Pinterest Adopts Auction Method for Ads– Here's how it'll affect you! There's some significant changes you need to know on Pinterest

In the peak of digital excellence that the internet has achieved over the years, you'd expect innovation and creative ways to market, communications and interaction, to progress every day. Unfortunately, creativity seems to have been running dry, as more and more web giants are blatantly copying from each other, and yet surprisingly, it all seems to be working; just fine!

I'm no marketing genius here, but from the layman's perspective – this is a disturbing trend. Brand loyalty seems to be working for virtually every platform, which seems to be offering the exact same thing (except Google +, whose historic failure has demonstrated, not everything with Google's tagline would work). Riding along this wave is Pinterest, which has joined forces to introduce impressions and pay per click models on its advertisements, rather than a fixed rate. If it sounds familiar – which it should – it's because it's exactly the same as Facebook.

What's the deal?

By introducing impressions, Pinterest has joined the club of the world's largest social media website i.e. Facebook, and is all set to subconsciously bombard you with advertisements. These won't be your traditional annoying banner ads, but sponsored, pushed ads that hit you right where you'd not be able to distinguish between a genuine advertisement, or, a regular post by a user.

How does it affect you as an advertiser?

• Potentially, the cost to buy ads will be significantly lower. This is because advertisers would not have to pay for users that actually click the ad – just those that view your advertisement.
• You would also have much more control on the way you advertise – for example choosing the number of times a user views your advertisement,
• More flexibility on pricing, as you can control paying only for ads that have reached a user's screen. Thus you have more value for your money.

How does this affect users?

• For once, there might be a surge in the number of advertisements there are visible on your Pinterest profile.
• If you're a passionate ad block user, be prepared to have some rough water ahead, as usually a revision in advertisements means there's sometime before filters are updated to block those ads.
• If you're not an ad block user and understand that businesses run on ad revenue, you would be happy to possibly see more relevant advertisements and frequent changes in them.

Impressions vs pay per click

An online impression is recorded when you simply scroll by a page where there's an ad. Regardless of the fact you stopped by to actually view the ad or click it, it would count as one impression. This is cheaper, but naturally, the total number of impressions is hardly anywhere near to the real number of people that actually viewed your advertisement.

Pay per click models work exactly as the name sounds – you pay an amount with the end result being a click voluntarily done by a potential customer These would significantly lesser than impressions, but are more "valued" because the clicker is a more potential customer.

What do you think of the move? Which is your preferred form of advertisement – pay per click or impressions? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page Entrepreneur India