Pinterest Working With Several Brands On Promoted Pins Test

Several major brands are working with Pinterest to roll out Promoted Pins in the search category feeds.  The company recently announced that Banana Republic, Gap, Kraft, Old Navy and others are joining them for a paid test in the U.S..

According to Pinterest’s announcement, this move is being done carefully, stating that, “These brands will help us test Promoted Pins to make sure they’re tasteful, transparent, relevant and improved based on Pinner feedback – so that Pinterest continues to be a great experience for everyone.”

The head of the discovery team at Pinterest, Hui Xu, estimates that there are approximately 750 million boards on the site with 30 billion pins about foodies, travelers, and more.  With such a massive number of options, marketers have to attempt to predict the phrases that consumers will use to search for their brands.  Last month’s addition of “Guided Search” has assisted with this somewhat, providing users with category topics that are based on their initial search query, which marketers hope will bring interested customers to their brands.  Hui Xu explained some of the other advantages of Guided Search in a recent blog post, writing that, “The guides are there to get you where you want to go, but the best part is leaving a little room for serendipity.  Exploring getaway ideas might lead you to a treehouse adventure, a motorcycle trip down the coast, or maybe even something else you didn’t know you were looking for.  You might be surprised where you end up!”

Native ads have become the new paid-search ad unit, which combines images and text to create what brand marketers refer to as “content”.  Yahoo recently announced an update to its native ad format, made available through Yahoo Gemini.  Running on mobile devices, Yahoo’s ad unit supports larger graphics and photos, thereby making it easier for brands to tell their full story.  These sponsored ads appear in the news stream in the same way as other content, allowing visitors to tap on an ad to click through to the brand’s website or landing page.  Netflix is one of many brands who are utilizing this new ad format.

In 2013, eMarketer analysis showed that 34.9 million U.S. users accessed Pinterest at least once per month.  The expectations for 2014 are 15.9% growth, bringing the total number of monthly U.S. users to approximately 40.1 million.  Interestingly, the majority of users are female, with only 4.9 million male Pinterest users in comparison to 30 million females.  Additionally, the analysis shows that over two-thirds of Pinterest users in 2013 were between the ages of 18 and 44.

As is the case with other social sites, Pinterest explains that the majority of its traffic comes from mobile devices.  Overall mobile advertising in the U.S. is expected to increase by 83% in 2014, to a total of $17.73 billion in comparison to $9.69 billion in 2013.

Pinterest’s announcement of the Promoted Pins test explains their intentions further, stating that, “We’re keeping the test small so that we can collect as much feedback as possible, but we’re hoping to open it up to more businesses throughout the year.”