Pinterest says it will make it possible for advertisers to show promoted videos that take up the width of the screen
Pinterest is continuing its push into video as a potential avenue for advertisers by today saying that it will offer advertisers a promoted video tool that takes up the width of the entire screen.
Context & Ripple Effects
Pinterest has been building toward this format for years: the Cinematic Pin introduced video-style ads back in 2015, followed by a native video player and click-to-play mobile video ads in 2016, then video ads across search results and feeds in 2017 with Moat and Nielsen handling measurement.
Full-width promoted video is the next step in that ladder — each iteration has given advertisers more screen real estate and more autoplay-like immersion inside a feed that was originally built around static Pins.
First-order effects
- Advertisers on Pinterest gain a promoted video unit that spans the entire width of the screen, making brand campaigns on the platform visually comparable to the larger video placements they buy elsewhere.
Second-order effects
- Measurement partners like Moat and Nielsen, already embedded since the 2017 rollout, become more central as bigger-format video buys demand viewability and audience verification before budgets scale.
Third-order effects
- If the format ladder keeps climbing — static Pin to Cinematic Pin to full-width video — Pinterest's ad product converges with mainstream social video advertising, positioning the platform to compete for the same brand video budgets rather than niche direct-response spend.
The trend: Pinterest is steadily upgrading its ad units from static Pins toward immersive, full-width video, chasing the broader shift of brand advertising budgets into native video formats.