If you haven't heard, video is a big deal in social media marketing.
Video generates more shares than other post types on Facebook, tweets with video generate 9X more engagement than basic text updates, Snapchat video ads outperform those on other media platforms. And while these are the platforms you hear about the most in terms of video (along with YouTube, of course), video content is also on the rise on Instagram - and Pinterest, which has been making significant shifts into video content over the past year.
Now, Pinterest is looking to take their video offerings to the next level, with the addition of autoplay video ads in-stream, a significant shift from their previous video approach.
As you can see in the video, now, when you scroll through your Pinterest feed, video content will autoplay - previously, with Pinterest's Promoted Video and Cinematic Pins, video content would move as you scroll, but not play as such, just shift in response to your movement.
You can see similar in this example of Promoted Video.
Pinterest's new autoplay videos - which will only play in the mobile app - will no doubt grab attention, and are more aligned with the user experience on other social apps (though Pinterest has been keen to tell people that it's not a social network).
And what's more, Pinterest says that the attention-grabbing nature of their autoplay video units may also end making them cheaper to use.
"Since Promoted Video is bought on a per-impression basis, thanks to autoplay every impression is significantly more likely to lead to a video view. As the number of people enjoying your video goes up, your cost per view goes down."
As they're being charged on impressions, not on views, if a user swipes past your video ad within a second of it playing, you'll still have to pay - but if they click on the ad to watch it, you don't. Pinterest is betting on it's ad targeting capabilities and ensuring your ads reach the most relevant audience in order to boost engagement - and thus, reduce costs.
In addition to this, Pinterest will also start showing autoplay video ads within search results and in their related recommendations, giving you more opportunities for exposure.
"So when someone knows exactly what they're looking for on Pinterest, your video can be right there to show it to them. Your videos will also show up when they tap open a Pin and scroll down to the "More like this" selection of related Pins."
And to help assure advertisers of their video content performance, Pinterest is also offering new viewability metrics through their partnership with Moat, including how long people played your video and how much of it was on screen. Advertisers will also be able to use Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings to analyze their campaign and find out who it reached, including specific demographic breakdowns, while they'll also be able to retarget viewers who watched their Promoted Videos with follow-up campaigns.
As noted, video is a big deal, and it makes sense for Pinterest to align with this trend - particularly since they saw a 60% increase in videos on the platform last year, with "workouts, home projects and hair & beauty tutorials topping the charts".
As other platforms continue to copy each others features and merge into one another, Pinterest has been slowly but surely forging its own path, and has already become a key consideration for a wide range of B2C brands.
If you've not paid Pinterest much mind in the past, it may be worth giving it another look - or at the least, conducting a search on the platform for your target keywords and seeing what comes up, and what sort of engagement such content is getting.
There's a heap of potential benefits if your audience is active on the platform. Worth considering in your process.