the announcement that it was serving Promoted Pins to users’ home feeds, thereby moving beyond category pages and search results.

If Pinterest’s new ad unit becomes widely available, will it gain popularity with digital marketers?

Jeanne Bright, director of paid social at digital agency DigitasLBi, explains that Facebook and Twitter already offer similar ad products, with Facebook’s multi-product ad and a Twitter feature that allows for multiple photos in one Tweet. However, at this point, Bright says that these formats have not become popular with marketers, and she suspects that Pinterest’s new offering will also experience limited success.

This new ad offering could potentially be advantageous for auto dealerships, who could include several complementary images of car models in a single Promoted Pin, so it will be interesting to see whether or not it becomes widely available. However, based on the limited success of Twitter and Facebook’s similar offerings, it appears that, at least at this point, many digital marketers are interested in utilizing other ad types that are simpler and provide more focused communication.

Overall, it appears that Pinterest is struggling with its ad offerings. In January, research firm Forrester reported that while the potential for Pinterest ads was high, brands were deriving little value from advertising on the platform. This report was met with criticism from Pinterest’s former head of operations, Don Faul, who called the report “surprising” and claimed that Pinterest’s ads deliver more organic reach than ads on other major platforms.

Regardless, Pinterest continues to move forward. Recode recently reported that the company is developing a “Buy” button that will allow users to purchase items directly from the site as opposed to having to click through to another e-commerce destination.

Additionally, Pinterest released a new feature recently that is designed to help users discover and download new apps. Although there was no mention of offering app install ads to complement the new feature, it’s quite likely that this integration will come to fruition, based on Facebook’s success in increasing its mobile ad revenue with app install ads.

Pinterest’s moves seem to show no sign of slowing down, and we’ll continue reporting on developments as they occur.