Pinterest to get Promoted Pins soon as the service thinks monetisation

Pinterest has been one of the fastest growing social networking websites, not just in countries such as the US and UK but also in others around the world, since its launch in 2010. It was only a matter of time then that the service went down the monetisation route.

Yes, ads are officially coming to Pinterest soon. In a blog post announcing the service’s intention to open up to businesses for promotional activities, Pinterest’s CEO and Co-Founder Ben Silbermann wrote that the website will be experimenting with promoting certain pins. The pins will belong to certain businesses and the service already seems to be in test-mode for this.

Promoted Pins coming up

Silbermann has tried to allay whatever fears users might have regarding these promoted pins in the blog post. “I know some of you may be thinking, ‘Oh great…here come the banner ads.’ But we’re determined to not let that happen,” he wrote. The CEO has assured that as far as these promoted pins go, they will not be in a form of banners or flashy pop up ads.

Pinterest has assured that if a pin is sponsored or paid for, it will be marked as such for transparency’s sake. More importantly, you will only see pins relevant to your interest and hobbies. If you’re into cooking or gardening you will not see fashion based sponsored pins. Pinterest, on previous occasions has proved that it really does pay heed to user feedback and it has promised to do so with these sponsored pins too.

For now, Pinterest is only experimenting with this feature in search results and category feeds. For example, it says, a Darth Vader outfit from a costume shop may pop up in search results for Halloween. “Nobody’s paying for anything yet,” Silbermann assures. “We want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think.”