Promoted Pinterest Pins for All

If you've already been utilizing Pinterest in your Social Media strategy, you know that the minimal investment is worth the rewards. Further, you'll be happy to hear that Pinterest has officially rolled out their Promoted Pins (aka their form of paid advertising) to everyone as of January 1st. Promoted Pins allow advertisers to create Pins and pay for their promotion. They're available on a reservation basis and the advertiser is charged by impressions or CPM.

In their announcement, Pinterest shared some of the pearls of wisdom they learned during their beta testing, including:

• Organic Pins and Promoted Pins perform about the same. The average Pin is repinned 11 times and advertisers saw a 30% bump in earned media (free impressions) from their campaigns when users saved Promoted Pins to their own boards.
• Promoted Pins benefits last beyond the campaign. Pinterest reports that advertisers continued to see a 5% increase in earned media after the end of a campaign because Pins don't go away.
• Brands across the board reaped the benefits. Pinterest reported that a wide variety of service providers found success including financial services, food and automotive.
• They're still working out the kinks for Auction-Based Promoted Pins (CPC). Some beta testers are utilizing CPC Promoted Pins. While they're reporting increased traffic and impressions, Auction-based Pins aren't ready for primetime just yet.

Along with their announcement for expanding the availability of Promoted Pins, Pinterest also introduced Pinstitute a new program designed to assist advertisers with measuring their reach and improving their Pins for users. They will be rolling out a series of webinars for businesses to learn more about Pinstitute and we'll keep you posted on their progress.