Tim Peterson says, “After rolling out a diet version of video ads last year, Pinterest is ready with the real thing, or at least something closer to it.

On Wednesday Pinterest unveiled its latest spin on digital video ads. The company’s new mobile-only Promoted Video format is more than an animated GIF but still a departure from the conventional in-feed autoplay video ad popularized by Facebook and later adopted by other social networks like Twitter and Tumblr.

Instead of running the video ad itself in people’s feeds, Pinterest will insert a Cinematic Pin — the animated GIF-like, video-lite ad format Pinterest introduced last year — that will play some sound-free frames from the video as people scroll past it. People will have to tap on these teasers in order to see the video — which can run up to 5 minutes long and be formatted horizontally, vertically or as a square — but brands will have to pay for the ads even if no one checks out the actual video.

Pinterest will charge advertisers for every thousand times it serves the GIF-like preview in people’s feeds, according to Mike Bidgoli, product manager for monetization at Pinterest. To be fair Facebook typically charges for its video ads once they’re served also. And unlike Pinterest’s click-to-play video ads, Facebook’s play automatically, which has frustrated viewability-minded brand advertisers who might still take issue with Pinterest’s video ad cost structure”.

Pinterest debuts click-to-play, mobile-only video ads

Marketing Land

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