Pinterest opens up autoplay video ads to self-serve advertisers

Pinterest is officially pressing play on its autoplay video ad business.

A few months after it began testing autoplay video ads, Pinterest is opening up the ad format to all advertisers, including those buying ads through Pinterest’s self-serve ad-buying tool or its advertising API, the company announced on Tuesday.

Aside from the expansion in availability, nothing appears to have changed with Pinterest’s autoplay video ad product since the testing phase was announced in May, though I’m waiting for a Pinterest spokesperson to confirm that.

The ads can still appear in people’s feeds and in search results. They still play with the sound off by default. Videos can still be up to 30 minutes long — though why? — and can be formatted however a brand wants — square, horizontal or vertical — though Pinterest recommends they be vertical or square. Pinterest will continue to bill advertisers by the number of impressions their ads receive, including when someone quickly skips past an ad while scrolling through their feed.

Additionally, advertisers can still use Nielsen and Oracle’s Moat to track the reach and viewability of their ads. Advertisers can also continue to retarget people who watched their video ads with follow-up ads on Pinterest.

About The Author

Tim Peterson

Tim Peterson, Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles. He has broken stories on Snapchat’s ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar’s attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon’s ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube’s programming strategy, Facebook’s ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking’s rise; and documented digital video’s biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed’s branded video production process and Snapchat Discover’s ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands’ early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo’s and Google’s search designs and examine the NFL’s YouTube and Facebook video strategies.