Once Pinterest fully releases its ads API, the impact will likely be huge. Pinterest already controls 23% of referral traffic to e-commerce sites across the web. Injecting ads into Pinterest's retail traffic referral mix will make it one of the more important shopping sites on the web.
http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-ads-rollout-continues-2014-10
Pinterest is one of the most interesting social channels now, I think. There's a real challenge in how the average retailer without a huge photography budget makes their images interesting enough to work well, and in pursuading the board (of the company) that the company boards (pinterest type) need to be curated and not simply a load of the companys own product.
But it is an interestng one - there are loads of examples of great content which appear to be poorly used, and not so great content which seems to work well for mysterious reasons. Tracking is also a challenge - our attribution models currentlly fail on pinterest when they work pretty well across other social media, so its hard to know exactly what drove a sale.
>Tracking is also a challenge
Anecdotally speaking, I think there is huge, off-Pinterest social sharing going on. She (there are NO men on P. I tried, really.) spreads the info by her other social networks -FB- and methods. I'd bet that shared screenshots are a big part of the tracking-loss problem.
Quotethere are NO men on P. I tried, really
Wrong. They're the minority, but they're there. Their shopping impulses are feeble, though!
(Note the three homonyms in a row, all spelled correctly! :) )