Pinterest tests a new premium video ad format, unlocking new opportunities for brands

Pinterest is experimenting with a new advertising product called "Premiere Spotlight Ad." It allows brands to reach customers directly through the mobile app.

With the new ad format, advertisers will gain access to premium placement for 24 hours on the Pinterest app's search page. The new ad format can be found in the most recent version of Pinterest's mobile app.

Pinterest has long catered to advertisers, allowing them to create Pins featuring products or ideas that they pay to promote and target at specific audiences. These pins are then displayed in the Pinterest home feed and relevant search results. However, many Pinterest users do not open the app to browse the feed or look for a specific product. Instead, they navigate to the search page and enter a more general query.

Now, with the new ad format, advertisers will be able to reach audiences, including those who might not have seen their ad if they weren't part of the targeted audience.

Though the ads are sold in 24-hour blocks, marketers could reserve the ads back-to-back to keep the top spot even longer.

Investing in video ads corresponds with Pinterest's recent increase in effectiveness and user interest. According to the company, there were one billion video views per day on the app as of 2021, with users being 2.6 times more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on the platform. Pinterest also signed a deal with Condé Nast this year to create exclusive videos for the site featuring its top brands.

With people’s video consumption increasing year over year, brands' investment in video marketing is also peaking at the same pace. At this point in time, Pinterest's move with the new video ad format seems to keep up with the trend and evolving behaviour of the audiences.

And we believe it will bring many benefits for marketers.

Here are some:

Affordable ad cost:

The ad cost of Pinterest is relatively affordable compared to other social platforms like Facebook, TikTok, etc. So Pinterest's new video ad format helps marketers diversify their ad spend and attract more audiences to their brand at a relatively low cost. Besides, by placing the video ad on a platform like Pinterest, which has around 435 million monthly active users, brands can also establish strong brand positioning among new audiences.

Maximize conversions with audiences’ love for visual search:

Instead of text-based search, audiences nowadays find visual search more appealing and intriguing. With Pinterest being a visual search tool, audiences use it to get inspiration, create pins, and follow boards as per their interests so as to get new ideas. Statistics show 83% of weekly Pinterest users make purchases based on the brands' content they see on the platform. So, trying out Pinterest's new video ads will be outright beneficial for brands, as it will allow them to tap into the segment of users who come to the app with a shopping intention.

Leverage 24-hour ad blocks for marketers’ convenience:

As marketers are allowed to block Pinterest’s "premiere spotlight ad’ placements on a 24-hour basis, brands are more likely to appear in front of audience eyes. For instance, if person X opens her Pinterest app five times a day, she will see the brand’s video ad five times that day. It increases the possibility of her clicking on the ad and exploring the new brand's products. This way, brands can use this to their advantage, block prime ad spots for multiple consecutive days, gain their attention, and influence their purchase decisions. Brands can specifically use this during peak seasons to reach more audiences and maximize sales.

In a nutshell, if the brand intends to reach large audiences - especially at the time of product launches or peak seasons - Pinterest's new video ad format can possibly reap the expected results.