Pinterest planning to open Promoted Pins for all advertisers on Jan 1: Report

We knew that ads are officially coming to Pinterest, but now we know when. If the report by The New York Times is to be believed, Pinterest will open for businesses by allowing brands to advertise their products or services on its network starting January 1, 2015.

With an aim to increase its revenue, Pinterest had started testing ‘Promoted Pins’  by inviting brands to pay for pins that appear on pages like search and categories. During the testing period that went on for six months, companies such as Expedia, The Gap, Old Navy, Target and others participated in the program.

According to Re/code , “The company saw what it considers promising early results from the trial: Users shared promoted pins about 11 times on average, a figure in line with how frequently users share standard pins. That translates to a 30 percent “earned media rate.”

Pinterest is reportedly also testing an auction-based marketing product, but has not disclosed anything, yet. It is also planning to launch ‘Pinstitute’ that will teach advertisers how to promote their brands on Pinterest. This program will begin on March with the company’s initial beta partners and later extend to all advertisers.