Pinterest is bridging the gap between shoppable pins and creator content, becoming the latest social platform to introduce additional ways to pay creators while helping brands sell to their audiences. 

On Tuesday, Pinterest announced that creators can make their Idea Pins shoppable, earning a commission from products they help sell while forging brand partnerships.

The new affiliate tool allows creators to tag brand products in their Idea Pins, a multi-page video and image format that mimics TikTok posts and Instagram Stories and Reels, which Pinterest introduced in May 2021. Creators can then earn money based on how many items they sell through affiliate links and partnerships with brands on the sponsored content. 

Creators can choose to tag their Idea Pins with any Product Pin or integrate their affiliate programs to monetize recommendations. For example, if a creator has an existing partnership with a brand through an affiliate program like ShopStyle, they would be able to use those affiliate links to tag products in their content. Pinterest said it will not take a cut of any of the sales, and all deals occur directly between the creator and brand.

The platform is also adding disclosures on creator content sponsored by brands, something increasingly necessary as the platform builds out creator programs. With Idea Pins, once a brand approves a tag of its product, the Idea Pin will automatically receive a “Paid Partnership” label. Previously, creators would label brand partnerships within the content itself. 

"Our Creators reach nearly half a billion shoppers a month and with this latest update, they can monetize their work, businesses and find incremental success on Pinterest," says Aya Kanai, who was hired in September 2020 from her position as Marie Claire editor-in-chief to be Pinterest's first head of content and creator partnerships. "Creators are central to our mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love, and they deserve to be rewarded for the inspiration they deliver to their viewers, and the sales they drive for brands." 

The new tool is currently in beta, with creators including Olive+Brown (9,900 followers), Fall for DIY (725,400 followers) and UnconventionalSouthernBelle (12,800 followers) using the tools to feature one or multiple items in a single post that carry a new sponsored label. Olive+Brown showcases the item being promoted—Glossier’s Milky Jelly Cleanser—in a review format. UnconventionalSouthernBelle, meanwhile, shares a makeup look using a variety of sponsored products, such as Mented foundation and Milani Cosmetics setting spray.

The tagging tool is launching to all business accounts in the U.S. and U.K. and will roll out in the coming months to international creators. The paid partnerships label is live for select creators in the U.S., Canada and certain countries in Europe and South America.

By monetizing creator Idea Pins, Pinterest continues its efforts to build out its e-commerce operations and creator programs. In a blog post announcing the new tool, Pinterest compares its current platform to that of a massive catalog with “hundreds of millions of product pins uploaded by retailers.” The Product Pins came about through a partnership with Shopify in May 2020 to help U.S. retailers sell their products on the platform. It expanded in April 2021 to include an additional 27 countries.

More from Ad Age: Heineken’s first campaign for Arizona Sunrise hard seltzer is a colorful creator-driven collaboration

Merging shopping and creator content has become a significant focus as more than three-quarters of Pinterest users prefer to shop from creator pins over those from retailers. Pinterest says it has increasingly become a place for its 475 million Pinners to shop. At the end of 2020, the platform says it saw the number of product searches increase by 20 times. At the same time, the ‘‘pinsperation” platform has found that more users are turning to their favorite creators to shop. Pinterest says users are 89% more likely to exhibit shopping intent on products tagged in Idea Pins than on standalone Product Pins.

The move continues Pinterest's efforts to help its creators make more money. In April, the platform announced a $500,000 creator fund, with at least 50% going to creators from underrepresented communities in the U.S. Also in April, Pinterest introduced a Creator Code and new moderation tools. 

Other social platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have made similar moves over the past year to provide more tools to fund creators. Two weeks ago, Facebook and Instagram announced it was committing $1 billion to funding creators in the form of bonus programs after Instagram added its own affiliate program for creators. TikTok and Snapchat have also introduced their own creator funds.

High-quality journalism isn’t always free.
Subscribe to Ad Age now for award-winning news and insight.